Latest News

14 January 2011

Hamburg Sud and CCNI Launch New Europe/West Coast Central and North America Service at TCS

14 December 2010

Delmas announces Transfer Of Nigeria Express Service To TCS

11 October 2010

New Cranes And Upgrades For TCS

3 March, 2008

Princes Channel Dredging

2nd February 2012

IMPORTANT NOTICE TO ALL HAULIERS.

A dangerous situation is currently being caused by vehicles parking on the sides of the main Dock Road whilst waiting for their VBS slot times at 39 berth.
This unauthorised parking is resulting in delays to other traffic using the road and in certain circumstances has meant that traffic has been unable to move freely. Access to other terminals is also being restricted at times.

Effective immediately, all hauliers must instruct their drivers not to park up along the Dock Road at any time and only approach the terminal when their VBS slot is due. Any vehicle that ignores this instruction can expect to be approached by the Port Police and removed from the Dock area until such time as he can enter the terminal without having to wait.

Your assistance in ensuring that this problem is alleviated immediately will be appreciated.

 

FORTH PORTS LIMITED

1 PRINCE OF WALES DOCK, LEITH, EDINBURGH.  EH6 7DX

Telephone 0131 555 8700     Facsimile 0131 555 4464 
 
 
 
 

FORTH PORTS ACQUIRES FULL OWNERSHIP OF TILBURY CONTAINER TERMINAL 

Forth Ports Limited (“Forth Ports”), announces today (25^th January 2012), that Otter Ports Holdings Ltd, owner of Forth Ports, has acquired from DP World Limited (“DP World”) and Associated British Ports Ltd (“AB Ports”) the 67% ownership of Tilbury Container Services Ltd (“TCS”) not already owned by Forth Ports in a cash transaction.   

Forth Ports has been a one third shareholder in TCS since 1998 along with partners DP World and AB Ports. TCS is located on the River Thames within the Port of Tilbury, which is wholly owned by Forth Ports and is a key shipping and distribution location with unrivalled access to London and the South East of England.  

TCS handled c.314,000 containers in 2011, up 2.4% from 2010 volumes.  It has secured a significant trading position with the North / South reefer trades, primarily South America and South Africa and has strong links with a number of other deep sea trades.  The Port of Tilbury also runs a short sea business which handled c.126,000 containers in 2011, up 7.6% from 2010 volumes.  The short sea business provides regular links to Continental Europe and to other UK coastal feeder locations.   

Commenting on the acquisition, Charles Hammond, Chief Executive of Forth Ports, said:  

“This is an important acquisition and a major step forward in our plans to grow and develop our ports business.  We believe that stronger links between our container and distribution customers will provide benefits in the supply chain for them and further underpins our portcentric strategy.   

“With 100% ownership of TCS we plan to combine our existing Short Sea container terminal with TCS to create a new container business branded ‘London Container Terminal’.  The combined terminal will handle close to half a million containers and makes us the third largest single container operation in the UK and one of the few UK ports servicing both deep sea and short sea customers.   

“This acquisition further underlines Tilbury’s role as a distribution and transhipment hub for London.” 
 
 

Registered Office:  1 Prince of Wales Dock, Edinburgh.  EH6 7DX

Registered in Scotland No. 134741

For media information please contact: 

Forth Ports Limited:

Callum Spreng – 07803 970103 / Debbie Johnston – 07532 183811

Office - 0141 229 0482 

Notes to Editors: 

Forth Ports and The Port of Tilbury (www.forthports.co.uk) 

The Port of Tilbury is a significant part of the Forth Ports Group and also London’s major port providing fast, modern distribution services for the benefit of the South East of England. 

Tilbury’s strategic position on the Thames provides a major geographical advantage for transport to and out of London and the South-East making its location the natural point for distribution. Serving the UK’s market for forest products, general cargo, vehicles, grain and other bulks, the port offers customers excellent transport links to and from the capital and across the South East. 

The Port is a significant distribution centre, covering over 850 acres and is well positioned to access the M25 orbital motorway and the rest of the UK's national motorway network. In addition, there are direct rail connections within the Port, with access to the whole of the UK. 

