EU Archives | Page 17 of 17

New appointment further strengthens European team and platform expansion

Jan 17, 2023 | EU, Road, Short sea

Metro’s award-winning European solutions will be enhanced, expanded and advanced by new European Director, and industry veteran, Richard Gibbs.

Commenting on his new role, Richard said. “Metro have a familiar and dependable partner network in place, with the ability to extend overland solutions swiftly across Europe, which is critical, in supporting effective European transport and 3PL and 4PL operations to our customers.

Metro’s European service template is well established and proven to meet the needs of the most demanding supply chains; by blending the optimum mix of partners, carriers, service design, customs formalities/compliance and advanced supporting technology, to deliver transparency and consistent reliability of service.

By blending partner capacity, specialised equipment and operational excellence in this way, Metro’s European solutions can be quickly and effectively extended to support the transport of any products, components and raw materials, in any geography. Meeting the most rigid timescales and service levels.

Solutions range from time-definite courier and express van operations, to simple line-haul or specialised trailers operating daily between multiple manufacturing plants, with defined delivery deadlines and GPS tracking to provide full visibility of transit throughout Europe.

We are already seeing customers near-shoring to Turkey and the Iberian peninsula, which is increasing interest in our short-sea services, and the port pair, service and rate options they offer.

Multimodal and short sea services have so much untapped potential, including access to rail and the option of using the container in inventory planning and the option to flex service levels, transit times and rates for the optimum service at the lowest economic rate.”

To learn more about our European capability, including our road freight template, short-sea services or intermodal solutions EMAIL Richard Gibbs. He will be delighted to share the initiatives, innovation and creative approach we take to your overland movements to ensure that you can deliver your product at the right time, the right cost and in the right way wherever required within the UK or European markets. Reliably.

Metro road freight preparing for everything

Nov 30, 2022 | EU, Road

Just a few month’s into his new role and Metro’s Head of European Services, Matt Paxton-Rhodes say’s that instead of future-gazing, his focus is on the resilience of current operations, expanding the trusted partner network and finalising the service-model template, ready to transfer into new markets.

The market softening experienced in the second half of 2022 is going to extend into 2023, with the European road freight market expected to expand well below current inflation levels, as slowing economic growth in the EU weakens demand for road freight services in, through and out of Europe.

The outlook for the European road freight market will depend on the outcome of various unpredictable factors, including inflation, consumer demand, driver shortages and fuel costs.

Looking across Europe, we are anticipating a considerable variance in performance, with Turkey and Eastern Europe markets likely to perform better than Western European countries, like Germany, Italy and the UK, that are likely to be some of the slowest-growing road freight markets in 2023.

Despite the slowdown UK road haulage capacity is still stretched, by driver shortages and more directly by European truckers reluctance to cross into the UK, without the guarantee of return loads and no border delays.

Metro’s partner network resolves these issues, by providing access to capacity, drivers and specialised equipment, like mega-trailers, that can supercharge supply chain effectiveness.

By blending partner capacity, specialised equipment and operational excellence, Metro develop resilient road freight solutions for the most complex supply chain, like serving a manufacturer’s plants in the UK, Germany and Turkey, with rigid timescales and service levels.

In supporting this client’s manufacturing model. three to four trailers operate daily between each plant, shuttling components and ‘knocked down' shipments with defined delivery deadlines, using GPS tracked trucks to provide full transparency on transit schedules throughout Europe.

Vehicles can be single, double, or even treble-manned, depending on the route and urgency of the load, to take the “Just in time” concept to the optimum level.

Commenting on his experience with Metro, Matt said. “We have the right partners in place, across Europe and our service template is proven, which means we can swiftly roll out pan-European road freight solutions for the most demanding needs, between any location and country.”

“We are seeing more retail manufacturing near-shoring to Turkey and the Iberian peninsula, which are two of our strongest markets and we are very excited by the opportunities that our group's new ‘Ellerman City Liners’ short-sea service will provide throughout Europe and the Mediterranean.”

“Intermodal solutions are incredibly cost-effective and while they may have longer transit times, they are the perfect choice for those that can flex their supply chains, industrial and other less time-sensitive verticals.”

To learn more about our European capability, including our Turkish services, road freight template, or intermodal solutions EMAIL Matt now.

New EU border controls threaten cross-channel delays

Nov 2, 2022 | Brexit, Customs, EU

Almost 60% of all UK-EU trade passes through the UK short straits and ensuring their operational stability is key to facilitating and maximising international trade, but EU border controls due to take effect next May threaten to impact their resilience and sustainability.

