PORT ISSUES DOMINICA
We regret to advise, and until further notice, Geest Line will be calling Roseau Dominica monthly for delivery and discharge of cargoes. Geest Line will continue to call fortnightly for container repatriation (port congestion issues) but only one vessel per month will be used for import cargoes to Dominica.
This decision has been made due to service issues at the port. On Monday the 15th October Geest Line was instructed to vacate the berth by DASPA even though vessel had not completed operations/discharge. This has not only added huge expense to Geest Line but most importantly delayed our customer’s cargoes that will remain on board for over a month. The current situation is no longer acceptable but will be reviewed once the port congestion issues are resolved.
This Dominican Port change will take effect as per attached sailing schedule from voyage:
Vessel: Luzon Strait
Voyage: GL18046
Geest Line once again took part in the annual charity go-karting event organised by GDM Lindex, this year supporting Rainbows Children’s Hospice. A fiercely competitive field of 25 teams took part in the 100-minute endurance race, raising £2745 in the process for Rainbows.
The Geest Line team qualified on pole position but ended up down in sixth place after a tough opening lap. Battling hard through the field, the team eventually made it onto the podium with a well-deserved third place finish.
Geest Line’s Commercial General Manager, Jeremy Bristow, was recently interviewed by Lloyd’s Loading List for an article on container haulage.
“While one-off and external factors such as the disruption at Felixstowe, road network congestion, rail availability and high cargo volumes have aggravated the situation, the underlying cause is the chronically poor health of the trucking sector generally.”
You can read the full article on the Lloyd’s Loading List website.
You will be aware that there has been a considerable increase in fuel costs in recent weeks. Regrettably we can no longer absorb the increases and advise that the BAF rates will be as follows:
10′ Container: USD $169.00
20′ Container: USD $337.00
40′ Container: USD $674.00
Breakbulk cargo: USD $19.00 W/M
New and Used Cars: USD $136.00 per vehicle
The new charges will be in effect from mv Atlantic Klipper GL18025 sailing from Dover (UK) 17th June 2018.
We would like to take this opportunity to thank you for your continued support. Please do not hesitate to contact us if you have any questions or queries.
Good news! We are resuming our Caribbean shipping service into both Antigua and St. Kitts.
From the 1st of May we will accept cargo for these island calls. Please read the announcement here for full details.
A new sailing schedule will be issued very shortly with details of the revised service. We look forward to servicing these destinations once again.
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.