Long time no post ......
Here's a note I sent out to interested parties earlier today;
Orwell
Bridge closures: shows sector’s flexibility but Highways England needs to improve
The managing director and
founder of one of Suffolk’s most successful logistics and warehousing firms has
praised the flexibility of the county’s businesses after three closures of the
Orwell Bridge in as many weeks.
Steve Britt, who founded
Debenham-based Anchor Storage with his father in 1987, has totalled up the
costs of delayed deliveries and additional storage costs from this year’s
closures and puts them at tens of thousands of pounds to his business and that
of his clients.
Anchor Storage provides a
range of different services for both exporters and importers, including
ambient storage, transport solutions, import freight forwarding and
internet fulfilment.
“However, the real story of
these closures is way in which local businesses, including our own, has adapted
and thought ahead both to minimise losses and not to put additional pressure on
Ipswich’s roads.
“The Port of Felixstowe has
perfected its procedures ahead of the types of weather likely to trigger
Highways England to close the Bridge and ensures that vehicle bookings for either the collection or
delivery of cargo containers are restricted to minimise congestion at the
port.
“Equally, local hauliers
have become smarter at making their deliveries at different times of the day
and night to ensure they are not caught up in gridlocked roads.”
Steve says that Anchor
Storage’s own approach has also become even more flexible including the
laying on of early and/or late shifts to ensure that delayed shipments can
still be received or dispatched when congestion eases.
“We all need Highways
England to show the same level of imagination and forward
planning and as a matter of urgency implement a separation system for
high-sided vehicles and earlier use of traffic message boards on both the A14
and A12 leading into Ipswich.”
“If the private sector can
adapt and change its ways of working, it worries me that Highways England seems
both slow and reluctant to do so.”
ENDS
