The voice of business in the Tees region | 35
Open for business – PD Ports chief operating
officer Jerry Hopkinson with North East
England Chamber of Commerce chief
executive James Ramsbotham at the
opening of the automated gate.
becoming ever more vital to the way we
want to manage and develop our business.
“The port’s development will not only
benefit our customers directly but it will
positively impact the wider region and
contribute to making the Tees Valley more
competitive globally.”
The third element of the plan is the
automated gate, which Jerry says will help
it retain industry-best average gate-to-gate
times – how long it takes for a vehicle to
arrive, unload, reload and exit the terminal –
even as volumes increase.
“At about 30 minutes, our average gate-
to-gate times are excellent in comparison to
most other UK ports, who would give their
eye teeth to have that kind of turnaround
and often average an hour or more,” he said.
“We’re mindful that as we get busier,
we need to have the technology in place
to ensure we get vehicles smartly in and
out of the terminal. Navis enables a haulier
to tell us that in two days they will arrive
at our terminal, deliver one box and collect
another.
“It will then tell our employees how to
stack and arrange the boxes to ensure that
they are as close as possible so when that
vehicle arrives in the terminal, it’s already
in the optimal slot. In a very sophisticated
way, this technology is helping to drive
the productivity and performance of our
business.”
Jerry compares the effect of the
automated gate to the way technology has
transformed how we travel by air, using
smart technology to book tickets and seats
and even checking-in online, bypassing
many of the processes that led to queues
in the past.
“Haulage contractors picking up or
dropping off containers at our port can
now use an app to pre-book their load in,
and arrive at an automatic portal that uses
“The Port’s development will
not only benefit our customers
directly but it will positively impact
the wider region and contribute
to making the Tees Valley more
competitive globally.”
camera technology to scan the container
number,” he says.
“The driver has a smart card he swipes
and then goes straight into the terminal,
offloads his box, collects the one he’s
pre-booked to collect and heads back out
again.”
The automated gate has been welcomed
by Teesport’s customers, who are sharing
the benefits of a slicker, speedier system.
“We tested it successfully with our own
fleet of 30-plus vehicles and then rolled
it out to selected hauliers and also held
regular consultations to show them how it
would work and answer any queries,” said
Jerry.
North East England Chamber of
Commerce chief executive James
Ramsbotham, who officially opened the
gate alongside Jerry on October 11, said:
“This is another great example of the way in
which PD Ports is developing its capability
to enable its customers to access global
markets as efficiently as possible.
“Creating this world class facility in the
Tees Valley is something of which we
should all be so proud. The teamwork
required from so many people, working
with the port, is a real testament to the
ability of so many individuals in the region.”
Having invested heavily in the latest
technology, everything is now in place for
the company to realise its long-term vision
of developing a deep-water container
terminal on the River Tees.
“The UK currently brings in something
like 85 or 90 per cent of our total volume of
imports through ports in the south-east and
then we move it mainly by lorry and wonder
why our motorways are clogged up and our
CO2 emissions are going through the roof.
“It’s because we don’t import and export
goods smartly. Somewhere in the region
of eight million containers enter the UK
annually. The major container ports in the
UK are all in the south and south-east,
where the road networks are incredibly
congested and the rail infrastructure is
creaking.
“So we’ve argued that if you bring in
goods in a container that is destined for
the north of the UK, then bring it through a
northern port – and one that can handle and
distribute containers efficiently. We think
Teesport is the optimal northern port to do
this, with excellent rail links into Scotland.”
This logic led Tesco and Asda Walmart to
pursue opportunities at Teesport and set
up major facilities to enable them to unload
non-food goods and then distribute them
without the need to be moved to an inland
centre first.
Now PD Ports wants to build on those
successes and offer a logistics solution
that’s fit for what it believes is a very bright
future for Teesport and the wider Tees Valley
region.