Terror Threats Cause Disruption for the Freight Industry
By: Victoria Slotover
The recent terrorist threats in the UK are causing mayhem for the freight industry as well as for Britons filing the country’s airports as they wait to board planes to whisk them away to sunnier climes.
On the 10th August this year, British police managed to foil a terrorist plot that officials say could have been worse than 9/11.
The scale of the plot led home office minister, John Reid to say that we are facing a “persistent and very real” threat from Islamic fundamentalists.
The plot follows rocket attacks by Hezbollah on towns in the north of Israel and US embassy warnings of attacks on India.
Although a number of attacks have been prevented, the threat of terror is causing severe problems for the freight industry both in the UK and abroad.
During the month of August the transport of cargo by air out of the UK was disrupted as a result of the bomb scare and many flights have had to be cancelled altogether. Furthermore, increased security, made necessary by the terror threat, has caused long delays to air freight forwarders and passenger travel.
Since passengers are not currently allowed to take hand luggage on board aeroplanes it is having to be stowed in the main hold. As a result in many cases there has not been sufficient capacity for the transport of freight.
However, freight forwarding companies are advising their customers that if they receive cargo slightly earlier than normal, they are able to meet their forwarding needs. Anything that can be done to accommodate the longer lead times caused by the terror situation is helpful.
It is hoped that these delays will not last for too long and that once new security measures and processes are in place passenger journeys and freight forwarding will be made easier again.
GBS Freight is a UK based freight forwarding company which specialises in sea freight