Global pallet and container pooling company Chep has announced that it has inked a deal with Stobart Rail to use the new train service running between Valencia in Spain and the Ford Dagenham railhead in the UK.
The return journey to Valencia will see the train's 30 containers filled with nearly 12,000 Chep pallets, which would previously have been transported using around 30 trucks, keeping the group's equipment pool balanced in Europe.
'This is a ground-breaking development in the transport of produce and pallets around Europe,' said Eamonn Casey, Chep's logistics director for the UK and Ireland. 'It is also a further endorsement of the commitment of both companies to environmental sustainability. Even at the current weekly frequency, the service will mean annual savings of 5.92m kilometres of road journeys and a reduction in CO2 emissions of over 5,500 tonnes.'
The train is the first fully refrigerated service to go through the Eurotunnel, with each container monitored by Stobart all the way from the packhouse to the consumer.
'We believe this service represents a real breakthrough,' said Andrew Tinkler, CEO of Stobart Group. 'We have started with one train per week but we believe that when our customers see the benefits we will soon be able to develop this into a daily service, so increasing the efficiencies and environmental benefits by a factor of five.'
