Newsletter - October2020

Centrolene
NewsEdge Know more.
Page: 5
options, as appropriate.”
Criticism from customers
As reported earlier this week, Felixstowe, is facing criticism from shippers and
freight forwarders after announcing it would no longer accept empty
containers due to congestion, or would reduce the number of empty
containers being returned to the port by rail and road.
Robert Keen, director-general of the British International Freight Association
(BIFA), said the operational performance at Felixstowe had been very
challenging for some time, but the issues had escalated at the end of last
week. He said the latest initiative appeared to be “an attempt to overcome
the huge congestion that has developed at the port, which has led to
significant haulage problems for our members whereby many containers can
neither be collected, nor returned”.
Forwarders were told last week that they can no longer return empty
containers to the port until 23 September, although it was unclear at the time
of writing whether this situation had changed. BIFA noted that delivering
empties to inland container parks would increase haulage costs for its
members and lead to higher quay rent and demurrage issues and expenses,
“which are difficult to pass on to our members’ customers”.
Keen said forwarders were reporting that the port’s operator had been
unresponsive to the issues they had raised.
Longer-term challenges
Felixstowe has faced several challenges in recent times, and struggled to
recover from the failed installation of a new terminal operating system (TOS)
in 2018. Keen suggested that the current issues link back to those problems,
noting: “The debacle in 2018, when the port undertook a disastrous migration
to a new in-house terminal operating system appears to be at the root of the