The investment, the largest since the firm was acquired in 2018 by Europa Worldwide Group, will be used to purchase 156 brand new trailers in the coming months. The new trailers will add to the current 270 trailers from its 4,000 m2 Belgian warehouse base.
Carlo Turner, General Manager at CCC, explained that the huge freight volumes that were generated post-lockdown prompted the decision to invest earlier than anticipated:
“There has been a remarkable increase in our daily full and part load consignment traffic volumes over the past year. As lockdowns eased and continental economies bounced back, CCC has never been busier. We’re now delivering more than an average 22,000 loads. This increased demand has come from customers of all sizes, across all sectors, and in all European countries. It was always a corporate objective to expand our operations within the next year, but we have brought the timeframe forward because our revised economic forecasts were so positive.”
Eurostat, the data intelligence arm of the European Union (EU), recently highlighted that 824m tonnes of goods were handled in EU ports in the first quarter of 2021. This was comparable with pre-pandemic levels. Ro-Ro was responsible for a sizeable proportion of this movement.
Statistics published by the European Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA), another EU body, also highlighted the number of ship calls in August 2021 increased by 11% compared to the same month in 2019. Ro-Ro cargo vessels accounted for a further 13% increase, following the 10% drop in August 2020.
As well as investing in its stock to expand its logistics capabilities, CCC is also recruiting new staff for its business development, managerial and operational divisions. Moreover, the company adds that it has allocated significant resources to improve its bespoke Information and Communications Technology (ICT) system. The latter has already paid dividends in the form of better collaboration, route planning, and shipment tracking among other things.
Finally, in response to Brexit, CCC also created Continental Flow, a Delivery Duty Paid (DDP) product to keep imports and exports running smoothly.