Report II

28 | REPORT II Ford introduces LCV Uptime programme; Adds to Transit family

Ford's new Transit Active Range

Despite the dramatic fall-off in light commercial vehicles sales across Europe due to the Coronavirus pandemic, Ford has managed to increase its market share, by almost two percentage points. Th at was just one of the taking points from a webinar presentation by Ford of Europe, with Hans Schep, General Manager, Commercial Vehicles, hosting proceedings.

During the COVID-19 lockdown period, Ford was actively helping out on both sides of the frontline, mostly behind the scenes, ensuring that key workers were kept mobile and supplied with PPEs. Th rough its dealer network emergency vehicles were provided and maintained, while fl eet customers were looked aft er with immediate aft ersales care. Th en at its Dunton factory in the UK (and also at its EU plants), systems were installed to produce PPE equipment such as facemasks and face shields.

Looking beyond and preparing for the ‘new normal’, Ford is about to launch special versions of the Transit family such as the Trial AWD and Active leisure ranges. Beyond that and over the horizon is collaboration with Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles, with more details now being made available.

Brendan Lyne, (a Munster native), Director, CV Sales & Marketing at Ford EU outlined the year-to-date sales fi gures which show a 37% decrease over the fi rst fi ve months of 2019 (-443,736 units), with Britain, Spain, Italy, Sweden, Romania and Poland all recording around 40% decline in their overall marketplace. “Ford is ranked fi rst as a single LCV nameplate with 14.3% market share YTD,” he said. Next in line is Mercedes-Benz, which gained business over the period, on 12.8%, with VWCV third on 10.8% with Renault Pro+ and Fiat Professional completing the top fi ve. However, if Groupe PSA brand fi gures were put together as in Peugeot, Citroen and Opel/Vauxhall, that combination would head the leader board. In the 1-tonne category, the Ford badge is number one with the Transit Custom line-up, marginally ahead of Volkswagen, with PSA together with Toyota Professional closing in. In the Pick-up category, the Ranger is runaway leader, more than 10% up on its nearest rival, the Toyota Hilux, with the new Mitsubishi L200 on its tail(board).

Driving Ford Commercial Vehicles forward is its revised aft ermarket campaign, which proved its eff ectiveness during COVID-19. Termed ‘Uptime’, Owen Gregory, Director CV Aft ersales, explained that it’s all about eliminating downtime: “Uptime is the primary driver for fl eet eff ectiveness and Ford has expanded its team to deliver increased support with enhanced connectivity with dealers and customer’s vehicles.” To further strengthen the focus in this area, new Uptime Centres are being rolled out together with added features from its fl eet management system, called Ford Pass Pro.

Following on from the feature on Ford’s Conversion programme in the June edition of Fleet Van & Utility, Paul Baynes, manager CV Conversions explained that he and his team have kept in contact with its authorised converters during COVID-19. He said that while 50% of the coachbuilders were closed, with conversions activity down 95%, Ford, in tandem with its converters was able to meet increased demand from frontline workers such as Blue-Light emergency services, supermarkets/home delivery and mobile leisure vehicle users. To adhere to the required social distancing requirements, bespoke and generic partition fi tt ings had to be installed in vehicles.

Nicholas Whyman, Transit Product Manager highlighted the new product lines due for launch by Ford during 2020 and beyond. Th e new Trial and Active edition models within the Transit family are key elements of Ford LCV’s sales growth strategy, according to Nicholas. “Th e two new series share a common message – enhanced

Ford 2020 Transit Connect Active

capability and great design,” he said. “Building on the success of the Sport and Limited editions, the new Trial and Active models expand on our existing customer base. Trail is targeting small businesses and fl eet customers, with the Active seeking dual-use and lifestyle customers,” he added.

With the Trial series, enhanced traction comes as standard with mLSD (mild Limited Slip Diff erential) on Transit Custom and a choice of mLSD or AWD (All-Wheel-Drive) on Transit, he explained. Special exterior and interior trimmings set the Trial apart from the standard Transits. Introducing the Active range, Nicholas mentioned that “our customers lead increasingly active lives” and therefore the Active models were created to cater for their outdoor leisure pursuits. Available across the Transit Custom and Tourneo Custom ranges in both short and long wheelbase forms, with manual and automatic gearboxes, mLSD is optional on the manual transmission variants. Nicholas also announced news of the pending addition of the Active theme on the Transit and Tourneo Connect line-up.

