Transport
Long haul
SINCE launching at the Brussels seafood expo in May this year, JDOT Logistics has picked up plenty of business in Scotland, said director Laurence O’Toole. ‘It was a great summer, we picked up some great work along the way,’ said O’Toole, whose Irish based business, O’Toole Transport, joined with Luxembourg based refrigerated distribution specialist John Driege to form JDOT.
The new company is sited in Bellshill, near Glasgow, with a fleet in Scotland of 25 to 30 trucks. These collect Scottish seafood from processors and markets and transport it overnight to its distribution centre in Boulogne-sur-Mer, for onward delivery to export markets.
O’Toole said most of the Scottish business is shellfish and white fish, the latter off the markets in Peterhead, Aberdeen and Fraserburgh.
‘It’s lots of small customers which is kind of what we’re specialising in anyway, which have turned into bigger ones between now and Christmas.’
He hopes to attract customers from the salmon companies and said in May that he had been in talks with Scottish farmers.
‘I think a lot of people are a little bit apprehensive because of Brexit, they’re kind of saying hold off until they see what the withdrawal agreement is going to bring.
‘That said, what we’ve picked up in the meantime is more than enough for us for today. We’ve people trained now to do customs formalities.
‘We had to get people who were au fait with that and we’ve got the software now to enable us to do the customs transactions.
‘We’ve got all that in place and when the withdrawal agreement actually gets passed [it has only cleared the first satge in the Commons] we’ll be in a good position to do the paperwork.’
O’Toole said they had no problems recruiting drivers and had started four in Scotland recently.
‘They’re great drivers, all between 55 and
65, on the road for years and they never let us down. If we want them to start at seven o-clock on Saturday evening or four o’clock on Monday morning they’re always there, on time.’
He is sceptical about some of the scenarios that have been flagged up to keep traffic moving across the Channel.
‘I think there are a lot of nice ideas out there but put them into practice – we’ve been given information that there may be a priority lane for seafood. I don’t think there’s any likelihood that’s going to happen.
‘From our perspective, the Irish transporters have been told there’s going to be a priority lane for Irish trucks.
‘My brother in law transports pharmaceuticals and he’s been told there’s going to be a priority lane for pharmaceuticals.’
With all the priority lanes it will have be a very big motorway, he said.
‘But I do think that when the withdrawal agreement passes there will be an implementation period of, at worst case, end of 2020, best case maybe another 18 months to allow
“We’re in it for the long haul…that will dence” give customers confi
us all to get everything in line for when we’re dealing with a new set of scenarios.
‘Our business will meet the demands and whatever new requirements are put in front of us.’
O’Toole said JDOT Logistics is going to put a ‘big push’ on in Brussels and show potential customers they are there for the long haul.
‘We can say we’ve been here a year now and we’ve transported maybe 5,000-6,000 tonnes of seafood out of Scotland at this stage. By next May we’ll have transported 10-000-12,000 tonnes.
‘That will give confidence to people when they see how the operation is working.
‘It’s okay for me to tell them what we’re doing in Ireland but it’s really not the same thing.
‘They also want to see our team in Scotland and in Bellshill and get to see we’re invested in Scotland, which we are.
‘Once they can see all that’s in place I think that will give them a little bit more confidence to take the plunge.
‘We are speaking to two or three at the same time and every single one – and this goes for small customers who want to move one pallet to big customers who might want to move 10,000 tonnes –they are all just saying, can we hang tight a little bit.’
He said he is ‘absolutely thrilled’ with the way the Scottish venture, amounting to about £1.5 million investment so far, and the Bellshill depot is working out.
‘The location is amazing for our whole operation – we’re doing a lot of internal work within the UK and Bellshill is a great place for a changeover. We’re very happy with it.’