Survival of the fittest is definitely the rule of business in the freight carrier industry of late and Europe has had just as tough a time dealing with the problems in the industry as the rest of the world. The moves and hard choices that have had to be made by many firms has kept them in business while firms in financial situations that aren’t as strong have fallen by the roadside. The ocean freight industry has started slow-steaming and put freight capacity away in order to reduce costs and keep the ships traveling back and forth with freight. The container trucking industry has begun looking at the newest technologies to help reduce costs and deal with the problem of reducing their carbon footprint on the surface of the Earth.
European freight carriers LD Lines and Transeuropa Ferries have decided to combine business resources in an effort to improve the services each firm supplies to customers in the geographical regions of Europe in which they both do business. The current agreement is for the firms to share space on ferries moving back and forth along the channel run between Ramsgate and Ostend next month. This means that freight capacity on the run will be increased sometime in the second half of 2010. They haven’t provided a firm date for the start of the service, but this will improve freight movements on this run and provide customers using the run with the more space for moving freight.
The freight industry could see more similar agreements between firms looking to take advantage of freight capacity that isn’t being used. Firms can improve their services by using the ability of another firm with overlapping freight services and services that one firm or the other doesn’t have as much capacity for. This kind of agreement is good for the industry as it makes use of the present capacity we have, rather than building additional capacity that is expensive and might not be used to its full. This will definitely reduce overall costs for firms that can use this strategy and should make the freight industry healthier as a whole.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/kent/8504588.stm
http://www.ifw-net.com/freightpubs/ifw/ind…tid=20017746639
http://info.jctrans.com/jcnet/news/osn/2010210850387.shtml
Tags: container trucking, freight, freight carrier, freight carriers, freight forwarders, freight moving, freight shipping, freight transport, heavy haul, moving freight, shipping freight, trucking companies, trucking services, Trucking transport