German Port Strike Set For Thursday

Port workers in Germany look likely to commence a 48-hour strike on Thursday as talks on wage negotiations appear to have broken down.

Around 12,000 port workers are expected to stop operations at the key container ports of Hamburg and Bremerhaven, along with four further German container ports.

While this will not be the first industrial action in this increasingly bitter dispute, if it goes ahead this will be the longest and largest German port strike for the past 40 years.

The ports are expected to halt operations at 06:00 hours on Thursday 14th July until 06:00 hours on Saturday 16th July.

The strike is unlikely to impact road transport services between the UK and Europe. However, it will undoubtedly add pressure to the already critical port congestion issues that are escalating throughout Northern European ports and further test ocean freight schedules.

On routes such as Asia, some services no longer call directly in the UK and cargo is transhipped over Northern European ports, which has contributed heavily to port congestion and delays to UK supply chains.

The team at Simarco will be monitoring the situation closely and will advise on any major developments.

Carnival Is Back & Supported By Simarco

With our headquarters being based in Witham, and us always being delighted to support local events, Simarco provided transport for the Witham Carnival this past Saturday, 9th July.

While generally speaking participants don’t need a vehicle and can walk, ride, or even be pushed along in a wheelbarrow, Simarco were happy to provide 6 drivers and vehicles for the day, which were used as floats in the parade.

The much loved local event had not taken place since 2019 due to Covid. However, the Witham community and its residents came forward this year to showcase their talents and skills, which included dance, gymnastics and martial arts amongst them.

Carnival team member – Suzanne Kinsella – as quoted in the Braintree & Witham Times, said “Simarco always support us by donating lorries, and drivers, and they have done the same again – it’s amazing.”

While Simarco’s Gary Thurlow commented “It is a pleasure to continue to support Witham Carnival and mark the milestone of 93 years of town festive celebrations.”

“Recognising the hard work required to organise and run a carnival, it is a delight to see the rewards in the fun achieved on the day and the crowds and trade attracted to the town.”

Simarco are now looking forward to supporting next year’s event and hope that the weather will be as fantastic as it was this year!

Our New Weekly Polish Import Service

Simarco are pleased to confirm that we have recently added to our extensive range of European groupage products by introducing a new direct service from Poland to the UK.

The service, jointly operated in conjunction with our Polish partners, has now been up and running for over a month, following the first departure from Gadki on the 26th May, which arrived at our Stoke facility on May 31st.

Gadki is geographically positioned on the eastern side of Poland’s central corridor, within easy reach of the main cities of Warsaw, Wroclaw, Lodz, Katowice and Gdansk, providing us with excellent coverage through to our Witham and Stoke depots.

Now running weekly, the service departs from Gadki every Friday and arrives at our UK depots every Tuesday, with customs clearance and nationwide deliveries usually expected within 24/48 hours.

For further details and competitive pricing, please contact a member of our sales team on sales@simarco.com. Alternatively, you can find more details of our pan European services here.

Vietnam: Simarco’s New Strategic Partnership

Simarco recently agreed a new and strategic partnership in Vietnam, to assist us in providing best in class ocean freight and air freight services to and from the country.

The Land of the Blue Dragon‘s economical development has been amongst the best in the world during the past decade or two, and Simarco see the country as an essential future trading partner for both ourselves and the UK.

Many importers have turned to Vietnam as a means of sourcing products that were formerly coming from China, with commodities such as furniture, plastics, homeware and clothing, amongst those most exported.

Additional demand has caused capacity and space issues during recent times, and Simarco’s new partnership will provide our customers with more flexibility and more solutions for both ocean and air freight shipments.

Below, is a brief overview of our extensive range of services from Vietnam:

Ocean Freight

• Competitive import container rates from all Vietnam main ports to the UK.
• Premium LCL consolidation service for less than container size shipments.

Air Freight

• Competitive direct and economy import air freight rates from main airports to the UK.
• Fast UK delivery services utilising our extensive UK transport network.

Cross Trade

• Triangular ocean and air freight services for goods manufactured in Vietnam that are destined for global markets other than the UK.
• Supported locally by a worldwide network of hand picked strategic partners.

For more in-depth information about our Vietnam service offering, please do not hesitate to contact us by emailing sales@simarco.com.

Rail Strikes Set To Impact Transport

Starting next week, the RMT Union have planned three single day strikes that will disrupt rail freight movements and will likely impact some road transport.

The rail-worker action is due to take place on 21st, 23rd and 25th June, and while only 10-12% of the UK’s transport is moved by rail, the impact may be further reaching, with container transport likely to be one of the worst affected.

Many longer container transport journeys include a rail movement directly to or from the UK’s ports, with the local element arranged by truck. A reduced rail freight network will clearly disrupt these movements, which may reduce availability during the course of next week.

It is unclear how the strikes will impact Euro Tunnel rail journeys, but around 1 in 4 services have been cancelled at this stage.

Additional traffic is another area that could lead to disruption on the roads as we approach what is an uncertain few days, should the strikes go ahead. Simarco’s advice is to book transport as early as possible and to have contingency plans for any unexpected delays.

For details of Simarco’s UK road freight and distribution services, you can click here, or contact sales@simarco.com.

