AFL's first voyage departed from Halifax, Nova Scotia with 110 TEU onboard. The cargo was a mixture of both full and empty containers destined for calls in Portland, Maine and Boston, Massachusetts. The feeder service is built around ocean carriers placing freight from their customers onboard the feeder ship which links the New England calls to long haul global services.
According to a spokesman for AFL, 'The voyage is a crucial part of the near future plan positioning carriers equipment into key areas gearing for the tremendous push by the New England exporter community to support the service. This will allow AFL and the deep sea carriers to offer immediate exports from both Portland and Boston while the inbound laden containers from Asia and Europe are enroute.'
The inaugural voyage 'shows incredible support by the carriers willing to push equipment into the desired locations,' a spokesman for AFL added.' Inbound freight from the continents of Asia and Europe will filter through in the next couple of weeks, the positioning will allow services to be offered and create a wonderful balance of cargo flows while waiting for those arrivals.
Also on board will be AFL's first true short sea shipping cargo, freight moving between Canada and New England, this cargo is proof in itself for the need for water borne transportation on the short sea.
With chassis equipment pool also created in the port of Portland Maine the infrastructure is complete to offer seamless delivery for cargo to and from the International Marine terminal. The Chassis fleet consists of 20' Tri-Axle and Tank Chassis, 40' Gooseneck, 40' Tri's and a small pool of 8 pin multi purpose chassis allowing AFL to Handle General, Heavy Weight and out of Gauge containers. AFL service will support all container types and not limited to 20'and 40's dry's, High Cubes, 45's, refrigerated, Tanks and OOG cargo in open tops and flat racks.
Due to the additional weight considerations for all AFL's all water service we have had a large amount of enquiries directly or through the carriers for refrigerated cargo. The AFL New England supports 100 reefer plugs. The Ports of Halifax, Portland and Boston have reefer plugging and monitoring services which complement the service and due to the ability for the extra weight we have seen the market pushing hard to get on board.
