Southampton Container Terminal improvements boost truck turnaround times

Southampton Container Terminal (SCT) says a host of improvements at the port has helped reduce turnaround times for truckers by 20% to 30 minutes.

Its vehicle booking system (VBS) has been overhauled and the port says further improvements are on the cards, including increased user friendliness and an option for hauliers to upload lists of container numbers into the system.

The changes come just months after the official opening of the upgraded rail network between Southampton and Nuneaton, allowing high cube containers to be transported using standard wagons.

Network Rail estimates that 50,000 lorry journeys will be transferred from road to rail each year as a result.

An SCT spokeswoman says turnaround times for HGVs in 2010 was 37.5 minutes on average but that this has now fallen to half an hour:

“Going forward we plan to further improve the user friendliness of VBS to help haulage traffic offices with the planning and execution of bookings,” she says. “We have spoken to the haulage industry and as a result of direct feedback from them we will be adding more functionality to the system at the end of the year.”