Davies Turner, the UK’s leading independent freight forwarding company, says that three months after it introduced a fixed-day, weekly rail service for LCL cargoes to the UK from the Chinese rail terminals of Wuhan and Hefei, it is pleased with the response from the marketplace.
The service is offered in conjunction with Davies Turner’s long-standing partner in China – Air Sea Transport Inc – which arranges collection of shipments from any location in mainland China to the rail terminals of either Hefei or Wuhan, where closing dates are approximately two days prior to the departure of the intercontinental rail service.
That rail service heads west across China, Kazakhstan, Belarus and into Warsaw in Poland.
Cargo is then trucked to the UK under bond using the daily service that Davies Turner operates with its long-standing Polish partner Raben, for subsequent customs clearance upon arrival and delivery to door.
The transit time from Hefei to the UK is 23 days and from Wuhan, 21 days.
Philip Stephenson, chairman of Davies Turner says: “We had been investigating the practicalities of a rail freight service from China to the UK and Ireland for some time and conducted a number of trials in 2016, before officially launching the service in January this year. We also offer a 25 day service to Ireland in conjunction with our own office in Dublin.
“We knew there were operational difficulties to overcome such as the transitions from standard to broad gauge track and back again but we are confident that this has been achieved by our partners and the rail companies concerned.
“The big selling point is that the cost is around 70% less than shipping the cargo by air and 16 days quicker than getting it to destination by sea.
“I would invite all interested parties to contact us for competitive quotations and to join the growing number of shippers already using Davies Turner’s China Express Rail Service.”
