Landbridging

I’m not particularly interested in the engineer who designed the drainage system, but I’d love to have a discussion with the person who built the fence!

This morning there was a EuroNews article on TV regarding one of the adverse impacts (for the UK) of BREXIT.  The article claimed the UK would be seriously adversely affected because increased border checks and consequent delays between the EU and UK would mean freight from the Republic of Ireland would go directly by sea rather than landbridging across the UK.  I started to think about the logic of this article.

There are two ports with ferry services linking the Republic of Ireland (IRE) with the Wales, Fishguard and Holyhead.  Both are either owned or managed by Stena Ferries, a Swedish owned company.  Irish Ferries competes to the same ports.

The Irish Maritime Development Office (IMDO) has calculated in 2018 150,000 lorries use this landbridge route annually.  That’s approximately 412 lorries daily.

In order of speed, the faster mode for transporting freight is air, followed by road, then rail and finally sea.  In order of energy efficiency it’s the reverse.  Therefore if you have bulking or heavy ‘just in time’ freight sending it directly via sea-land-sea is the most effective option.  However if there are going to be major delays at west and east coast UK ports then ‘just in time’ freight is going to be affected.

Stena has already announced it’s looking to establish a service directly from IRE to France avoiding the UK.  If the UK doesn’t want to lose this landbridging freight to the more direct sea route it will have to ensure there are minimal delays to IRE originating lorries at its ports.

If landbridging from IRE-to the EU via the UK ceases what would be the adverse economic impacts upon the UK?  Obviously there would be a financial lose to the companies who own and operate the ports, but they appear to be foreign.  There would also potentially be a reduction in employment of UK citizens crewing ferries, alone with harbour employees.  However it would also mean 150,000 fewer lorries on UK roads annually.  This should reduce the maintenance costs along with a reduced future need to improve major transport routes.  Where does the UK make money from this landbridging traffic?

How significant is the landbridging from IRE as part of the overall roll-on roll-off freight from the UK to the EU.

Using statistics for the same year (2018) I researched and found the total volume of road goods vehicles that travelled from the UK to the EU in 2018 was 800,000 quarterly or approximately 3,200,000 annually.  Therefore the landbridging from IRE is slightly less than 5% of the total number of lorries travelling from the UK to the EU.  If there are going to be delays to road freight at UK ports I can’t see the UK authorities giving preferential or priority treatment to freight originating in IRE.  They are likely to be more focussed on ensuring UK originated freight isn’t delayed.

If I were the manager of an IRE transport company I would be hedging my bets and looking at moving some of my business to a direct sea ferry link to France.

Meanwhile it’s another hot day here in Perth which is why I’m at the computer writing this post rather than outside mowing the lawns.  No doubt the house mermaid will appear in the pool mid afternoon.  I have spoken to her and she told me the water was lovely and warm.   I’m tempted!