Simarco Join Climate Ambition Accelerator Programme

As part of our five-year road map to roll out our sustainability vision and goals, two key members of our team have joined the UN Global Compacts ‘Climate Ambition Accelerator’ programme.  Sumeer Chakuu – Sustainability Supply Chain Manager, and Mark Wraight – Commercial Operations Director, have joined the six-month learning programme to help us progress towards setting science-based emission reduction targets and creating a clear path to address Simarco’s transition towards net-zero.   This valuable learning will also aid Simarco in further reductions of Scope 1 and 2 emissions and engagement with our value chain to help reduce indirect emissions, Scope 3.   Simarco joined the United Nations Global Compact, and the UN Global Compact Network UK, this year, which is a voluntary leadership platform for the development, implementation, and disclosure of responsible business practices. The UN Global Compact is a call to companies to align their operations and strategies with ten universally accepted principles in the areas of human rights, labour, environment, and anti-corruption, and to take action in support of UN goals and issues embodied in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Simarco remain very proud to be a part of this prestigious network and congratulate Sumeer and Mark for showing the necessary commitment to help create the world we all want.

Simarco Celebrates Pride Month

Simarco is committed to ensuring an equitable, diverse, and inclusive workplace.  This year marks the 50^th anniversary of the first PRIDE march in 1972 and we continue to celebrate with and show support for all members of the LGBT+ community.

We are showing our support and solidarity, by hosting a Company Rainbow Day, where we will encourage all employees to come to work in their brightest colours as well as promoting our Equality and Diversity Policy.

We want to ensure that our practises promote diversity and inclusion, so we are also planning to raise awareness through further training on how to remove unconscious bias, the importance of equality and diversity in the workplace, as well overhauling our job descriptions to include gender neutral language.

If you would like to find out more about a career at Simarco, please visit our jobs and careers page or view our current vacancies.

Simarco Closures During Queen’s Jubilee

This week see’s the UK celebrate The Queen’s Platinum Jubilee, which is being recognised with an extension to the traditional Spring Bank Holiday.

Therefore, the offices and facilities of Simarco will be closed on the following days:

Thursday, 2nd June 2022 – The Queen’s Jubilee Day
Friday, 3rd June 2022 – Spring Bank Holiday Day

The Queen is due to become the first British monarch to celebrate a platinum jubilee this week, following her seventy year reign, and the UK has four days of public celebrations planned, which extend through the weekend until Sunday 5th June.

Previous celebrations include the Silver Jubilee in 1977, Ruby in 1992, Golden in 2002 and Diamond in 2012. The 2012 Pageant was reportedly the ‘world’s largest outdoor party’, when more than 1 million people lined London’s River Thames to watch 1,000 boats sail past!

During this year’s celebrations, thousands of beacons will be lit by communities and groups throughout the UK and 54 beacons will be lit in all capital cities of the Commonwealth. The principal beacon will be lit on the 2nd June in a special ceremony at Buckingham Palace.

Customs Declaration Service (CDS) To Become UK’s Single Customs Platform 

In August 2021, HMRC announced they will be closing its Customs Handling of Import and Export Freight (CHIEF) system on 31 March 2023. From this date, all business will be required to declare goods through the Customs Declaration Service (CDS). Services on CHIEF will be withdrawn in two stages: 

• after 30 September 2022 – UK import declarations on CHIEF will no longer be supported. Simarco will be switching to CDS from Monday 1st August 2022 

• after 31 March 2023 – UK export declarations on CHIEF and National Exports System (NES) will also cease. Simarco are aiming to switch UK exports to CDS by the end of 2022 

The new CDS system will provide a more secure and stable platform, with the capacity and capability to grow in line with the Government’s ambitious trade plans to have the world’s most efficient customs system by 2025. 

ACTION YOU MUST TAKE NOW… 

In order for us (or any customs broker in the UK) to continue handling UK export or UK import customs entries on your behalf, all businesses MUST register themselves for CDS through their own Government Gateway portal. 

It takes less than 5 minutes to register and confirmation from Government Gateway is currently received within 24 hours. To access the link please click: 

Get access to the Customs Declaration Service – GOV.UK (www.gov.uk) 

A trader checklist is available from the GOV.UK website. To download, please use this link: 

UK Trader Checklist: Moving to CDS 

Please note that if you have not registered for CDS prior to the dates outlined above, an export or import declaration cannot be made on your behalf. This will mean your goods are unable to export from UK (for UK departures) or clear UK customs (for UK arrivals).

 If you have any questions, please contact cdsenquiries@simarco.com 

Simarco Support Mental Health Week

With this year’s Mental Health Awareness Week officially over,  it is important to reflect on what we can all do to keep the spotlight on this important issue throughout the year.

Simarco have taken a pro-active approach to recognising mental health issues in the workplace by introducing Management Training, offering an Employee Assistance Programme and extending our Mental Health First Aider programme as part of our own awareness campaign.

We have raised internal awareness by signposting and are working hard to create an environment where employees feel safe talking about their mental health.

We know we are at the beginning of a journey, and we have lots of work yet to do but we commit to doing so as we recognise the significant impact this can have on the wellbeing of our Simarco colleagues.