PD Ports, which manages the Port of Teesport, has taken a notably different approach to the thorny problem of moving freight through the United Kingdom’s congested motorways to the North of England and Scotland. Bring the freight direct to the uncongested North.By George Lauriat, AJOTPD Ports, owned by Australian based-Babcock & Brown Infrastructure Limited (BBI), has a different approach to supply chain logistics in the United Kingdom. But to appreciate the strategy it’s essential to know a little geography and logistics history. England’s port development is heavily weighted to the south. The big load ports of Felixstowe, Thamesport and Southampton are all located in the south. However, many of the consumers of these goods from Asia live in the metropolitan centers in the north of England or in Scotland. Moving freight across England’s congested motorways to the North is time consuming, expensive and not very green explained, Martyn Pellew PD Ports group development director. “We [PD Ports] thought that by calling at a regional port in the North the supply chain could be chopped back by avoiding the motorway congestion,” Pellew told the AJOT. However, the major steamship lines were committed to the load port concept and the inland issues weren’t really a major concern for them. Pellew said that this led to a different strategy; “We brought our sales pitch to the major retailers, who were concerned about inland issues such as congestion and to CO2 emissions and to whom going green was very important.” The concept was tagged “portcentric logistics” and PD Ports promoted locating storage and distribution of freight close to the point of arrival in the UK. The idea was to avoid double handling, turn over empties faster and cut down UK road mileage, especially to cities in the Northern UK and Scotland. The mega-retailers like Wal-Mart and Tesco (UK’s largest retailer) liked the idea of moving their distribution centers (DCs) away from the congestion. And in 2006, in a very visible demonstration of the concept, ASDA Wal-Mart opened a 360,000 sq/ft center in Teesport. Adjacent to the Wal-Mart facility Tesco opened a 1.2 million sq/ft import center in 2009. It’s not really that new an idea, as over the past decade the Port of Savannah, Georgia promoted the concept of moving DCs close to the port to avoid congestion. But the concept is new to a place like England, from which every point is within seventy-five miles of being ocean is accessible. Nevertheless, there has to be sound reasons to bring both the retailers and steamship lines aboard with the concept. The retailer’s motives were based in sound economics as it is estimated that Wal-Mart saved 2 million truck miles and around $3 million and countless hours in traffic by the move. With the retailers onboard, in a short length of time the carriers saw the benefits of shifting services to Tessport. Very quickly, the Port of Teesport evolved into important regional port served by many of the major carriers via feeder services to European ports like Zeebrugge, Rotterdam and Le Havre. However, understanding how Teesport came to be a regional boxport and its potential for the future demands some understanding of the history of the region. The port’s traditional base evolved from the regional economy. The area had coal, limestone and iron ore for making steel. This steel was later used in the shipbuilding industry but by the 1970s the steel making industry was in decline, although scrap steel is still a commodity. However, with oil and gas discoveries in the North Sea a new industry arose. Later, a chemical complex was built in the port to take advantage of the proximity to the North Sea resources. During the 1990s, manufacturing in the UK, like manufacturing in other developed economies, migrated to low labor cost countries in Asia and Eastern Europe. Soon the increase in containerized consumer related imports began to outstrip the GDP. “Around 2002 we decided to climb onboard with containerization and invested $20 milli