Short Sea
The best kept supply chain secret
Short sea container shipping is a smart, efficient and cost efficient alternative to standard overland services with Northern and Southern Europe. And one that could be critical post-Brexit.
The most exciting thing about short sea services is that they offer literally hundreds of port pair, service and rate options. This allows the smart supply chain manager to flex service levels, transit time and rates for the optimum service at the lowest economic rate.
The smart choice
- Stable rates
- Cost effective
- Environmentally friendly
Many of the biggest shippers and manufacturers are established users of short sea services because they like the additional opportunities it provides over traditional road transport such as access to the rail network and the option of using the container as extended storage.
If there is congestion at the receiving depot, or inventory is not yet required, smart shippers (like many of our clients) may elect to make use of free storage on the quay or low cost rent at an external secure facility to defer delivery.
They can also choose to have the container dropped on site for extended loading and unloading.
Short sea is typically half the cost of road, but triple the transit.
Short is the long-term option
This manufacturing client has plants in the UK and continental Europe, with material moving between locations on a continual basis, with deadline requirements that embrace urgent and non-urgent.
Air, overnight and express services are typically employed for urgent deadlines, while products that have deadline flexibility are perfectly suited for the cost and service benefits that a short-sea containerised platform provides. This creates a “conveyer belt” model delivering consistent and reliable flows of product.
The Metro MVT platform provides visibility of all stock in transit and the anticipated date of delivery, which automatically updates in line with the transport option selected.