Allseas interview: Richard Dale

1.7.14

Richard Dale heads up Allseas’ fast-growing and dynamic sales team. He describes Allseas’ USPs and explains why, when it comes to logistics solutions, one size never ever fits all.

Q: Tell us about yourself and the team!
Richard: I joined Allseas three years ago from Ocean World Lines – when Allseas took over the UK agency for OWL. I took on the sales function for the whole of the company and was probably Allseas’ first dedicated sales person. We spent some time focusing on the best sales approach and format from there. In January we took the decision to create a new sales force and I now lead a sales team of five. From a standing start, we now have an excellent structure – a really enthusiastic, forward-thinking team that’s full of energy and eager to succeed!

Q: Who’s on the team?
Richard: Claudia Armitage covers the northern UK region and Claire Hallwood covers the Midlands. Mark Selby joined as our dedicated import sales person, and also covers the southern region. And in June this year, John Walker joined us as head of project development. He has more than 40 years’ experience in the general, contract and project freight forwarding industry – he’s worked for some of the largest logistics organisations and shipping lines in the world, as well as some of the more niche service providers.

Q: What’s your approach on training and motivation?
Richard: Our policy is to try to promote from within. And at Allseas, people don’t tend to move on – the company has a long-serving team. We run a structured and sustainable sales programme to enhance our people’s skills, including training in-house and by external specialists. We aim to provide people with the support they need to make them successful and that means support from their individual branch manager as well as from myself. A real Allseas priority is creating the right team for the right job – and matching individual abilities to the required roles. I learned many years ago that trying to get a square peg into a round hole doesn’t work. We pride ourselves in finding the right match. As for myself, one thing that has greatly helped in developing my role is having an MD (Darren Wright) who has an open mind and is receptive of new ideas. I bring in new ideas and some will work, some won’t – but the door is always open.

Q: Will we see further expansion of the sales team?
Richard: Yes, absolutely, we will increase the team as required. Notably, Allseas has created a supply chain division with a very experienced management team who have individual talents in operating and constructing supply chains in the past for major retail outfits. They are now in the process of bringing their unique skills to the logistics side – and who better to create supply chain solutions than people who have used them in the past? So we are building that from a position of strength and as it grows we will be bringing in more sales people under the Allseas banner, with their respective skills sets.

Q: You are talking to a potential customer – what are Allseas’ USPs?
Richard: Despite email, the internet and the whole electronic world, this is still very much a people business and we like to talk to people face to face. I am on the road as much as I can be. We will take customers’ individual requirements and mould a service around what they require – NOT what we think they require. I never ask my team to sell ‘off the shelf’ solutions – it is all about bespoke services. We investigate the customer’s needs and deliver a product that suits their particular needs. Obviously another outstanding USP for Allseas is the fact that we have our own equipment, which gives us an important advantage in the markets we serve.

Q: What’s the mood out there? Is the recession gloom behind us?
Richard: There is a feeling of more positivity. Last year it was the cautious approach but now there is a very positive ring in the air – things are moving in the right direction.

Q: How do you relax away from work? Do you manage to switch off?!
Richard: Yes, you have to switch off – but my phone is always on, 24/7, and it will always be answered! I have a young family, which keeps me busy and fit at weekends – we enjoy activities such as cycling and fishing.

Project Freight Forwarding Outfit Allseas Keeps Expanding with New Location

An Interview with Branch Manager Caroline Goodricke Reveals the Secrets of Success 

UK – Allseas Global Logistics has built a prize winning reputation for project freight forwarding, a market which as anyone in the industry knows requires both top class management and concerted teamwork to avoid the pitfalls which come with handling specialised, often out of gauge consignments. Although known best for its Nottingham and Felixstowe operations the company has several other UK based facilities and now, after rapid expansion, Allseas’ Tilbury team has moved into smart new offices, with plenty of room to grow. We talked to Branch Manager Caroline Goodricke about expansion, variety and the company’s collaborative approach.

Q: Tell us about the new office and why it was needed!

Caroline: “In the past few years, Allseas’ Tilbury team has grown from three to seven members of staff. We had outgrown our office, which was in the old Tilbury Container Services (TCS) building within the Port of Tilbury. We were delighted to find new offices at the Riverside Business Centre – not only is there plenty of room for expansion, a smart kitchen and a dedicated seating area, but we are also enjoying wonderful views over the River Thames!

“TCS was an ‘old-style’ dock office and it was a great place to get established. Our new offices have a more professional, business office environment and reflect our ambitions for further growth. Also, although we have moved out of the port itself, we are only just up the road and still very much part of the shipping fraternity with other forwarders at the Riverside offices.”

Q: What’s been keeping the Tilbury team busy?

Caroline: “The Tilbury team was initially set up as a ‘London office’ with the focus on LCL/FCL bookings. Since then, we have expanded massively from the container work – containers are still really important, of course, but we are also doing increasing amounts of project work. That has included shipping fire engines out to Ashdod for Unicef and moving exhibition and high profile cargo for GL Events, such as canopies and other items for the Malaysian Grand Prix, and Olympic Games equipment from London to Brazil. One of the biggest contracts we are currently working on is organising and handling the shipment of about 50 giant presses from Ford’s Dagenham plant.”

Q: What does the Ford job entail?

