Wincanton makes London Gateway pick-up

Wincanton's container business was the first company registered to get boxes off the quay at London Gateway yesterday (Monday).

Demonstrating Wincanton's flexibility to manage rapidly changing supply routes, Wincanton contacted the London Gateway team within minutes of finding out about the schedule change to The ZIM Rotterdam. The 10,000teu ship docked at Britain's new container port last Friday evening after deviating from its scheduled call to Felixstowe.

Not wanting to let any of its customers down, Wincanton quickly assessed the situation, the number of boxes to be delivered and the locations, then devised the best strategy to deal with the change of port location.

Wincanton's senior general manager for containers, Kevin Smith said: "We immediately looked at how this port change would impact our customers and assessed where we could keep costs down and efficiency high. The good news is that for many of our customers London Gateway is placed close to their delivery destinations."

It is expected that The ZIM Rotterdam, which has been reported as the largest container ship to ever sail on the Thames, will be docked at London Gateway for a week. The official opening of the new London Gateway port is expected in November.

Wincanton's managing director for containers, Ian Wilson, said: "This is an excellent example of how two pro-active companies, London Gateway and Wincanton, have been quick to respond to a major challenge. Despite the port not being ‘officially open for business', their team has pulled out all the stops, working flat-out since Friday to enable this unscheduled call. We have worked closely with the port to prevent a potentially problematic situation and are delighted to have delivered a successful solution for our customers."