Dover Delays Impact European Transport

The chaos and delays at Dover, during the past few days, have been much publicised and have had a significant impact on the movement of goods to and from the continent.

This also led to similar delays in Folkestone, as both the public and transport operators looked for alternative means of travel.

Delays of up to 5/6 hours were experienced by most drivers from Friday through to Sunday, leading to Dover port declaring a ‘critical incident’. While it looks as though some normality has returned this morning, there are fears that the weekend’s chaos could be repeated during the summer.

The delays have been put down to additional checks since Brexit, the post pandemic return in demand, and being at the height of the holiday season.

Dover/Calais is the primary route for European imports and exports, with the weekends being key for vehicles to depart and return. Therefore, any ongoing disruption is likely to have a significant impact in getting some products delivered on time.

Simarco are monitoring the situation closely and will continue to update you with any major developments.

Simarco Ride for Brainwave

Simarco’s CEO (Chief Executive Officer) – Simon Reed – recently took part in the Ride103 charity bike ride, to raise funds for Brainwave our nominated charity.  

After a few close scrapes, which led to a couple of very sore legs, Simon managed to get around in one piece and was delighted to have raised £2,264 for a very worthy cause. 

Brainwave charity exists to help children with disabilities achieve greater independence by aiming to improve their mobility, communication skills and learning potential through a range of specialist therapies.

The charity work with children that have a wide range of conditions including: autism, cerebral palsy, and genetic disorders such as Down syndrome. Their therapists work with families to devise unique therapy programmes, designed around their child’s needs, which help and encourage them to enrich their lives and unlock their potential.

Simarco are proud to support and be associated with such a worthy charity and of course Simon, for such a fantastic achievement. For details of how you could get involved with Brainwave, please visit https://brainwave.org.uk/

Laura Is Now A Qualified Class 1 Driver

Back in March, we advised you how one of the many women, who play a critical role in our ongoing success, was determinedly moving towards gaining her own HGV1 driver’s license.

We are delighted to confirm that Laura has passed her test and is now a qualified HGV1 driver, becoming one of the 2% of heavy good drivers that are women.

Laura, pictured above, joined Simarco in November 2021 to work in transport as a van driver, although she was very focused on moving towards Class 1 driving.

Recognising Laura’s ambition, Simarco have worked with her to help her complete her ADR course, her theory tests and finally her Class 1 driving test, and we are now beaming with pride at her achievement.

With the industry always short of drivers, increasing the number of women in HGV1 cabs could be critical to the global supply chain over the coming years, and we hope Laura has helped pave the way for more women to move into HGV driving.

Laura has always had a passion for driving and Simarco’s support alongside her own determination has paid dividends. She remains very grateful for that support and we feel she is a trailblazer for other women in the industry.

Well done Laura!

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!

Simarco launches Sustainability Champions Group

04 July 2022: We are pleased to announce that Simarco has launched a dedicated group of Sustainability Champions. This group will support Simarco community to make positive changes in response to the UN sustainability development goals and play a massive part in helping Simarco become a leader in sustainability.

Any member of staff can be part of this group. The most important thing is their passion to create change to improve Simarco’s environmental, social and economic impact.  The champions will lead by example and inspire others to take positive steps to create wider change towards a sustainability future. 

Apart from driving sustainability actions, developing their skills and influencing positive changes across Simarco, Sustainability Champions will support in:

• Developing sustainability culture by encouraging colleagues to become aware of sustainability (people, planet and prosperity) and follow the practices/policies that support our sustainability strategy. 
• Promoting sustainability by encouraging effective resource use and helping colleagues do the same.
• Communicating objectives and plans to make sure we keep them fresh in everyone’s minds and keep the lines of communication open.
• Reporting progress while keeping up to date with what is happening in Sustainability inside and outside Simarco.
• Collecting ideas, questions and feedback on sustainability from their department or site.

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.