Record transit times were reported for the UK’s leading independent freight forwarder, Davies Turner’s Express China Rail. The record numbers come shortly after the company completed the upgrade to its fixed-day, weekly rail import service for LCL cargoes.

“The record transit time achieved by our overland rail service, when ocean freight shipments were being delayed by inclement weather, showed another advantage of rail over ocean freight,” commented Philip Stephenson, chairman of Davies Turner.

The container paths coming to Davies Turner’s begins with Wuhan rail, going through Duisburg to be trucked to the Port of Rotterdam and ferried to Purfleet for its final destination at Davies Turner’s distribution centre, for discharging, customs clearance and delivery.

“While Storm Gareth caused havoc recently, causing the closure of ports and delays to ocean freight shipments, our Express China Rail service has been suffering no such problems, arriving several days ahead of schedule,” said Tony Cole, head of supply chain services at Davies Turner. “Last week, our consol box arrived and was unpacked after just 19 days, which was a record time. The scheduled transit time from the Wuhan rail hub to our Dartford depot is 22 to 24 days.”

“Since we launched the dedicated weekly consol service from Wuhan in November 2018 we have seen it go from strength to strength. Bookings have increased by 195 percent.”