Details were also relayed about the next phase of the Ford and Volkswagen Commercial vehicles collaboration projects with a clear indication of what is in the pipeline. Hans Schep stated that the new partnership is set to deliver up to 8 million commercial vehicles, with Ford to build the Pick-up and medium sized van for both parties, while VWCV will produce the (new) city van. Although not mentioned or confi rmed (as yet), VWCV will probably produce the large van for the two companies (plus MAN?) , spelling out the end of the big Transit as we know it. Separately, Ford will add batt ery electric versions of the Transit (and the F-150 Pick-up in the US) in the next 24 months.

Interior Ford 2020 Transit Custom Active

Interior Ford 2020 Transit Trail

Ford 2020 Transit Trail

30 | SHIPPING & FREIGHT

Signifi cant developments in services through Irish Ports

Despite much of the world going into lockdown last March following the arrival of the Coronavirus pandemic, the freight shipping sector has remained strong, though challenged. Th e passenger traffi c that has been a vital element of the ferry business in many parts of the world including Scandinavia and the western English Channel has almost disappeared and this had led to the lay-up of a number of vessels and the likely cessation of some services on a permanent basis.

Most ferry services linking Ireland with English, Welsh and Continental ports are focused mainly on freight traffi c while the Lo-Lo services are entirely freight carriers. At the trough of the COVID-19 lockdown these services reported volume drops of up to 40%, but maintained their sailing schedules and, in doing so, enabled traffi c to fl ow through the system with minimal delays. It’s clear that throughout the lockdown period shipments of pharmaceuticals, medical devices and agri-food kept moving. All of these are signifi cant players in the Irish economic model. Added to this was the switch of volumes that would in normal times have left Ireland by air by making use of the signifi cant underfl oor capacity in passenger aircraft . 65% of Irish airfreight travels in that way, to trailer or container shipment. By early June and with the lockdowns being loosened throughout Europe and further afi eld, traffi c volumes on all services increased to, in many cases, pre-COVID levels.

Following the successful switch by Britt any Ferries of its Ireland/ Spain service to a Rosslare/Bilbao operation in February there was a lull in service changes until the commencement in May of the CLdN Con-Ro service which now sails each Sunday from Ringaskiddy to Zeebrugge. CLdN also announced the restoration of its third weekly Dublin/Zeebrugge rotation and followed up in June with the opening of a new weekly Dublin/Liverpool/Santander Con-Ro service. Th is service also incorporates an extra Dublin/Liverpool rotation.

Britt any Ferries Kerry

Seatruck added an additional Th ursday sailing from Dublin to Liverpool, returning on Friday, while BG Freight Line has increased the frequency of its Lo-Lo service operating between the same ports to three round trips weekly.

Th e weekly BG Freight Line service launched in July 2019 linking Waterford and Rott erdam has received a considerable traffi c boost following completion of an agreement with Hapag-Lloyd to carry its feeder traffi c from the Munster region. Waterford is now a “Bill of Lading Port” for several deep-sea lines, something that would encourage more regional container traffi c to move through the port. CMA-CGM has announced the opening of a Dublin/Rott erdam LoLo service under the Containerships brand. Th e service will operate into the Rott erdam Short Sea terminal close to the city centre.

HLAG Reefer Freight Forwarder, XPO Logistics has completed trials ahead of opening a rail freight service linking Ballina and Waterford Belview. Th e service is scheduled to start in Q4 2020 and link in with the Samskip service to and from Rott erdam. CMA CGM has launched its CMA CGM Intermodal product focused on shift ing inland container transport away from road haulage to Rail and Barge. It will continue to use existing rail freight services serving major ports and terminals as well as chartering own trains for specialised traffi c fl ows.

Rosslare Europort will launch a new website in July in advance of the end of the UK’s Transition phase with the European Union (EU). It is intended to be a resource for all port users and its introduction is part of a Port development programme. Th e port of Zeebrugge, which is currently exploring a close co-operation or merger deal with the port of Antwerp has also recently launched an intermodal route planner based on the port.

Independent Container Lines (ICL) has launched a weekly Lo-Lo service from Ringaskiddy to the US Ports of Chester, near Philadelphia and Wilmington, North Carolina. Transit times to Chester is 10 days, while to Wilmington it is 12 days. Th e service is operated by a fl eet of 3,000 TEU vessels and the line off ers a wide range of container equipment.

It is becoming clear that the slow pace of restoration of passenger air services, particularly those to several US destinations will force a considerable re-think of the ways in which air freight is shipped into and out of Ireland. Th is may involve a switch to all-cargo fl ights operators by the integrators and others and to surface transport.