Today, the Eurotunnel celebrates 30 years of operation. One of the largest commercial users of the tunnel, Europa Road, is celebrating 2600 journeys through the tunnel each month—averaging 30,000 annually.
A Tunnel to Change the World
The Eurotunnel remains one of the pivotal transport innovations of the last few centuries. It is the longest undersea tunnel in the world, spanning 50km and running 24/7 365. The main team behind this, LeShuttle Freight, offers incredible flexibility for users like Europa Road, who transport a wealth of time-critical freight, as well as full and part-load consignments, from a hub in Dartford.
Better For All
A truck crossing the Channel using LeShuttle Freight is shown to emit 12 times fewer carbon emissions than a trip by ferry. The service's infrastructure is built via advanced and bespoke IT integration, focusing mostly on easing some of the many trade burdens in the post-Brexit world.
Dan Cook is the Group Operations Director at Europa Worldwide Group and had this to say on the subject:
“Eurotunnel opened access to new European markets for British businesses, offering faster transit times (of just 35 minutes compared to 90 minutes by ferry), fewer carbon emissions, and fewer disruptions associated with weather or traffic congestion at ferry ports.
There have, of course, been challenges along the way. Everything changed when the UK left the customs union, and more complex border controls came into force after Brexit. Freight businesses transporting goods to the EU via France needed a more sophisticated IT infrastructure to improve operational efficiency, communication between stakeholders, and track & trace capabilities.”
Tackling Challenges
Europa has been working tirelessly to address the challenges posed by tunnel usage. They have invested £10M in a bespoke freight management system. The system, which is managed in-house by a team of 100 experts, offers management and tracking for consignments.
Speaking further on the subject, Dan had this to offer:
‘Since Brexit, we have been able to fully integrate Leonardo to transfer customs data directly into the LeShuttle Freight IT infrastructure and border-related service offering out to Border Control in France. The whole process, occurring multiple times a day, every day, is slick and paperless, making the transportation of goods reliable and efficient from start to finish. As an early adopter of LeShuttle Freight in 1994, which takes us between Folkestone and Calais via the Channel Tunnel, we were immediately able to reduce transit time, streamline our operations and operate more sustainably.’
His opinions are backed up by Carsten Pikkemaat, LeShuttle Freight Sales Director, who had this to offer:
“We’re delighted with the continued strong business partnership we’ve built over the years with Europa. We are looking forward to working together for many more years to come, making freight more flexible.”
Finally, the last comments are provided by Dan with the following:
“Thirty years on, this partnership has driven our own innovation, ensuring we can provide a seamless movement of goods for our customers. Europa Flow is a prime example of this. Our ‘frictionless customs product’ is powered by the latest technology supporting the specialist delivery duty paid (DDP) service.”