On reading through some of the pieces written for Fleet Transport and its one-time stablemate Freight Observer some thirty or so years ago where I was looking to track some of the projects in which the late and greatly respected Jerry Kiersey and myself had played a role, one theme kept jumping out at me. This was the time when road haulage in Ireland was undergoing a radical transformation, when a disparate group of haulage representative groups settled their differences through the development of a new Irish Road Haulage Association. Though Jerry’s and my paths had crossed before as he was building Blueflite into a five-star distribution carrier setting new standards for in the industry, the work with the Associations was our first big project together.

One outlier, if that’s the right description, in the discussions was the prevalence of own account haulage and distribution businesses and the ‘obvious’ need to professionalize the business by having road transport undertaken by licensed hauliers, while letting the manufacturers and wholesalers do what they do best. That is, focus on their core activities, and not on the complexities of transporting their products, leaving that to expert companies. Within a few years this logic, along with changes in licensing and other rules, meant that the size of the own account fleet fell away.

In more recent times a similar trend could be seen within the freight shipping business. The DFDS Group offloaded its very considerable haulage and land logistics into a separate company and that company became DSV Logistics. More recently Maersk Line focused its activities on being a Container Shipping Line with the setting up of a separate Container Terminal operation and a complete move away from its Netto retail business.

In the ten years or so up to the arrival of COVID-19, the whole global doorto-door supply chain activity appeared to work well. One of the effects of this was that those chains became longer and longer, as retailers sourced product and manufacturers used components from further and further away. The pandemic closed manufacturing plants and ports in Asia and elsewhere leading to huge order backlogs. As the loading ports re-opened, they quickly became totally congested, while an armada of ships from Asia ran nose to tail through the Suez Canal and to US Pacific Ports. Orders that should have taken 12 weeks to deliver were now taking two or three times that long, while the cost of

shipment multiplied up to five times and more.

This all meant two things, the companies that had ordered the goods became increasingly frustrated as did their customers, while the shipping and cargo airlines made huge profits. To seek to resolve these issues, Freight Forwarders including DSV and DHL chartered their own vessels that could use smaller un-congested ports. These Forwarders would have developed their own fleets of containers while also leasing further equipment. The big move, however, was the establishment of Tailwind Shipping Lines by Lidl. At the time of writing the German supermarket chain is operating three 8,000 TEU vessels and has purchased a further similar vessel. While the prime objective is to serve the needs of the 11,200 Lidl Stores in Europe and North America, Tailwind Shipping is also offering capacity on the freight market. The Chinese furniture manufacturer, Loctek Ergonomic has, perhaps, moved one step further with its order for an 1,800 TEU vessel to operate on their own account following its launch early next year.

The huge profits accumulated by the major Ocean Carriers have enabled them to move from being Port to Port shipping operations to becoming Global Freight Companies and more. Both Maersk and CMA CGM have established their own cargo airlines, while CMA CGM has bought interest in both Brittany Ferries and Air France/KLM. Rival MSC is rapidly becoming a dominant force in the Mediterranean Ferry business and is partner in ITA, the successor airline to Alitalia.

The logic of supply chains made up of a series of independent specialist concerns appears to be breaking up.