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London Medway, part of the Peel Ports Group, has had its busiest ever month for unaccompanied freight using a cargo only ro-ro ferry service between the UK and France.

The Sheerness-Calais service which is run by DFDS (also Rosslare Europort-Dunkirk) has carried more than 3,981 trailers on its vessels across the channel in April 2022.

Unaccompanied freight, (trailers and containers shipped without a driver), is seen by some in the industry as a major way of overcoming challenges with customs delays, driver shortages and storage.

The dedicated vessel for this route, the M/V Botnia Seaways, operates between Sheerness and Calais.  

The route was first introduced in June 2021 to expand DFDS’ existing network of services between the UK and Europe and came in response to the growing demand for unaccompanied freight services from cargo owners, hauliers and shipping lines.

Richard Goffin, Port Director, South East Ports Cluster at Peel Ports said: “These record-breaking achievements are a true testament to the increasing capabilities and efficiencies of our operations at London Medway, as well as our outstanding team without which this wouldn’t have been possible.

“We have invested heavily into our port estate recently, improving resiliency and capacity, providing a more attractive UK entry point over other southern ports.

“Our dedicated RoRo facilities, location and accessibility provide significant benefits for our customers, including DFDS."

“The success of the M/V Botnia Seaways vessel and the wider partnership demonstrates how London Medway is going from strength to strength and is a strong indication for our future success.”

The ports' group also operates the Port of Liverpool where Afloat has a story on educational inclusion for students across the city. 

Published in Ports & Shipping

About Brittany Ferries

In 1967 a farmer from Finistère in Brittany, Alexis Gourvennec, succeeded in bringing together a variety of organisations from the region to embark on an ambitious project: the aim was to open up the region, to improve its infrastructure and to enrich its people by turning to traditional partners such as Ireland and the UK. In 1972 BAI (Brittany-England-Ireland) was born.

The first cross-Channel link was inaugurated in January 1973, when a converted Israeli tank-carrier called Kerisnel left the port of Roscoff for Plymouth carrying trucks loaded with Breton vegetables such as cauliflowers and artichokes. The story, therefore, begins on 2 January 1973, 24 hours after Great Britain's entry into the Common Market (EEC).

From these humble beginnings however, Brittany Ferries as the company was re-named quickly opened up to passenger transport, then became a tour operator.

Today, Brittany Ferries has established itself as the national leader in French maritime transport: an atypical leader, under private ownership, still owned by a Breton agricultural cooperative.

Eighty five percent of the company’s passengers are British.

Key Brittany Ferries figures:

  • Turnover: €202.4 million (compared with €469m in 2019)
  • Investment in three new ships, Galicia plus two new vessels powered by cleaner LNG (liquefied natural gas) arriving in 2022 and 2023
  • Employment: 2,474 seafarers and shore staff (average high/low season)
  • Passengers: 752,102 in 2020 (compared with 2,498,354 in 2019)
  • Freight: 160,377 in 2020 (compared with 201,554 in 2019)
  • Twelve ships operating services that connect France, the United Kingdom, Ireland and Spain (non-Covid year) across 14 routes
  • Twelve ports in total: Bilbao, Santander, Portsmouth, Poole, Plymouth, Cork, Rosslare, Caen, Cherbourg, Le Havre, Saint-Malo, Roscoff
  • Tourism in Europe: 231,000 unique visitors, staying 2.6 million bed-nights in France in 2020 (compared with 857,000 unique visitors, staying 8,7 million bed-nights in 2019).