The Port offers:

• 34 operational Berths

• Over 16 independent working terminals

• Over 7.5 kilometres of quay

• Over 500,000 square metres of warehouse space

• Over 7 kms of road within port estate with excellent transport access

• London’s only Cruise Ship Terminal. 

The Port is now recognised as Britain’s Greenest Port and has recently been nominated for a number of awards for the outstanding environmental initiatives which have been delivered over the past few years. 

Forth Ports operates seven further ports - Dundee on the River Tay and six ports on the Firth of Forth - Leith, Grangemouth, Kirkcaldy, Methil, Burntisland and Rosyth. The Group also has significant property interests as well as a renewable energy division which is looking to gain planning approval for onshore wind installations and biomass facilities at four of its ports in Scotland.  
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

17th January 2012

Please be advised of road works/improvements on the port perimeter road between the Port of Tilbury main gate and the TCS entrance.

·         Adjacent to Freightliner     
Commencing Monday 16th January pavement renewal works are programmed for the length of Perimeter Road adjacent to the Freight Liner Terminal / 46D/E Shed.  This will involve the full depth reconstruction of the carriageway in 2 phases.  Traffic will be managed via single line working and controlled by temporary traffic signals.  Works at this site are programmed to take approximately 3 weeks.  Access to 46 Berth and the Fuel site will not be affected.  Access for Babcock Rail will be via a temporary crossover adjacent to the Fuel Station entrance.

·         Main Gate              
Towards end of next week or early week commencing 23rd January works to the main gate will commence.  This initially involves the renewal of the pavement to the lorry exit lane.  Exiting lorries will be diverted to lane 2, cars will exit as normal.  Access to the Police station will be closed for a ½ day period until a temporary access can be formed.  This work will be followed up 2 weeks later with night-time asphalt resurfacing works to the whole of the Main Gate area.

·         Adjacent to Mill Sites                    
Between the Grain Terminal lorry exit and ex Rank Hovis site the full depth of the pavement will be reconstructed and is programmed to commence in approximately 3 weeks time.  Traffic will be managed via traffic signals.  The Grain Terminal car park access will be closed and cars will be diverted to the Grain Terminal lorry exit.  No other used accesses will be affected.

 

4th August 2011

Please be advised that the A1089 (dock approach road) is currently closed in both directions from the A13 to the Dock Roundabout. There is access to the A1089 approaching the dock from the A126 (marsh foot), however this is heavily congested to a standstill due to traffic attempting to get to the port via the Orsett Cock junction and heading through Chadwell st Mary. There is also heavy congestion through Tilbury with vehicles leaving the port.

VBS

We will endeavour to extend VBS bookings but cannot promise to extend all. We are monitoring the VBS situation hourly. Please consider returning your booking to the exchange if you think your vehicles will not make their slot, this way a local haulier or a haulier that has already made it through can pick up these booking which will release later bookings for you to make.

The VBS help desk is being inundated, understandably, with phone calls so we ask for patience at this time.

Wednesday 16th February

Please note that the Port of Tilbury are carrying out road works within 50 metres of the TCS entrance. 
These road works are traffic light controlled and are part of the ports road upgrade plan.  The road works will be in place until at least Tuesday 22nd February 2011.

Friday 31st December

Due to New Years Bank Holiday on Monday 3rd January and increased requirement for VBS bookings at the start of the week, we have increased VBS availability by five booking per-hour on Tuesday 4th January.

Could I remind all members of VBS to only book slots that are to be used, all wasted bookings will be investigated and could lead to individuals allocation being reduced.

Landside operations open from 14:00 on Sunday 2nd January and will remain open during Bank-Holiday Monday.

 

Tuesday 21st December 2010

TCS Landside Operation

Please be aware that TCS will be adding 5 bookings per hour in to the VBS system from 14:00 to 17:00 today.

TCS Landside Operation

Please be aware that TCS will be adding 5 bookings per hour in to the VBS system from 14:00 to 17:00 today.

Landside update

We are pleased to announce that the 90 minute back log, cause by acomplete shutdown of the internal network system here at TCS which affected all IT systems including VBS, was cleared up by 11:00 this morning.

We will be reverting system back to the normal 1 hour window from 12:00 today.

