Let’s face it, where is there a good major container terminal?
Southampton is on it’s knees… Felixstowe would be on it’s knees but it ran for cover because it’s a bit windy in Plymouth…Thamesport/Grain is full of wonderful electrical jiggery-pokery which is great - until it rains and the entire place shorts out…Seaforth is pretty well organised up until the last queue (the one after the queue for the queue for the queue), at which point it turns into a free-for-all and he/she who is stroppiest gets a box…Tilbury is just, well, we all know about Tilbury, they really need to teach their straddler drivers the art of staying upright…it’s doesn’t make for encouraging reading, does it?
The ones I like going into are the really baby terminals - by which I mean the likes of Ipswich, Harwich, Hull, Portbury (Bristol), Seaforth Coastal, etc…short queues, if any; treat the drivers with respect when they book in; no canteen, but you’re tipped and turned too quick to need one.
Harwich is good (when they’re open), so is Teesport up there in Middlesborough. The guys at Seaforth coastal are [zb]. They won’t do you until EVERY O’Connors has been in, and believe me, there’s a lot of them.
I’ve got a Felix tomorrow. Should be there mid-late afternoon.
I can’t believe you had the nerve to even try that one!!!L.
I wrote the piece in Commercial Motor on Felixstowe and i’m keen to write a follow-up about the drivers who blocked the row on Friday. Any chance any/some/all of those who were involved or know more about what happened can email me - christopher.tindall@rbi.co.uk? If you include your phone number i’ll give you a call.
Ta
Chris
The “Turnaround times"quoted by Port handlers is the best spin that they continue to tell everyone"It is the truck drivers and trucking companies that cause the delays"and " If the truckers adhere to VBS time slots there would be no problems”
What the clowns with their noses extending quicker than Pinocchio conveneiently neglet to mention is that a truck "turnaround "is started from when the truck is on the grid and the straddle has the job,when the box hits your truck,literelly,the computer completes the "Job"as complete.Don’t worry about the 3-4 hour queue to get into the wharf and the hassles trying to get out,but our spin doctor friends know that answer,'cause we dont adhere to VBS?!?Its a bit hard to adhere to a 2 PM slot if I join the queue at 1.30PM and dont leave the Port until 6.15 PM.
It happened today at P&O,great fun sitting in an unairconditioned truck in 36C(C NOT F) heat in the afternoon…
When are the Ports annual comedy night?as I wish to go and hear all the jokes told with straight faces…
