Freight forwarders that suffered operational damage and incurred significant additional costs as a result of the disruption to operations at the UK port of Felixstowe following the introduction of a new operating system in June have been warned that they are unlikely to receive any compensation from the port’s owners.
Robert Keen, Director General of the British International Freight Association (BIFA) said:
“Having had a meeting with the port’s senior management, it is clear that the only companies that might receive any compensation are shipping lines.
“The port authority has made it clear to us that it does not consider BIFA members to be direct customers of the port, and would not be willing to have a discussion about possible compensation for the damage caused and the increased costs that have been incurred by those members.
“It is astonishing that a port authority, which owns the UK’s busiest container port and has been happy to market it as the ‘Port of Britain’, implemented a new and vitally important system with apparently no fall-back position if it went wrong.
“And it is very disappointing that it is not even prepared to discuss any kind of compensation for such a failure in customer service.”