We will be looking at the landside operation to see if we can add extra bookings to the system.  We will only add bookings as and when we feel it will not be detrimental to hauliers that have already booked into the system.

TCS Landside Update

This morning we have experienced a complete shutdown of the internal network system here at TCS which affected all IT systems including VBS.  This failure has caused a backlog of vehicles waiting to enter the terminal.

To help the situation we have extended booking slots by 120 minutes and will continue to maintain this extension for as long as necessary to get the terminal back to an even footing.  We are also rebooking all appointments that have expired during the 90 minute system failure.

We are allocating extra resource to ensure that we recover the situation in the next few hours.

While today’s problems and the weather has impacted the landside operation, we are pleased to say that we have remained open throughout this recent period.

Your patience is greatly appreciated.

 

Sunday 19th December 2010

TCS Landside Operations Update

Landside will remain open, but due to weather conditions TCS will not be adding bookings at this time, as and when conditions improve we will review and update this announcement.

 

Friday 3rd December 2010 - 17:30

TCS Landside Operations Update

Further to the earlier announcement, we can confirm that the TCS landside is open and operational.

The landside operations will be open throughout the weekend and we can advise that at the present time VBS bookings remain available as from 1400hrs Saturday. We wish to remind all terminal users that no containers may be delivered in or collected without a VBS booking.

We will continue to monitor the operation in light of the prevailing weather conditions and any changes will be communicated as and when necessary.

 

Friday 3rd December 2010 - 13:30

Landside Re-opening at TCS

TCS is pleased to advise that the extreme weather conditions are subsiding and that snow clearing and gritting on the terminal has gone exceptionally well this morning. We are able to confirm that the terminal’s landside operation will re-open as from 1500hrs today (3rd December).

VBS bookings which are in the system for today, from 1500hrs until midnight tonight, will be honoured. However, we regret that we are unable to offer any additional bookings at the present time, until we have assessed the actual working conditions. All vehicles with bookings from 1500hrs should arrive within their one hour window, without exception, and no bookings will be brought forward or extended at this time. TCS is unable to guarantee one hour turn round times, at present.

Weather permitting, the landside operation will be available this weekend, on a continuous 24 hour basis. VBS bookings will initially be set at 10 per hour and managed up accordingly. These bookings are still presently available for Saturday onwards.

Please be warned that we are still experiencing icy conditions within TCS, as well as on the roads in and around the port and that extreme care should be taken. Vehicles without bookings should not enter the port and any vehicles parking up without bookings will be asked to leave, as their presence may compound the icy conditions on the terminal’s approach road.

We will continue to monitor the operation in light of the prevailing weather conditions and any changes to the above will be communicated as and when necessary.

 

Friday 3rd December 2010

Weather Disruption to TCS Landside

TCS wishes to advise that the extreme weather conditions continue and that the terminal’s landside remains closed at the present time.

However, we have conducted a further review of the state of the terminal yard and we can advise that our current intention is to re-open the landside at 17:00 hours on Friday 3rd December.

In this event, VBS bookings which are in the system for today, from 17:00 hours, will be honoured, but we regret that we are unable to offer any additional bookings at the present time until we have assessed the actual working conditions. We are also considering full weekend opening.

A further statement will be given at 14:00 hours today to confirm this or otherwise.

 

Thursday 2nd December 2010 - 16:00

Weather Disruption to TCS Landside

TCS wishes to advise that the extreme weather conditions continue and that the terminal’s landside remains closed at the present time.

Having conducted a further review of the state of the terminal yard, we can advise that the revised earliest anticipated landside opening time is presently 14:00hrs on Friday 3rd December.

Whilst we continue to monitor conditions closely, the next review will take place at 09:00hrs tomorrow morning, subsequent to which an update will be issued.

TCS sincerely regrets the ongoing inconvenience caused to terminal users.

 

Thursday 2nd December 2010

Weather Disruption to TCS Landside

Conditions at the Terminal remain treacherous and unfortunately we will not be able to open for Landside until the situation improves.

We will review the situation at 15:00 hours.

We are grateful for your patience.

 

Wednesday 1st December 2010 - 17:30

Weather Disruption to TCS Landside

TCS wishes to advise that as a result of the ongoing adverse weather conditions, the terminal’s landside remains closed at the present time.

