By Richard Morton, projects director, Haven Gateway.

In the fast-moving world of ports and logistics, dryports (and the added value they can deliver) are getting higher on the agenda.  Dryports offer many virtues: increasing the capacity of sea ports under pressure; enabling cargo to be whisked inland with minimal delay; offering ‘green’ supply chain opportunities; providing critical hubs to serve the import/export needs of landlocked countries; helping to provide trade growth in developing countries.

It’s clear that dryports have many common features but also many differences; when it comes to the detail they are, essentially, what you make them.  

And so it has been in the European Union Dryport project. Late in 2008, we set out on our adventure as partners in Dryport – unclear exactly where that adventure would take us. Three-and-a-half years later, as the project moves towards its conclusion at the end of June, we can look back on some significant gains.

Dryport has brought great value to the Haven Gateway and our joint partners in the project, Babergh Council. It has brought in funding that has enabled us to carry out studies and projects in support of the local logistics and transport sector. It has brought us into contact with a huge range of ports and logistics specialists. It has enabled us to broaden our knowledge and our network of business partners through seminars, B2B meetings and best practice tours. It has provided us with a platform from which to raise the profile of the Haven Gateway as a maritime centre of excellence, at European and global levels.

As part of the Dryport project, we embarked on an ambitious Destination and Origin Study. This research, which will be available in the coming weeks, will pinpoint the origins and destinations of containerised cargo passing through the Haven Gateway’s ports. The pattern of container traffic moving in both directions between the Haven Ports and the UK hinterland has never before been scientifically mapped, but this study will identify key traffic flows of containers by road, rail and feeder ship, with the main focus being on Felixstowe.

We are looking to establish real evidence as opposed to forecasts or perceptions and the result should be a really valuable set of data and analysis. The study will also predict future trends in line with market expectations.

Another major step forward has been the creation of our unique Containerised Cargo Carbon Calculator. This online tool (www.ccccalculator.co.uk) enables logistics operators to compare and contrast cargo movement methods – road, rail and water – and the carbon emissions for each method, or combination of methods, as they plan their transport to and from the East of England ports. It has clearly hit the right mark, attracting a good deal of interest from the industry locally and further afield.

Dryport will hold its final conference in Gothenburg in May. We will be able to look back on the project and our involvement with satisfaction, and look forward with additional confidence, armed with new knowledge, new contacts and important new evidence to support the further development of the Haven Gateway’s maritime and logistics sector.