Tag: ports|road transport|shipping

The Pride of Burgundy – P&O Ferries’ fifth ship on its Dover-Calais route – arrived yesterday (28th June) at the Port of Dover, returning to service with its first sailing in over a year.

With capacity to carry 120 lorries, the 28,000 tonne Pride of Burgundy will return in freight-only mode, making two return journeys each day. The addition of a fifth ship comes in response to growing demand from British and European customers and will expand options for those requiring rapid and reliable transportation of goods between pivotal markets.

Peter Hebblethwaite, Managing Director of P&O Ferries, said: “I am delighted to see the restoration of our Dover-Calais fleet to its pre-pandemic strength of five, with the resulting increase in departures and frequency enabling us to take back market leadership on the English Channel and further improve our customer service. Pride of Burgundy will reinforce our cost-effective freight service by increasing capacity and flexibility on the route – a vital artery of trade upon which thousands of businesses and consumers rely.

“With the support of our parent company, DP World, the world’s leading provider of smart logistics solutions, we are committed to bolstering our offering to customers and ensuring optimal efficiency in the flow of goods between the UK and Europe. With international trade at the heart of economic recovery, continual investment in our Dover-Calais route will encourage supply chain resilience by connecting people, businesses and nations.”

First announced in April, the Pride of Burgundy’s return follows P&O Ferries’ ground-breaking space sharing agreement on the Dover-Calais route, and the introduction of a second lift-on lift-off (LOLO) ship to double capacity between Zeebrugge–Hull.

P&O Ferries has introduced a second ship on its popular Zeebrugge-Hull route. The integrated ferry and logistics business has added MV Freya to its schedule on the North Sea Lo-Lo route in response to rapidly growing demand from British and European customers who need a fast and cost efficient way of transporting goods between the two markets.

The 117m container ship has the capacity to carry 650 TEUs. Together with sister ship Elisabeth, the addition of MV Freya will double capacity on the route and increase the number of sailings in each direction every week to six.

Thorsten Runge, Managing Director of P&O Freight Ferries Services, said: “We are delighted to introduce MV Freya onto our Zeebrugge-Hull route, which is already one of the most cost-effective ways to move goods between Europe and the north of Britain.

“We can guarantee that our customers will benefit from faster turnaround times, enabling them to exit the port as quickly as possible and continue their journeys on the excellent road links to the industrial hubs along the M62, M6 and M1 corridors.

“With the support of our parent company DP World, which is continuing to invest in its UK logistics infrastructure, we are committed to expanding our services to ensure the fast and efficient flow of goods between the UK and Europe.”

P&O is a leading pan-European ferry and logistics group at the heart of the Europe’s economy and a part of DP World, the leading provider of smart logistics solutions and enabler of the flow of trade across the globe. P&O Ferries is a major provider of freight transport and passenger travel services, sailing on eight major routes between Britain, France, Northern Ireland, the Republic of Ireland, Holland and Belgium. Working closely with P&O Ferries, its logistics business P&O Ferrymasters operates integrated road and rail links to countries across the continent including Italy, Poland, Germany, Spain and Romania, and facilitates the onward movement of goods to Europe from Asian countries via the Silk Road.