Accompanied by fellow commissioner Lord Heseltine and expert advisers from the NIC, he was given a tour of facilities at the port, including the new £400m container terminal, Liverpool2, which was opened at the beginning of November by the Secretary of State for International Trade, Liam Fox.

Lord Adonis also received a briefing from Peel Ports Group’s Chief Operating Officer Gary Hodgson on the company’s overall investment programme, which is looking to significantly change the movement of goods in the UK logistics sector by shifting freight from road and rail to sea.

Lord Adonis said: “The quality of our infrastructure affects all of our daily lives from our morning journey into work to staying in touch with friends and family, and keeping our homes safe and warm. The National Infrastructure Commission was established to transform the way we plan and deliver the systems and networks that keep our country going. We want to reduce the daily frustrations poor infrastructure can cause and help develop the world-class projects this country needs to compete.

“Developing a serious and strategic long-term approach will help reduce unnecessary delay, costs and congestion. We know that the Liverpool2 container terminal and Peel Ports Group’s other investments are aimed at securing exactly those same benefits for the UK’s supply chain, so it made a lot of sense for us to see what we can learn from this private sector investment as we consider our recommendations for government.”

In March 2016 the Commission published a report on transport in the North, with its main finding being that the area needs immediate and very significant investment now and a plan for longer term transformation to reduce journey times, increase capacity and improve reliability.

As well as kick-starting HS3 and integrating it with HS2, and planning for the redevelopment of the North’s gateway stations, the report advised bringing forward investment in capacity on the M62, the North’s most important east-west link, alongside funding to identify and assess proposals for tackling a range of other strategic challenges.

Gary Hodgson, Chief Operating Officer of Peel Ports Group, said: “We were delighted to host Lord Adonis, Lord Heseltine and their Commission colleagues for a tour of the new facilities at the Port of Liverpool, including our upgraded steel terminal, the biomass terminal and of course Liverpool2. We completely agree with the Commission’s existing views that major improvements are needed in Northern road and rail infrastructure, especially as these are essential for maximising the benefits from our private sector investment.

“As active supporters of the Northern Powerhouse initiative, and the hosts of the inaugural partners meeting only last week, we are very pleased to offer whatever insight we can into planning transformational infrastructure projects.”

The National Infrastructure Commission’s role is to influence long-term strategic decision-making for building effective and efficient infrastructure and will be established as a permanent executive agency from January.

It will look at the UK’s future needs for nationally significant infrastructure, with the aim of maintaining the UK’s competitiveness amongst the G20 nations, and provide greater certainty for investors by taking a long term approach to the major investment decisions facing the country.

Earlier this year, Lord Heseltine, who is also a government local growth adviser and chair of the Thames Estuary 2050 Growth Commission, welcomed the potential of the Port of Sheerness to contribute further to economic development in the area.

He made the comments during a visit to Peel Ports Group’s facilities on the River Medway, where the company plans to reclaim up to 125 hectares for expansion, mixed use developments and a new marina.

More than 45 truck drivers and other CMIT employees, along with executives from the APM Terminals’ operated Cai Mep International Terminal (CMIT), joined 500 students, teachers, and parents at Tran Quoc Toan Primary School, which neighbors the port, to address road safety issues in their community. The truck drivers work for CMIT, a subsidiary of the Netherlands-based port operator APM Terminals. The event is the inaugural activity for Lifting Safety, a proactive road safety program developed by AIP Foundation and APM Terminals. It will provide nearly 1,000 helmets and road safety education classes to children at Tran Quoc Toan and Toc Tien primary schools.

A study commissioned by APM Terminals and conducted by AIP Foundation in October 2016 found that even though most students in the region commuted to school by motorcycle, only 35% of students at Tran Quoc Toan Primary School and 19% of students at Toc Tien Primary School wore helmets, despite road dangers such as mixed vehicle use roads and lack of separate motorcycle lanes.

The Lifting Safety program aims to identify and mitigate road safety risks in the community near the APM Terminals-operated port through a combination of targeted education, awareness, and community engagement programs. Both the national- and provincial-level traffic safety committees have worked closely with APM Terminals and AIP Foundation in developing and implementing the program.

