Pd Ports Is Crowned ‘outstanding Service Carrier Of The Year’ By Asda

March 5, 2010 - PRLog -- PD Ports, the operator of North East port, Teesport, has been crowned as the ‘Most Outstanding Service Carrier of the Year’ in 2009 by leading UK retailer, ASDA, at its annual National Carrier of the Year awards ceremony.

The award was won by PD Ports for its Logical Link service - a coastal feeder container shipping service offering a next day connection between Felixstowe in the south of England and Teesport in the north, which runs three days per week.

ASDA has used the Logical Link service since it launched in January 2009, to ship goods destined for its northern markets into Teesport, where the retailer operates a 360,000ft distribution centre.    

In its first year of operation, the Logical Link service reached its goal of reducing operational costs for customers and minimising the adverse impact that road transport has on the environment.

ASDA, which opened the first portcentric import centre at Teesport in 2006, has now considerably reduced the volume of company trucks on the already over-burdened UK road network. This has led to a saving of over 1,265,459 road miles.  That’s enough to make almost three trips to the moon and back.  

Alex Linton, ASDA’s supply chain operations manager, commented: “PD Ports’ innovation in the development of the Logical Link concept and the subsequent efficiency in the management of the service were key factors in winning this award.

“The continued improvement and solid performance in PD Ports’ transport business, PD Logistics, provided a further rationale for judging the company to merit this award.”

Jerry Hopkinson, PD Ports' md, bulks, ports & logistics, said: “We are delighted to have been named as ASDA’s outstanding service carrier of the year as a result of the success we have seen with the Logical Link service.  

“There is without doubt, a continued and vital need to reduce the amount of freight transported by road from southern UK ports but which is destined for the north of the UK.  This award further cements the benefits our customers can achieve through the Logical Link service.”


About PD Ports:

PD Ports Limited is owned by Canadian based Brookfield.  Brookfield is a global asset manager focused on property, renewable power and infrastructure assets, with over $90 billion of assets under management.  PD Ports was bought by Brookfield in November 2009.

PD Ports is a high performing specialist ports business offering a wide variety of supply chain services to improve customers’ international product and material movements into and out of – as well as within – the UK.

PD Ports employs over 1140 members of staff, and generates an annual turnover of over £120 million from many UK locations.

PD Ports operates throughout the UK from bases at many key ports and logistics centres.      

The 3 business interests of PD Ports are:

Port Operations– is split into two business streams – bulks and unitised and includes:

Teesport: one of the top 3 UK ports, with flows of containers, bulk traffics and finished cars, handling over 40 million tonnes of throughput p.a.

Humber & Small Ports: owners and/or operators of ports on the Humber estuary, Rivers Trent and Ouse, and at Medina Wharf, Isle of Wight. Service offerings include ships’ agency, chartering and stevedoring services.

Logistics: PD Logistics offers warehousing and distribution services at UK locations throughout the North East, Humberside & East Anglia, including at Felixstowe.  Please visit www.pdlogistics.com
Development plans for Port Operations include:

The Northern Gateway Container Terminal: a major new deep sea container terminal planned at Teesport on the South side of the River Tees.  The £300+ million development will have a capacity of 1.5 million TEU (twenty foot equivalent unit) and is anticipated to deliver over 5,500 jobs to the Tees Valley, when fully operational. Please visit www.thenortherngateway.co.uk

Portcentric Logistics: a new concept promoted by PD Ports for locating the storage and distribution of imported goods close to the point of arrival at a UK port. This concept avoids the slow handling and return of empty containers as well as eradicating unnecessary UK road mileage, which occurs when delivering to a traditional inland import centre, such as in the Midlands.  

In 2006 ASDA Wal*Mart opened a 360,000 sq ft import centre at Teesport and has saved more than 2 million road miles by adopting the portcentric concept.  Adjacent to the ASDA facility, Tesco operates a purpose built 1.2 million sq ft import centre at Teesport, which opens in 2009

Conservancy – this includes:

Management of river traffic for the ports of Tees and Hartlepool, ensuring safe navigation and maintaining the required channel depth.  

Property– this includes:

Revenue and income from property and facilities owned by PD Ports and used by third party clients on long term leases.

Land that is not utilised for operational purposes and offers potential for development.
Port land at Hartlepool docks, which is highly attractive to the growing renewable energy sector, including offshore, windfarms, and biomass plants.  PD Ports’ long term strategy is to further develop Hartlepool docks as a centre of excellence for the offshore support sector.

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