New ‘smart’ truck zone opens in Calais

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Lloyd’s Loading List  /  August 9, 2016

The Port of Calais today opened a “smart” and “more secure” reception zone for trucks, which it says will greatly facilitate their transit through the French Channel port.

Located on a 4-hectare site and equipped with 15 lanes, the new facility can handle up to 300 HGVs at any one time and will “optimise the arrival of the 1.9 million HGVs that use the port of Calais each year and assure a more secure passage to Dover”, the Port Boulogne-Calais Authority said. Directly accessible from the A16 and A26 motorways, its opening coincides with the introduction of free wireless access throughout the port.

The authority underlined that the new facility “will substantially reduce the waiting time for lorries, which will now be more efficiently directed lane by lane to the different check-in points. This new process will also optimise flow management taking into account the ferry companies and lorry type.”

By the end of September, the operation of the new truck zone will be automated using a signalling system, backed up by CCTV provision and new security fences. On the busiest days, Calais’ existing truck waiting area will continue to offer the capacity for up to 800 trucks, bringing total capacity to 1,100 HGVs.

“The commissioning of the new truck buffer zone is very good news for the Port of Boulogne-Calais, through which more than 3,000 lorries transit every day. This new equipment fully reflects our commitment to streamline access to the port and to increase security. It also allows operators to optimise the load factors of their vessels by reducing the average waiting time for lorries," said Port Boulogne-Calais Authority chief Jean-Marc Puissesseau.

http://www.portboulognecalais.fr/en/the-port-of-boulogne-calais-optimises-the-reception-of-lorries

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