Container Transport Service

Dedicated Traction to Felixstowe, Southampton, Port of London, Immingham

In the last few years UK container ports, and in particular the deep sea terminal at Felixstowe, have experienced rapid growth. Some of this growth is related to the overall performance of the UK economy, but there has also been a substantial growth in trans-shipment traffic; containers that are part of a bulk shipment that is consigned to the UK for onward distribution to other counties in Europe and farther afield.

Currently more than half this traffic is generated by global and multinational companies servicing themselves with components and major assemblies for their production lines in different locations and this proportion of the activity is forecast to grow over the next decade. The UK Container Ports compete fiercely with their European counterparts for this market.

Unitruc operates a dedicated traction service to many container lines in the ports on the southern and eastern seaboards as well as the inland ports and so although we move containers between UK locations we are always conscious that we and other British carriers are competing on a truly European scale for a significant sector of this business. To find out if we can move your containers better, click here.

Trans-shipments

In a traditional trans-shipment, export cargo is taken by feeder vessel from one country to another for onward shipment on another vessel to a third port usually on another continent. Import cargo follows the reverse process. These trans-shipments are controlled by shipping lines or by the shipper himself. Shipping Lines do this by coordinating schedules of their mainline and feeder vessels. Shipper trans-shipment is more opportunistic, exploiting the services of different lines to reduce transit times and costs. More recently, relay trans-shipments that involve only mainline vessels and major hub ports have become more common.