London Gateway claimed it saved 9,000 lorry journeys after accepting a single “mega delivery” of aggregate by cargo ship.
The 90,000-tonnes of material will be used to construct a gate complex at the port, due to open later this year.
London Gateway engineering director Andrew Bowen explained that the aggregate was going to be landed at a smaller port in the south east and then transported by road, and said: “But we insisted the ship make arrangements to unload its cargo here at London Gateway. [It] is a massive saving in terms of emissions, fuel consumption and impact on our national road infrastructure.”
Charles Meaby, London Gateway commercial director, added: “We have reduced the number of lorries on the road in the construction of London Gateway and we offer our customers the ability to reduce their lorry miles and save on CO2, fuel and time costs as London Gateway is simply closer to the UK’s major markets, not just in the South East but also the Midlands and the North West.”
Last year Turners (Soham) purchased Essex container haulier Walker Transport Services, partly to be nearer the new terminal.
MD Paul Day said the move had already yielded work for the Cambridgeshire-based firm: “It’s not massive but we are gaining work. We are not totally reliant on London Gateway because of our existing business out of Tilbury, but we are expecting it to generate a lot more traffic.”
