Haulage companies are now facing delays and queues at many British ports on the Irish Sea as Holyhead remains closed due to storm damage.
Haulage companies said they have been faced with a triple difficulty since Holyhead closed last week.
Firstly, lorries with cabs and drivers had to be diverted from Holyhead to a range of other UK ports including Pembroke; Fishguard; Liverpool and Cairnryan in Scotland.
[ Hauliers now facing major delays and backlogs at other Irish Sea ports in UKOpens in new window ]
Secondly, much of the freight is delivered to Irish Sea ports by British hauliers who leave the trailers in the hands of ferry companies before going on to other jobs in the UK. The trailers are shunted on to ships by port authorities, to be collected by other hauliers in Ireland. As this did not happen in Holyhead haulage companies were scrambling to find other UK-based contractors to collect the trailers from Holyhead and take them to other ports.
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The third difficulty has been congestion building up at other ports, a factor complicated by customs paperwork which would have to be adjusted to show the new route.
Laurence O’Toole – who runs a Galway-based transport business with 180 trucks, 300 trailers, and depots in Dublin and the UK – said his worry was not so much Christmas parcels but perishables, including chilled goods. He said the company was fortunate in having a depot in the UK so hauliers could be directed back to Holyhead to collect trailers.
As of Monday O’Toole Transport had no trailers left in Holyhead. But Mr O’Toole said congestion and delays at other ports posed a further complication. “We to have the trailers back into Ireland so they could be turned around again to facilitate exports. Mushrooms are going to keep growing so the growers are going to say we need, say, five trailers for the UK market.”
Shane Mann of Limerick-based logistics company Tranzaura said some haulage operators were flying drivers into the UK to pick up cabs and collect trailers and move them to other ports. “There is a huge operation going on. If your parcel does get to you for Christmas it is due to these people working day and night.”
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