Work continues and additional equipment is being delivered to the terminal this evening, in order to ensure that the terminal can once again resume business in a safe manner. However, the earliest anticipated landside opening time is presently 10:00hrs on Thursday 2nd December.

A further update will be issued at 09:00hrs tomorrow morning.

TCS sincerely regrets the ongoing inconvenience caused to terminal users, but we hope that all parties will understand that we are working on all possible solutions in order to resume service.

 

Wednesday 1st December 2010

Weather conditions at TCS are still unworkable.

The situation is under constant review and the terminal will re-open as soon as it is safe to do so.

VBS ‘No Show’ fees will not be charged for today.

We thank you for your understanding and will keep you informed of any changes.

 

Tuesday 30th November 2010

Weather conditions at TCS are deteriorating with blizzard like conditions and landside has now stopped.

The situation is under constant review and the Terminal will re-open as soon as it is safe to do so.

We are attempting to strike export only deliveries for trucks already on site.

VBS ‘No Show’ fees will not be charged for today.

We thank you for your understanding and will keep you informed of any changes.

 

Tuesday 23rd November 2010

TCS security policy

Saturday 3rd July 2010

There will be no VBS service from 14:00hrs, due to essential maintenance to the power supply.

Friday 25th June 2010

After a request from some hauliers (Sunday VBS Users), whose drivers would like to watch England v Germany, we are going to add bookings into hours 12:00 and 13:00 on Sunday 27th June.  I should point out that the terminal will be open as per regular Sunday hours and that this is a one off arrangement to accommodate the requests from these hauliers.

 

Friday 5th March

The move of QC3 from the riverside quay to the inside quay has been successfully completed. TCS would like to thank all of our customers for their patience and assistance during the move yesterday.

Monday 1st March

TCS are pleased to inform everyone that all preparations for the planned crane move were successfully completed on Friday 26th February so the crane move will take place, as planned, on Thursday 4th March from 09:00hrs.

Thursday 25th February

We are pleased to announce that TCS will take delivery of two new Super post panamax cranes this summer, which will be placed on the North end of riverside quay. In preparation we have now completed the refurbishment of QC4 and will shortly be starting the refurbishment of QC3. Due to some operational disruption caused to vessel operations during QC4 refurbishment, we have decided to move QC3 to the inside berth during the 3 months this crane will be out of service.

The intended move will take about two hours from start to finish and vessel operations will not be affected.

We have tried to minimise any disruption to terminal operations by adding extra VBS bookings before and after the move. Also, extra labour will be utilised to increase productivity on both quayside and landside.

All preparations will have been completed by Friday 26th February and the crane move will take place on Thursday 4th March from 09:00hrs.

 

Tuesday 16th February

After a recent incident at TCS can all hauliers remind their drivers of the following:

DRIVERS ARE NOT ALLOWED TO WALK AROUND THEIR VEHICLE AND TRAILER WHILST SITUATED ON THE GRID AREA.

There are signs up all over the terminal explaining this but we still have some drivers that insist on walking around their vehicles.

We are now keeping a log of all incidents and persistent offenders will be banned from the terminal.  This is a health and safety issue and we take it very seriously.

 

Friday 29th January

To all registered VBS users.

Due to expected increases in volumes and recent conversations with many of our regular haulers, where we have identified two areas of concern, TCS have listed below two ideas for trial.  We believe that the trials suggested should meet the demand in the possible increase in volumes and the two areas of concern.

Concern 1:     There are never enough bookings available

TCS will be upping the hourly booking availability from 30 regulars and 10 empties to 40 regular and 10 empty bookings.  These will be available from 06:00 to 17:00 every day, 18:00 to 06:00 will remain the same.  This is on a trial basis and will be reviewed on February 25th 2010.

Concern 2:     Bookings are only added one week in advance.

On Thursday 4th February we will be adding the booking template in to the system from the rest of February (three weeks).  This again will be on a trial basis until the end of February when it will be reviewed. 

TCS are making these changes to assist all hauliers and accommodate any upturn in volumes.  Please make your bookings wisely during this month once the template has been added..  Due to TCS adding more bookings per day and adding them for the rest of the month, we will be less sympathetic to no show cancellation requests.  If you take a booking please use it.

