News & Insights

Our alerts, news and guides embrace all transport modes and explore global developments across all aspects of the supply chain, to keep you informed and guide decision making.

Metro launch enhanced tracking tool as on-time ship arrivals hit six-year low

With global shipping schedule reliability at a six-year low and just 33% of ships arriving on time, during a chaotic year for container shipping, Metro Shipping is enhancing its MVT supply chain platform, with even greater scrutiny of real-time vessel tracking. The ability of vessels to h... Read more

Telling us what you need – we are the ‘solution’ not part of the supply chain ‘problem!’

Delivering great service and exceeding your expectations is our continuous focus and commitment, but we need your feedback to give us the insights and understanding to drive future initiatives and remain a totally customer orientated business. Hopefully you will agree – we do this rather well a... Read more

Long supply chains offer innovation and lower prices

Many companies believe that the logical response to Covid disruption is to shorten supply chains, but a new academic study suggests longer supply chains may actually provide more innovation and economic benefit. A team of academics from the University of Oxford and Harvard University found sup... Read more

2022; Supply chain outlook

Supply chain pressures remain well above their pre-pandemic levels, but studies of worldwide supply chain constraints produced by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York suggest that pressures peaked in October 2021, raising faint hopes that global trade could start to normalise this year. The ga... Read more

Metro deliver on ECO promise

Having conceived, created and launched the MVT Eco module in 2021 - to monitor the CO2 equivalent emissions, of each consignment we move - and committed to environmental transparency, Metro has now officially offset our emissions for 2020. Companies’ response to climate change is arguably ... Read more

COVID outbreak impacts Ningbo port

The suspension of trucking services in several parts of China’s Zhejiang province, followed a COVID outbreak just over a week ago and has slowed the movement of cargo through one of China’s biggest and most important ports, Ningbo. Strict controls were imposed on lorries moving goods to or... Read more

British businesses investing in 2022

According to research carried out by consultancy Deloitte, the UK’s top firms will massively increase capital spending in the next 12 months, with over 30% of chief financial officers (CFO) at Britain’s premium listed firms scaling investment to capitalise on red hot domestic and foreign dema... Read more

Airline terminal handling and storage pricing strategy wrong

Ground handling of air freight cargo is a critical element in the time-sensitive mode, which has a profound impact on the speed and cost of a shipment. At the end of last year, one of the world’s biggest ground handling organisations and one of the biggest at London Heathrow issued new termi... Read more

Ports under post-Brexit pressure

The 1st January 2022 changes to UK border policies, with the imposition of customs declaration for imports from the EU, got off to the rockiest of starts when the new supporting IT system, the Goods Vehicle Movement Service (GVMS), crashed on day one, with trucks stuck at Calais for four days. ... Read more

UK government funds 11,000 new HGV drivers

HGV driver numbers have shrunk by a quarter since 2019, creating a supply chain crisis that has accelerated post-Brexit, with an estimated shortage of between 40,000 and 100,000 lorry drivers, leaving gaps on shelves and triggering October’s petrol crisis. Transport within the UK, Europe and... Read more

2021; a year of supply chain challenges

All around the world, companies have been impacted by supply chain challenges in 2021. With the pandemic’s disruption exacerbated by ‘Black Swan events', from Brexit, to the Suez Canal blockage, we have been working tirelessly to help our customers overcome these challenges and share critical... Read more

Freight market report – December 2021

With supply chains battling through overwhelmed transport systems, material shortages, and infrastructure disruptions for close on two years, we asked our partners in seven key markets to share their thoughts on critical operational elements, including demand, capacity and rates.  BANGLAD... Read more