Toms visit to London Gateway

Our apprentice Tom recently got the chance to spend the day at London Gateway as part of BIFA’s Young Forwarder’s Network.

He got to visit where the reefer containers are stored on quay (2.5 thousand reefer plugs as well as another 500 portable ones) and the rail terminal and where birth 4 is currently being built.

On asking Tom what he enjoyed the most he said..‍

“The most interesting part of the day was seeing what actually happens when containers go on various customs holds (port health, border force etc.) but it also showed me the true scale of a fully operational port as well as how LGP use automation in many areas, such as the truck handling process and stacking yard”
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BIFA’s Young Forwarder’s Network helps young forwarders and people new to the industry by providing opportunities and events for free. At London Gateway they also listened to a talk from Marc Tobin who is head of Operations Planning, he discussed how many opportunities there are within the industry and discussed the challenges they face at the port due to the vessel congestion in Europe at the moment

The photos show some of the areas Tom got to see including the x-ray scanning bay, gauge and flat rack storage area and where containers are checked by border force, defra and port health. The tour also included the outsides of the warehouses on site and the DHL warehouse - which when finished will be for Mars products (chocolate and pet food) as well as The Chill Hub warehouse which is owned by CMA and holds frozen foods. One of Toms highlights was seeing the largest UPS warehouse in Europe and the port health London office.

It is great that Tom had the opportunity to visit here and he is very much a valued member of our team here at KTL Europe.

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