Port of Felixstowe under pressure
According to the British International Freight Association (Bifa), freight forwarders that are now unable to return empty containers to the port of Felixstowe until 23 September 2020 spoke of "another example of appalling service from a port that describes itself as ‘The Port of Britain’".
Robert Keen, director general of Bifa, commented: “The operational performance at Felixstowe has been very challenging for some time, but over the last 24 hours the issues have escalated to a level that could be disastrous for our members’ businesses, which have already been hard hit by the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.“
Keen spoke of a dramatic development, pointing at the huge congestion and significant haulage problems. In a press release, Bifa stated further: “The debacle in 2018, when the port undertook a disastrous migration to a new in-house terminal operating system appears to be at the root of the current VBS problems.” (mw)