The European Entry/Exit System (EES) will replace wet stamping of passports and require Britons to register biometrics including facial and fingerprint scans on their first border crossing into the EU, and then be scanned on subsequent crossings.

Britons travelling to the European continent have been warned to expect huge delays at ferry ports and the Channel Tunnel from May 2023, with the launch of the scheme expected to be chaotic.

The technology the EU is implementing to support the EES rollout was designed for airports and railway stations, where passengers approach individually in queues and under French laws, the information must be gathered in the presence of a border official and cannot be subcontracted.

The head of EU exit for the Dover Harbour Board, told MPs last year that there is no such thing as an eGate for a car, and there is no such thing as an eGate process for people travelling as a group. They’re all one-at-a-time processes, which means that at British exit ports, EES would require car passengers and commercial vehicle drivers to exit their vehicles at French border controls to undertake passport checks; in addition to compromising the safety of drivers, it would also delay just-in-time supply chains.

The port of Dover has voiced fears - that are supported by Logistics UK and other freight trade associations - that EES will not work in a ferry port where there could be hundreds of cars waiting to get onto ferries and with up to 10,000 lorries crossing every day, any disruption to processing cars for departure, could lead to prolonged freight delays.

Experts suggest that EES could extend passenger processing times, currently averaging 90 seconds per car by a few minutes, which Imperial College forecasts would trigger 29-mile queues.

The Port of Dover, ferry operators, Logistics UK and the British Ports Association (BPA) are lobbying the government to address the looming threats to traffic fluidity from the EU Entry Exit System (EES) and support new border control infrastructure.

Metro are at the forefront of UK/EU customs brokerage solutions, with our automated CuDoS declaration platform and a dedicated team of customs experts, reacting swiftly to any changes in the UK’s trading relationship with the EU.

To learn how we can simplify and automate customs declarations for your businesses, please EMAIL Elliot Carlile to review the options.

Metro are getting BIGGER in Europe

Oct 19, 2022 | EU, Rail, Road, Sea, Turkey

Metro has been shipping freight to, from and across Europe since 1981, using road, rail and short-sea services to create country and product-specific transport solutions. Our new Head of European Services, Matt Paxton-Rhodes, wants to make these award-winning solutions available to more shippers, in more verticals.

Metro’s European transport solutions are designed to meet the needs of individual customers, many of whom have entrusted the management and operation of their supply chain to Metro.

Safely, efficiently and cost-effectively, Metro plan and arrange the time-definite transport of components intra-Europe, and finished products from the manufacturer or producer, to their final point of use on the European continent.

The European team is experienced in orchestrating and overseeing the timely, cost-effective transport of goods to anywhere in Europe, using rail, short-sea and carrier partners’ modern fleet of vehicles. Designed to transport loads of any size and type, including out-of-gauge, refrigerated and automotive.

Metro’s new Head of European Services, Matt Paxton-Rhodes, has held senior executive roles with some of the biggest global carriers and forwarders, gaining an enviable breadth of experience, knowledge and contacts along the way.

It is a sign of Metro’s growth and stature, that a senior industry professional like Matt is excited by his move and the opportunity to transform the European product.

Matt is very clear on the factors that attracted him to Metro:

People - The passion of the senior team and their total commitment to customers and colleagues.

Power - The flat reporting structure and the empowering of management to make decisions gives Metro the agility to react quickly to customers’ needs. Now.

Product - Metro’s European product is established, proven and effective, with a distinct opportunity for replication in new verticals and geographies.

Platform – We will always provide all options and best fit recommendations – regardless of the requirement for overland trucking. Trade with our closest markets continues to change, almost daily – so do we with our solutions.

Despite only being with the business for less than a year, Matt has set his sights on some short term objectives.

“The Metro team has extensive knowledge of European transport and customs compliance arrangements, which means they are well experienced in providing the most appropriate solutions for transporting goods in the fastest, safest and most reliable ways, to deadline and including for JIT operations.”

“Having an established and effective core-product means that I can focus on building a dedicated team to increase capacity, by taking our best-practice and matching it closely to the needs of new verticals, on new routes.”

“Turkey, an increasingly popular location for near-shoring, is a good place to start as it is one of our most established routes and the potential for growth is immense.”

‘’Our brokerage team are market leading and cutting edge – the whole end to end piece is naturally part of the offer and it is a very compelling proposition that we design around our customers individual needs and requirements.’’