Ferry company sees volumes increase, partially due to refugee crisis

Stena Line has been able to realise substantially more volume last year, partially due to the refugee problems in the Calais region. The situation seems to have reached calmer waters now. The big question is what effects Great Britain leaving the European Union will have.

 

Stena Line is active throughout north west Europe with over twenty routes in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Scandinavia and Latvia. These are for both passengers and freight. The fresh transport, including fruit and vegetables and flowers, mainly uses the North Sea routes. There are three departures towards the United Kingdom every day. Two destined for Harwich and a third heading to Killingholme. “There is a lot of fresh produce on the ferries to Harwich every day,” says Rob Mittelmeijer of Stena Line. “In the afternoon a lot of produce go that are unloaded in London and surrounding areas at night. The trip in the evening is mainly used to supply the British retail early in the morning. In total, around 15 to 20 percent of the total volume is fresh.” 

More and more transport companies are opting to travel to the United Kingdom through Hoek van Holland. The stream of refugees at the French Calais are causing extra checks at the Channel Tunnel with long waiting times as a result. More and more transport companies moved their route last year, which provides Stena Line with profit after years of loss on its North Sea routes. Rob: “Not just the refugee crisis, but also the economic recovery in Europe and the United Kingdom, the decreased fuel prices and the Channel Tunnel fire at the start of last year provided a positive result in 2015. Even just the fresh transport has increased by almost 20% for us.” 

Permanent new customers

This doesn’t mean it’s all smooth sailing for the ferry company. The huge flow has provided them with more and particularly more challenging work. The extra checks on drivers and their load are causing longer waiting times than people are used to. Since the refugee camp at Calais was evacuated the situation at the Channel Tunnel has been calmer, but Stena Line has been no less busy. “Of course we’re happy about this. New customers also see the advantage of the ferry. Just think of the number of resting hours a driver can have during a journey. The ferry travels fir around seven hours and if a driver is on board on time, it’s possible to achieve the daily resting time of a minimum of nine hours.” 

To have the increased flow still go according to schedule, Stena Line has decide to make the afternoon journey fifteen minutes earlier. This wasn’t done without a fight, if we are to believe the Freight Commercial Manager. “All customers and customers of customers were gathered together so that we could personally announce the desire to leave earlier,” says Robs. “This turned out to be a step too far for many transporters. In the end we met each other in the middle and the departure has been moved forward fifteen minutes since 2016. This does mean that we leave at exactly 14:15. In practice this is quite difficult. The fresh sector is very dynamic and all kinds of things often change at the last minute. Unfortunately we have to leave exactly on time and the ferry is still chockablock every day.” 

There is space for 270 to 300 units on the ferry. Of these, 90 trailer max can be unmanned. The numbers of many set customers are known beforehand, so Stena Line can make a forecast. “Unfortunately we sometimes have to disappoint customers. For the unmanned trailers in particular we really had to set a limit, as it takes up more handling than manned trailers. To somewhat unburden the ferries from Hoek van Holland, the industrial goods are often planned at Europoort. Doing this, we hope to be better able to play into the rising demand from the fresh sector. Hoek van Holland will put the focus more and more on fresh and manned transport in the future.” 

Brexit

Rob admits he has had the wind behind him over the last year. The expectations for this year are also positive. The introduction of the Belgian tax for trucks as of April 1 2016 has already created new customers. The big question, however, is Great Britain leaving the European Union. The referendum took place on June 23. A small majority chose to leave the EU. “This will certainly have consequences for the trade with and to the United Kingdom. To what extent is the big question. The exchange rate of the British pound has always had an influence as well. We can’t really say much about it at the moment. We expect the results for the fresh transport to be smaller than for the so called capital goods.”

rob.mittelmeijer@stenaline.com