It is with regret that Geest Line announces the suspension of the calls into Le Havre and Martinique as a result of current market conditions. The extra pressure on the service arising from extending the Geest Line service to Colombia has meant that we are unable to serve the French market in a reliable manner at this time. Geest Line will make its last calls as follows:
Departing Le Havre – 25th April 2018
In Martinique – 4th May 2018
We appreciate the efforts made by our agents in France and Martinique and the loyalty shown by our customers to support this service. We hope to be able to resume an efficient service to this market in due course.
Geest Line will shortly take delivery of additional new 20ft reefer containers, increasing our fleet of the specialised high demand equipment. The new equipment incorporates the latest technological efficiencies with regards to energy savings while maintaining accurate temperature control of sensitive cargo.
Geest Line is relocating its south of England cargo handling to Dover following fleet expansion.
The company’s move from Portsmouth has been prompted by the need to accommodate revised scheduling times involving the weekend discharge of cargoes.
It comes as Geest replaces its fleet of four charter vessels with five larger and newer ships, increasing capacity by over 40%.
From this month, two port calls in Colombia have been added for fruit loading while a new stop at Flushing in The Netherlands will help with northern European freight and imports and exports.
Captain Peter Dixon, Managing Director of Geest Line, which is headquartered in Fareham, south Hampshire, said: “Our new logistics require a switch of days for handling eastbound arrivals in England from Sunday to Friday.
“This would have been the first scheduling change impacting Portsmouth in our 16 years at the port.
“The port operator has however advised that their teams are regrettably unable to handle our revised schedule so we have had no choice but to, reluctantly, relocate.
“We would like to thank all the stevedores, other port operatives, hauliers and supply chain contacts for their hard work over the years we have been at Portsmouth.
“At the same time, we look forward to working through Dover, which has an exciting port development due to open in spring 2019 that should make it an ideal partner for the Geest Line operations as well as being able to handle our requirements immediately.
“We did investigate the port of Southampton which was our base before Portsmouth but it does not have sufficient cargo-handling space for our particular needs.”
Geest Line’s 32 staff in Fareham are unaffected by the change of port, Captain Dixon stressed.
The company has been an exclusively Europe-to-Caribbean freight operator for more than 65 years, with weekly westbound sailings from the south of England and Le Havre in France.
Its fleet handles all kinds of general cargo from tiny perishables to large project machinery, both container and breakbulk, returning from the Caribbean with fruit, mainly bananas, for the UK and European markets.
In the aftermath of Hurricane Maria, Geest Line – renowned inter-island carrier for the Caribbean, assisted in the transhipment of medical supplies from Grenada. The donation, initiated by a few physicians at the General Hospital and aided through AMSA (St. George’s University), included nebulizers and salbutamol capsules.
Grenada, a first responder to Dominica after the hurricane, continued their donation pledge to the island after it was ravaged by Maria on September 18th, 2017 months after. Geest Line, through local Agents in Grenada – Jonas Browne & Hubbard Ltd. and Dominica – H.H.V. Whitchurch & Co. Ltd., were able to include the medical supply donation on a shipment to ensure its safe arrival and awaited delivery in Dominica to the Princess Margaret Hospital.
Geest Line are please to announce that all cargo is now being accepted for calls to Dominica. We would like to thank customers for being patient with us whilst the port at Roseau recovered from the recent devestation of Hurricane Maria.
We are pleased to announce the recommencement of our service for FCL cargoes to Dominica. We will accept all dry van containers for the vessel sailing 19th December: Baltic Klipper, voyage number: GL17051, that arrives in Roseau 28/12/17.
We will accept LCL chilled & frozen on the understanding that reefer containers will be stripped at time of discharge. Please note that there are currently still no working reefer plugs at port of Roseau.
Unfortunately at this time we are unable to book any FCL reefer containers on the service.
The all new 2018 Geest Line Sailing Schedule is hot off the press and ready to download now.
* Click here – Geest Line 2018 Sailing Schedule *
The current Geest Line charters of the four Stream Class vessels come to an end in December this year after many years’ reliable service in the company. The vessels have each completed up to 130 round trip voyages between Europe and the Caribbean, and we would like to take this opportunity to thank all the staff on board these vessels for their excellent service during the past ten years.
We are pleased to announce a new Geest Liner Service from 2018. Geest Line have chartered five larger and newer vessels continuing giving a greater capacity both for containers and break bulk.
The vessels are:-
LOMBOK STRAIT
LUZON STRAIT
ATLANTIC KLIPPER
BALTIC KLIPPER
ROYAL KLIPPER (or sister COMOROS STREAM)
The vessels can be viewed at:- https://www.seatrade.com/fleet/
The fifth ship will enable Geest to add the European port of Flushing in the Netherlands and for the first time two port calls in Colombia being Santa Marta and Turbo (principally for fruit loading) extending the rotations from 28 days to 35.
The new service will now sail every Sunday from Portsmouth and Tuesday from Flushing with no change for Le Havre (Wednesday). The destination calls will be Martinique, Barbados, Grenada (Fortnightly), St Vincent, St Lucia, Dominica (Fortnightly), Colombia and Dominican Republic.
To enable Geest to operate this new service it is with regret we will be suspending direct vessel calls to Antigua, St Kitts, Guadeloupe and Trinidad. We are currently studying transhipment options and will advise in due course.
This is an important step for Geest Line to help minimise the impact of extreme weather events that has affected all and is a major step forwards for the company to ensure its future and to continue to provide our customers a direct service to the Eastern Caribbean.
Peter Dixon
Managing Director
GEEST LINE LTD
9th November 2017
Geest Line gladly assisted one of their parent companies – Winfresh in co-ordinating and shipping much needed relief items to the Caribbean island of Dominica. The island is still coming to terms with the havoc caused by Hurricane Maria and supplies are running short.
So far the two companies have stored and loaded 14 x 40ft containers for shipment to Roseau with donations from individuals and organisations throughout the UK.
Geest Line have been shipping containers of aid and relief cargoes to Dominica free of charge since the devastating Hurricane Maria. Please click here to see more about the relief effort in the BBC London news report.