“We wanted to use our expertise and connect with the people of the community to share our safety learnings and make their lives safer. Our research data revealed just how hazardous the local roads in the community are. Partnering with AIP Foundation and local government authorities enabled us to reach a broader audience,” stated Kevin Furniss, Vice President of APM Terminals Health, Safety and Environment. “We are enthusiastic about the prospect of implementing this evidence-based program to other port locations to help us build meaningful safety relationships with the communities we operate in. AIP Foundation is clearly a specialist in road safety in Asia and our longstanding partnership dates back to 2008.”

“We appreciate APM Terminals’ being the catalyst for the Lifting Safety program to care for our people and are encouraged by the actions and behavior changes this program will prompt,” Mr.Vu Quy Phi, Deputy Director of the Traffic Police Department and Deputy Chief Secretariat of National Traffic Safety Committee, said. “Proactive participation from the local government and authorities in Tan Thanh District is the prerequisite for the initiative’s success. We also hope to expand this model beyond this partnership by replicating it at other ports in the Ba Ria-Vung Tau Province.”

“We are already impressed by APM Terminals’ commitment to safety and in-depth industry expertise,” Mirjam Sidik, CEO of AIP Foundation, said. “As Lifting Safety progresses, we hope to continue to bring communities together by fostering dialogues between public- and private-sector stakeholders.”

“Acting as a road safety ambassador gives me the opportunity to share my experiences with some of the youngest and most vulnerable road users in the communities I work in,” Le Quang Thien, a truck driver, said. “I also hope this will help me better understand how the students and teachers at these schools feel on the roads.”

Over the next year, Lifting Safety will implement truck driver trainings, a mass media awareness campaign, and community-based activities in and around the CMIT port in Vietnam.

The approx. EUR 5 million purchase was booked in Cargotec’s 2016 third quarter order intake, with first deliveries taking place in December 2016.

PTP is Malaysia’s largest container terminal and is currently ranked 18th in the Top Container Ports Ranking 2015. Last year, PTP continued to grow and expand its business in the region in spite of the gloomy global economic landscape by recording a total throughput of 9.17 million TEUs or an increase of 7% total growth as compared to 2014.

Kalmar 4×2 medium terminal tractors to be delivered to PTP are manufactured in Shanghai, China with the design and offering specially optimised for the Asian market. The PTP units have a gross combination weight of 70 tonnes and they will be used to handle containers.
Colin Cen, Sales Support Manager of Kalmar APAC says: “We are very pleased to cooperate with PTP. Our aim is to help PTP to improve the efficiency of their every move and lower their operating costs with our high quality terminal tractors. Our factory in Shanghai is fully committed and working at full speed to deliver the ordered machines on time as promised. This is our largest terminal tractor order to date in Malaysia.”

For this operation, the tractors will be handling container chassis with a payload of up to 65 tonnes. The tractors have been delivered with a Cummins engine in stage IIIB and an Allison gearbox.

The T 230’s have a fixed 5th wheel. The container chassis will only be disconnected for maintenance purposes, so an elevating 5th wheel isn’t necessary. A fixed 5th wheel has the advantage of not having any moving parts and no maintenance has to be carried out on cylinders or corresponding hydraulic system.

A double fuel tank with a total volume of 400 L diesel has also been installed. The tanks are connected and can be refuelled from either side. This allows DCT to run several shifts without refuelling. The latest technology in fleet monitoring has been implemented. While refuelling, a sensor submits additional information such as vehicle ID, current operating hours and the amount of fuel that has been refilled via WiFi to the central main computer. This system allows DCT to boost their efficiency. Now they are fully aware of the working hours of each tractor and can balance the operation accordingly.

The T 230 F is equipped with various options for a comfortable and ergonomical working environment. This is in line with DCT’s strong emphasis on health and safety measures, and accordingly, a light has been installed on top of the cabin that indicates whether the driver has fastened the seat belt. The opening/closing of the 5th wheel plate also has separate indicator lights, depending on which position the lock is in. Furthermore, all tractors have been equipped with an air suspended rear axle which is active up to 14 tonnes and an air suspended seat. The air suspended rear axle is the strongest in the market. All warning systems in place will inform the driver immediately in the case of any engine/transmission failures.
Harald Lutz, sales manager at MAFI said; “During this project we had a remarkably good partnership with all the people at DCT and are proud to have delivered a complete fleet of new tractors type T 230 F for the new terminal.”