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Ital and Eurobridge have high hopes for new Malta service

[ September 18, 2018   //   ]

Manchester based groupage and forwarding operator Ital Logistics is to launch a new service to Malta in conjunction with its new partner on the island, EuroBridge Shipping Services.

It will operate at least twice-weekly with departures from the UK every Tuesday (or Wednesday morning) and Thursday arriving in Malta the following Monday and Thursday respectively, and with deliveries the same day or the day after throughout the main island of Malta.

A Friday departure from the UK is also available but in order to meet the departure from Milan on Monday, it is restricted to normal goods so excludes dangerous goods as a general rule. (Driving bans on dangerous goods through France apply from midday Saturday to 2200hrs Sunday, as opposed to normal driving restrictions of Sundays only and speed limits are 10mph lower.)

All other departures can carry dangerous goods.

The service operates via Milan where cargoes from the rest of Europe are consolidated and loaded. However, Ital managing director Phil Denton says: “We are extremely hopeful that sooner rather than later trailers from the UK will go direct to Malta without any transhipment in Milan.”

He adds: “We have noticed that despite the general mood in logistics in recent years, spirits are high and not as gloomy as many suggest. Reading FBJ recently, one couldn’t help but notice the positivity and the number of Maltese companies promoting their wares. A 6% growth rate in 2017 – and it doesn’t look like it is slowing – as well as during the last couple of years developing good relations became the catalyst for deciding to put Malta on the Ital agenda. We see Malta as an opportunity, particularly with our niche in dangerous goods.”

EuroBridge Shipping has just secured a new 34,000sq ft facility which it will occupy by the end of 2018 of including a new warehouse building.

Denton adds: “We have known David Abela at EuroBridge for several years, and have quietly admired his fresh approach to freight forwarding. Like us, he is an optimist in what has been of late, a pessimist’s paradise. So it was with our pleasure that he readily agreed to work more closely with us, enabling us to build Malta as its own service, committing to providing a guaranteed twice-weekly minimum service between the northern half of the UK and Malta.”

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