Tilbury Container Services : Container class
Published : September 2006
Tilbury Container Services is one of the largest purpose-built reefer container terminals in the northern hemisphere. Caroline Merz talked to business development manager Tabare Dominguez
With its commanding position on the river Thames near Northfleet, Tilbury Container Services is ideally placed to play host to many of the world’s important shipping lines. Originally designed and built to cater for reefer (refrigerated) cargoes, the company is still one of the largest purpose-built reefer container terminals in the northern hemisphere with a leading position in the north-south container trades, especially South America, Australasia and South Africa. The two river side berths have deep water – a minimum of 13.5 metres at all times – while the other two berths are a constant 10.7 metres deep.
Jointly owned by three of the largest port operators – P&O Ports, Associated British Ports and Forth Ports – TCS, as it’s known, is the only dedicated, direct access deep-sea terminal within the Port of London. This gives the port a strong competitive advantage: it’s adjacent to the M25 motorway and less than 30 miles from central London, providing a direct route into the nation’s largest market area.
The terminal has been growing steadily in the last few years. Instrumental to this growth has been the introduction of a range of strategies and technologies to make the port more efficient, particularly in terms of energy efficiency. “In 2004 we moved 386,000 TEU [one TEU is equivalent to a 20ft container]. This increased to 438,000 in 2005, and this year we expect to achieve in excess of 450,000 TEU,” said business development manager Tabare Dominguez.
The main issue affecting all UK terminal operators is a constraint on capacity, he said. “In view of this prospect, some of the shipping lines are switching to continental ports. So in order to target that issue, we have invested over £50 million in recent years in order to increase our capacity.” TCS’s capacity today is 700,000 TEU when fully operative, so there is still plenty to spare. The terminal now has a second riverside berth, which has almost doubled its capacity. Two large container ships can now be worked simultaneously.
A new on-berth railhead has been constructed to increase the number of containers moved by rail. “This has a significant environmental impact, because it reduces road congestion and pollution,” continued Dominguez. “We’ve worked very hard in the last few years to increase the volume moved by rail.” The railhead also helps in terms of terminal performance, as scheduling is made easier. “When trucks just turn up, it can be more difficult to be prepared,” he added. The railhead is designed to provide rapid transfer of containers and turnaround of trains. Capable of the simultaneous loading of four trains at any one time, it is accessible to all rail service providers.
Part of the £50 million investment has also gone towards a fleet of 22 new diesel/electric straddle carriers, which are linked by RDT (radio data transmission) to a powerful computerised management system known as NAVIS. “Information technology is fundamental to the running of our container terminal,” said Dominguez. The system is also used for ship and yard planning.
TCS offers a quality-assured service: it was the first deep-sea container terminal to achieve
BS 5750 part two (ISO 9002) accreditation for all areas of the operation, and it later achieved
ISO 14001 accreditation. Specialist activity for which TCS has gained accreditation is for the storage and monitoring of refrigerated containers.
The company’s fleet of terminal vehicles, used for conveying operational and engineering staff around the 32-hectare site, previously consisted of open-backed diesel trucks. Concerned with the fuel use and emissions of these trucks, the company’s environmental committee decided to introduce electrically-powered vehicles in their place, reducing greenhouse effect emissions and the loss of natural resources. And there have been wider effects: the fact that these vehicles move more slowly has resulted in less damage to vehicles and a corresponding reduction in maintenance and repair costs, alongside a reduction in overall operating costs. The company has been so pleased with the results that it has ordered more electric vehicles to replace those that are due for renewal.
Waste management is a major issue for any business, and container ports are no exception. TCS’s environmental management programme recently included a review and audit of the type and quantity of waste generated on the site. An objective was set to reduce the quantity of company waste sent to landfill sites, and to increase the amount of recycled waste. The existing system, where numerous on-site skips were being used for different materials, was replaced by a single contractor which removes all on-site waste to the recycling centre, where it is subsequently sorted. As a result, the terminal reduced the number of skips required and achieved a minimum recycling rate of 40 per cent of all its waste. Regular auditing of waste has now been introduced.
New business for TCS this year includes Maersk, which has decided to bring its Australian containers to the port in its weekly Oceania service, which also calls at US and New Zealand ports. Another major shipping company bringing new services to TCS is Hamburg Sud. Its fortnightly Trident service now connects Tilbury directly with the Australian market.
Dominguez described several new developments expected this year. One of which is a new gate process to work in conjunction with the vehicle booking system (VBS), which will be introduced by December. “Trucks will turn up to allocated slots throughout the day. Our current vehicle turnaround is 34 minutes gate-to-gate, which is very fast for this industry, but there can still be delays at peak periods,” he explained. “With VBS there will be a consistent flow of trucks throughout the day. The system will allow us to allocate resources in a more efficient way as well, because we’ll know how many trucks there are at certain times of the day.”
Hi-tech developments include a remote reefer monitoring system and Sattel, a global positioning and performance enhancement system, which incorporates GPS technology. “This will allow us to improve the way in which we monitor vehicles and drivers' performance within the terminal, and more accurately track container moves and positioning,” added Dominguez.