Freight Services

With fierce competition within the trade sector around the world, it is important to have a range of choices when exporting goods. WELL has enormous experience in selecting the best service and routing and ensure that our clients receive the optimum benefit between service and price. WELL provide cost effective sea freight import and export solutions across the whole range of seafreight options

LCL: (Less Than Container Load/Part Load/Groupage)

We provide consolidation services to accommodate your goods whenever they are less than a container load. LCL services are available to or from most major cities in the world.

FCL: (Full Container Load) (using 20′ & 40′)

We have great experience in delivering shipments by container to all corners of the world. In certain situations we will procure containers on our clients’ behalf to give them advantages of one way transportation. This can be very advantageous when delivering goods to land locked countries such as those in central Asia, especially where multi-modal transport solutions are required. In these situations the final aspect of the delivery may be accomplished using rail-freight and shippers-own containers provide a one way transportation cost benefit. For more complex weights and sizes we can provide solutions using high cubes, open top containers and flat racks.

Conventional Vessels:

For shipments which are too bulky for container transportation we can often provide below deck stowage on conventional cargo vessels. We regularly charter conventional cargo ships from coaster size up to heavy lift project vessels, fully equipped with lifting gear.

Ro/Ro: (Roll on Roll off)

This service is suitable for cargo (vehicles) which can be driven or towed on board. Ro/Ro services are typically available on the major trade routes and can be redirected by inducement depending on the volume which is being shipped.

Break Bulk / Project Cargo:

A key aspect of our business is to provide project solutions to clients who need to get large out of gauge and/or heavy equipments into remote areas. We also have extensive experience with semi-submersibles, sea-river vessels, heavy lift and remote site operations.

WELL differs from most freight forwarders in that we provide a complete turn-key service in which we work alongside our clients to create project specific SOP’s covering every facet of the supply chain. These include design and sizing of equipment to meet transport limitations, jointly monitoring the engineering stages to ensure that any modifications do not have any adverse effect on the movement, ensuring suitable vessel choice and advance planning for destination services and installation. Throughout the process we regularly consult with experts such as naval architects and marine surveyors to further enhance the end product. No stone is left unturned in our determination to provide the most comprehensive turnkey solution to meet the project needs.

Millions of tonnes are trucked each year between the UK and other countries that are accessible by road. Road transport is the most convenient method of delivery, as goods can be collected from the point of supply and delivered to their destination with minimal or no intermediate handling or transhipment.

WELL provide total European freight distribution services for groupage and full loads to all of mainland Europe, Scandinavia and Ireland. We offer door-to-door collections and deliveries by scheduled services, with a range of vehicles, from tilt trailers to high-cubes, road trains and low loaders. Additionally, for those emergency situations, we can provide a dedicated express delivery option, to all European destinations.

Thanks to our close partnerships with a number of reliable haulage companies based across Europe, we provide total flexibility to changing requirements. Our innovative approach enables us to offer dedicated and individual delivery services on a ‘back load’ basis giving significant cost benefits but coupled with first class services. In addition, all of our road transportation services benefit from local expertise in the destination country.

For shipments which are less than a full load, we provide consolidated services which provide significant costs benefits over full load services. These consolidations or LTL services loads can often be collected directly on the trailer or where this is not possible we collect these shipments on a routine collection basis and complete the consolidation process at our premises.

European Trailer Types

Europe’s roads are increasingly congested, resulting in longer journey times and more unreliability. Virtually all Government forecasts predict that this situation will get worse as time moves on.

Firms are also faced with the restriction in lorry drivers’ hours caused by the adoption of the European Working Time Directive and an acute shortage of HGV drivers necessary to make long distance transportation cost effective. With the introduction of lorry road user charging, above and beyond the regional measures imposed. where for example cities like London have implemented the congestion charge and other costly restrictions. Rail freight can play a key role in taking some cargo off the roads whilst also helping businesses keep costs down and stay competitive.

Wider afield the independent states of the former Soviet Union have excellent rail networks and are able to provide time definitive transportation even to remote rail sidings. This particular rail network extends from the Baltic States across the continent of Asia to Vladivostok and on to China connecting many countries in between.

WELL has enormous experience of providing multi-modal logistics solutions, including those which have considerable reliance on the rail network. The ability to undertake direct discharge from ship to rail wagon, such as we regularly do in ports like Poti, Georgia has significant cost and service advantages. Specially designed rolling stock can handle heavy and out of gauge items with ease and we have also had several situations where over width cargo has been given special permission from the rail authorities to close the line to oncoming traffic to facilitate a particularly complex shipment.

Wherever a rail network exists, WELL will automatically consider the viability of this as part of the solutions which we provide.

During the 20th Century a lot of cargo which was typically transported on rivers and canals was switched to heavy goods vehicles. However in many countries, there is now a growing trend to re-use the rivers for cargo transportation purposes.

WELL has considerable experience in using inland waterways particularly in relation to heavy and out of gauge cargo. With so many restrictions on the roads with low bridges, street furniture obstacles as well as the requirement to have police escorts there is often good reason to consider the waterways.

A good example of the depth of experience we have in this area goes back to 2001 when the founding partners of WELL played a pioneering role in the transportation of the modules for the DSS-20 oil rig transported from Singapore to Baku, Azerbaijan through the Volga-Don canal. This shipment consisted of 2 pontoons, each weighing in at 2500 tons and measuring 90 metres in length, four columns, each weighing approximately 360 tons and a drill floor at 540 tons.

The transportation process was complex with the pontoons being wet towed through the waterway and the columns and drill floor being loaded onto specially equipped barges. The cargo was successfully delivered into the Caspian Sea in less than 50 days and has since been fully assembled and has completed drilling programs.

As a multi-modal service provider we will always consider the use of rivers and inland waterways as a viable option, when considering the most appropriate and cost effective logistics solution for our clients needs.