Caroline: “The presses, which were used in the old Ford Transit Van plant, are being dismantled onsite, for shipment to Bayaquan in China, where they will be reassembled for producing tractor parts. The pieces we are moving have dimensions of up to 140 cubic metres, with weights of up to 140 tonnes each. These have to be collected by truck from the plant and taken over the Dartford crossing to Thamesport, where they will be loaded on to special charter ships. It’s a huge scope of work, with very demanding health & safety considerations.”

Q: Tell us about your own background.

Caroline: "I joined Allseas about five-and-a-half years ago and came from a shipping background, having previously worked for Maersk Line and Senator Lines. I was joined by others with a similar shipping line background and that’s very important for us. Having that shipping line experience is a big advantage, whether it’s understanding ship planning or negotiating rates. Sometimes forwarding companies can have a rather limited experience or outlook but as a group Allseas focuses on a more collaborative approach, rather than the ‘them and us’ attitude of some. And as well as having that excellent mix of shipping line people and forwarders, we also have the benefit of being able to offer our own special equipment – something that really sets us apart."

Q: So the Tilbury team is set for further expansion?

Caroline: "Yes, definitely. Ricky Fowler is our newest member of staff. He has worked in the shipping industry for more than 15 years and has brought with him a great deal of experience in import, export, FCL and LCL operations. He also has knowledge and experience of handling air freight operations, both inbound and outbound. The Tilbury team is going from strength to strength. Because we handle LCL, FCL and OOG cargoes, we can offer customers the full range of services, handling anything from very large to very small pieces!"

Nicaragua Canal route is unveiled – a $50bn threat to expanded Panama

The Nicaragua government yesterday unveiled the route of its proposed canal to link the Pacific and Atlantic, saying construction could begin this December.

According to a Reuters report from the country’s capital, Managua, the 278km link would begin at the Brito River which connects the Pacific to Lake Nicaragua, Central America’s largest fresh water reserve, which vessels would then transit and then head to the Caribbean Sea port of Bluefields via the Tule and Punta Gordas rivers, requiring around 120 miles of canal to be cut in the sparsely populated south-east of the country.

The 50-year concession to build and operate the canal was awarded to Hong Kong Nicaragua Development (HKND) Investment Co last year, and although officially the cost of the project was slated at $40bn, it appears to have already risen to $50bn.

Despite international ridicule at the scale and ambition of the project, Nicaraguan president Daniel Ortega and HKND chief executive Wang Jing issued a joint message to the Nicaraguan people at the beginning of the year confirming the project start date of December, although environmental and social impact studies still remain to be completed which could result in the course of the canal being altered.

Reuters quoted canal committee member Telemaco Talavera, rector of Nicaragua’s Agrarian University, as saying that the project would be completed by 2019 and open to shipping in 2020 – a comparatively tight timetable, given that Panama’s far smaller project to expand its canal began in 2007 and isn’t expected to be completed until early 2016.

Indeed, the competition the Nicaraguan canal could present to Panama is one of the most intriguing aspects of this story. While far longer than the 77km Panama Canal, vessels transiting Nicaragua would shave around 500km on a typical Asia-east coast North America (ECNA) journey.

Furthermore, developments in ship size are already outpacing Panama’s enlargement. Its new set of locks will only allow vessels of up to 13,000teu size to pass, in contrast, carriers’ increasing liking for even larger containerships led HKND to argue that around 17% of the global fleet will be unable to pass through the reopened Panama Canal.

The proposed dimensions of Nicaragua Canal are 230-520 metres wide and 28 metres deep.
At last month’s at TOC Container Supply Chain event in London, analysts were talking about the next generation – 24,000teu vessels – whose appearance would effectively push Panama back to where it is now.

Panama’s limitations have already pushed carriers to route Asia-ECNA strings through Suez. Analysis by Drewry Maritime Research last October showed that delays in the Panama expansion project – caused by a contractual dispute between the government and construction consortium – accelerated the amount of traffic going to the east coast of North America via Suez.

Between 2010 and 2012, Suez’s share of Asia-ECNA traffic was stable at around 30% – by October 2013, it had jumped to 42%.“This was achieved by ocean carriers increasing the average size of vessel passing through Suez from 6,911teu to 7,756teu over the past 12 months, as well as the transfer of Maersk’s TP7 schedule from Panama to Suez, whilst vessels deployed in the services using the Panama Canal have remained restricted to less than 5,000teu capacity,” Drewry said.

Its report added that delays in Panama had also encouraged strings via Suez to load further up in Asia.“A further worry to the Panama Canal Authority will be that the lack of cargo growth to ECNA comes at a time when vessels passing through Suez have been loading at more Asian ports. Whereas up to now, Suez vessels have mainly been restricted to south-east Asian ports due to the shorter distance compared with that to the Panama Canal, they now regularly load in north-east Asian ports as well.”If carriers have already achieved economies of scale by using Suez, what then are the chances that the Nicaragua project will actually get built? $50bn is an awful lot of money, and Mr Wang – who has no track record of developing large-scale infrastructure projects – has been insistent that it is not being funded by the Chinese government, although Beijing clearly has a lot to gain strategically from the opening up of a new route to the Atlantic, allowing its largest tankers access to oil production sources such as Venezuela.However, there is said to be some 400 engineers already working in Nicaragua on the project. State-owned China Railway Construction Corporation is a strategic partner, while the highly respected Hong Kong-based container shipping analyst Charles de Trenck is a member of the HKND executive board.