Dear Valued Customer,
As you may be aware Felixstowe port is currently suffering from severe congestion and delays due to the implementation of a new port IT system “NGEN”. This has now been ongoing for weeks and with no recent improvement in the situation. This consequently has affected our own operation and turnaround time, several large vessels have been re-directed to London Gateway port which has caused an issue as there is limited ERTS capacity to handle the volume of groupage containers. We have initiated a solution to shunt the containers back to a Felixstowe ERTS to ensure reasonable turnaround times are maintained, however must advise you to expect some additional delays to our normal turnaround. Furthermore some vessels docking in Felixstowe have ceased unloading mid operation leading to further extended delays.
All these issues are unfortunately not within our control but we are doing our best to mitigate the delays to your end customer. Our Staff are working longer hours to ensure no substantial backlog occurs so we can keep on top of the situation as best possible, at present the turnaround is anywhere between 1-5 days depending on the circumstances of the vessel. We will endeavour to update you on each container to keep you informed accordingly.
The port of Felixstowe issued the below statement last week, however ground operations seem to have not improved much.
In order to try and keep delays at a minimum please can you try to ensure pre-alerts are sent to Charles Kendall 14 days before arrival so we can ensure enough time to plan for your shipment arrival. Pre-alert documents received in late may cause your final customer delays, but we will try to accommodate all requests where possible.
Charles Kendall have warehousing options at the following ports but are beginning to reach capacity.
. Liverpool Port – Manchester Depot
. London Gateway – London Heathrow Depot
. Felixstowe – Felixstowe / Ipswich Depots
. Southampton – Southampton / Eastleigh Depots
When we receive notification from carriers for service changes we will update you – Maersk’s COEX and TA2 service to Felixstowe will be re-routed into Liverpool port for the next 12 weeks - https://www.maerskline.com/Contingencies/Felixstowe-contigency
Due to the peak season and Amazon Prime launch many Amazon FC’s are delayed by 3 – 4 days within the UK and Europe, More notable BHX2 currently experiencing a 15 day delay.
If you have any concerns of questions please contact: nicolas@myhomecargo.net