The Port of Felixstowe, the Port of Britain has walked away with the coveted Rail Freight Group 2015 Customer Care Award for its continued and sustained improvement in customer service.
This Award recognises the port’s commitment to delivering for its customers’ real needs by consistently making every effort to ensure continuity of service and minimum disruption to supply chains.
Commenting on the award, Clemence Cheng, Chief Executive Officer of the Port of Felixstowe and Managing Director of HPH Europe division, said:
“We are delighted to have been honoured with the prestigious Customer Care Award by the Rail Freight Group. We are constantly striving to improve the level of service we offer to all our customers and this award is a testament to the hard work of the dedicated employees in our rail team, working closely with our customers and Network Rail.”
In 2014 the prolonged Ipswich Yard track lengthening works caused an extended and unexpected period of disruption, posing many challenges for cargo owners, the port and freight operators. The award recognised the port’s response to the overrunning works and the interruptions it caused to the fixed scheduling of trains on the network. By providing flexible and additional resources, which included enabling locomotives to refuel on port and responding to the daily changing demand of its customers the port managed to avert severe disruption to freight on the network. The amount of freight volume moved through the network did not suffer materially.
Rail volumes currently represent approximately 27% of the port’s domestic throughput and continue to grow. There are 62 services to and from the port each weekday, operated by DB Schenker, Freightliner Ltd and GB Railfreight. Direct connections are provided to Glasgow, Manchester, Liverpool, Leeds, Teesport, Birmingham, Doncaster, Tilbury, Selby, Hams Hall, Daventry, Wakefield, Ditton (Widnes), Burton, Scunthorpe, Birch Coppice and Bristol.