By John Winn, Chairman, Haven Gateway private business forum

Readers might be surprised to learn that a question regularly asked at Dryport meetings and never really answered is: ‘What is the definition of a dryport?’ And that’s because no two dryports are the same. A dryport can offer one, two or many different functions and services, depending, of course, on where it is, what is needed and what transport infrastructure is available.

At the Dryport annual conference, hosted here in the Haven Gateway, our partners from University of Bremen’s Institute of Labour and Economy presented the initial findings from a study into ‘Governance and Conflict Resolution in Dryport Planning’. They had looked at four case studies and considered the vital ingredients for a successful dryport.

There are some common vital elements, of course – including compatibility with regional structures and business strategies; integration with users’ supply chains; a strong non-state ‘facilitator’ to manage, promote and pull it all together; the need to offer stakeholders a wider, more cost-effective and green choice of options; and the need to convince potential users that a dryport can really make a positive difference to their businesses. Because if port operators, councils, transport operators and others don’t see that a dryport could help them – it simply won’t work.

The annual conference offered a forum for airing common problems and discussing solutions, with a particular focus on the political dimension.

Dryport delegates from Sweden, Belgium, Germany, the Netherlands, Scotland and here in the Haven Gateway included local politicians who were keen to share their views and experiences.

The meeting was chaired by John Hinton, elected Dryport representative at Babergh District Council, who emphasised the need to anticipate, to think and plan ahead. “The current economic situation will improve and unless we start now, we will not be ready for the huge upturn in world trade,” he said. “We have to look forward.”

The ever-increasing size of the world’s containerships – Maersk’s upcoming Triple-E class will carry 18,000 standard containers, compared to the Emma Maersk’s 15,500 teu – puts obvious pressure on ports; Felixstowe’s new deepwater berths, equipped with the world’s largest ship-to-shore cranes, give us a major advantage as a gateway. However, the discharge of thousands of containers from just one ship call places enormous demands on hinterland infrastructure too, requiring excellent road and rail links as well as more land for warehousing and logistics activities.

“Ports need to have a sensible and integrated hinterland system. And we think a dryport is one of the solutions,” said Dirk Harmsen, Dryport project manager. “You can take the functions which don’t necessarily have to be at the port and move them to the hinterland.”

As several people pointed out, the ability to increase container rail traffic will always be limited by the capacity of any rail network and any bottlenecks in the system – but at least we can start by filling up all the trains we have.

There was particular interest from Dryport partners in the Haven Gateway’s new €7.5 million Low Carbon Freight Dividend project, which has secured nearly £3 million of European funding over the next three years to help shift containers from road to rail. And this divi is a real cash benefit to those making the shift. Not just fine words!