Whilst it is impossible to correct hauliers individual issues, TCS hope all hauliers see this as a positive move, on their behalf, to correct two common issues and request that hauliers work with us during this trial period.

 

Tuesday 26th January

Safety Rules for Road Vehicle Drivers at Tilbury Container Services

 

The following safety rules must be followed by all drivers when using the interchange grids at TCS. Failure to comply with these rules will result in your vehicle not being serviced.

1. All drivers must wear a hi-visibility jacket on entering the terminal.

2. No passengers(unless pre-advised for training purposes) are allowed past the entry barriers to the terminal.

3. All vehicles must reverse on to their nominated grid.

4. All drivers must put on their hazard warning lights on the grids.

5. Drivers must not walk around their vehicles whilst it is on the grid

  These rules are in force to keep drivers safe and prevent accidents from happening.
    They must be adhered to so please ensure that all drivers are made thoroughly aware of them and that failure to comply will result in vehicles not being serviced.

Thursday 3rd December

Cyclamen (radiation detection system)

HMC have advised TCS that they expected to go live with the cyclamen system by the middle of the month. When the system goes live lorries that trigger the radiation pods will be stopped at the barrier and lights approx 100 metres from our exit. They will then be pulled into the lay-by for further examination. During trials it has been noticed that vehicles have driven the wrong side of the island in order to avoid waiting for the lorry to be moved to the lay-by which is clearly an unsafe manoeuvre.

Once the system is live any person carrying out such a manoeuvre would be considered to have “escaped” the lock down procedure and the police will immediately be informed and asked to stop the vehicle concerned and return it to HMC for inspection. The police then can of course also take what ever action they consider necessary under the Road Traffic Act.

 

Thursday 12th November

Between the times of 08:00 and 08:30 we are performing some system maintenance.

During this period the terminal will continue to be operational.

Once the system maintenance is completed an update will be added.

The system maintenance has now been completed successfully.

Thursday 29th October

We are pleased to announce that the Operational Terminal System is now fully functional.

Thank you for your co-operation and we apologise for any inconvenience caused.

Thursday 29th October

We are currently experiencing problems with the Terminal operating system which is impacting on our landside operation.

Our IT department is working on a fix but we do not have a time scale, we will however be issuing updates on our website.

We apologise for any inconvenience caused to you or your customers.

Tuesday 15th September

Civil works at TCS Pre-sid issue area Tuesday 15th and Wednesday 16th September.

Both remote lanes will be closed.

All remote haulers use the normal VBS lanes

All Haulers please use extreme caution.

Tuesday 28th April

All Hauliers are reminded that all vehicles on the terminal working area must have their hazard warning lights on.

Non compliance may result in your vehicle not being serviced.

Tuesday 14th April

For information

TCS allocated 310 bookings over the bank holiday, of these a total of 69 we actually taken by hauliers as bookings.  55 of these were actually used the rest were no shows.

The break down is as follows

Friday 10th April

18:00 to midnight

240 bookings published, 44 taken, 38 of these used, 196 spare.

Monday 13th April

18:00 to midnight

90 bookings published, 25 taken, 17 of these used, 65 spare.

Thursday 9th April 2009

To All VBS Users,

Due to TCS now opening at 18:00 on Bank holiday Monday and there not being an actual template at this time,  we have added extra bookings in the 22:00 and 23:00 windows, these bookings should be used as normal but they will be allowed to be serviced from 18:00.

We are working on this new template and will complete it shortly

 

POT Police Notice

Please click on the link below to see a letter we have received from the dock police concerning early arrival for bookings.

Notice from the Port of Tilbury police

 

All remote haulers.

This is a reminder of your obligation as a remote haulier

1 You must keep a paper copy of issued SID's.

2 Paper record of all seal numbers.

3 Copy of all reported damage.

4 Drivers must check import seal and container number.

5 All records must be kept for a minimum of 5 years.

As you are aware TCS takes no responsibility for export containers put through as remote, it is your responsibility to ensure you are in full compliance with the above.

Within the next 4 weeks you will be visited by a team from TCS to ensure compliance with the above.

Any user not in compliance will be removed as a remote haulier.