BW12 club

[TheRedTornado]

This may sound like a stupid question, but I genuinely don't know. Do they loads ships and such at the weekend? I appreciate a shop at sea would still sale, but not sure if ports wind down to a skeleton staff.

It certainly looks like both ports and the boat work though the weekend, judged on my time watching the maritime tracker.

I agree with the skeleton staff theory, cant see it making a great difference though as the process of unloading the cars and moving them to the compounds until the dealer is notified, has to happen to allow the port to continually process its workload.
I think this will certainly be more prevalent in Sheerness as it seems to be a rather small port so will require the berth space.

[Jimmy Filth]

Ok, so potentially (if it gets on a boat quickly) my car could be here by Monday (As in, in the country).

Then the long frustrating wait for it to get from sheerness to the dealer in Portsmouth...


How are all the other BW12ers doing?? Any news on your cars arriving in the country??

[marting]

My car took 10 days to get from Sheerness to Pompey.  Hope your wait isnt as long.  When I was picking up my car this week they had two Rs ready to go out. One in blue and one in black.  Must say the black looked very nice.

[JakeF]

Well the boat 'Emden' has docked at Sheerness, a few hours later than planned but it had to cross the channel traffic judging by the maps. This should be the boat that southern BW12 orders are on with any lucky - just got to see what happens. Based on previous tracker updates, there will be an update at 08:45 tomorrow morning telling us it's arrived in the UK.

[Jimmy Filth]

JakeF, maybe you can tell me if I'm being an idiot here, but had a look at timings...

My car left the factory first thing yesterday morning. It should arrive at Emden tomorrow morning. At 02:00hrs tomorrow morning the Schelde Highway arrives at Emden.  I know that shop is used by VW, but considering the time it arrives, it is a possibility that my car could be on that ship and potentially leave tomorrow evening?

If they do load and ship on a Saturday evening of course.

[JakeF]

I spoke to a friend of mine who used to work for a shipping company, who gave me a bit of insight into the kind of operations involved here.

In essence, time is money and space is money, so they won't be keeping your car at a port at either end for any longer than they can help. All being well, that would mean your car will be loaded onto the next available ship. However based on delivery to Chelmsford, the Schelde Highway isn't the likely boat because that's only been doing round trips between Emden and Grimsby, and Grimsby isn't used for anything in the south from what I've read. The next paragraph assumes VW would rather your car be delivered to the correct part of the UK - if they really want your car out of Emden port then your car would be on the Schelde Highway.

You'd be needing the next boat to Sheerness in Kent, which is smaller than Emden so there's even more motivation to get the cars shifted at the other end. This means you're looking at either the African Highway which is on it's way back to Emden from Grimsby at the moment, or the boat Emden which is docked at Sheerness. As Emden has been doing round trips between Emden and Sheerness lately, I'd predict your car would be shipped on Emden once it returns to Emden port (which would be late tomorrow or early Sunday I'd guess).

From what I've been told, the ports themselves will be 24x7 but it's the logistics companies that process cars delivered to the ports and transport the cars onwards to dealerships that tend to be more Monday-Friday operations.

When did you get the 5a alert then? I got mine on Tuesday morning at 8:45, and got the 5b alert exactly 48 hours later, while Emden the ship was still docked at Emden the port (slightly confusing) - it would seem for the shipping phase that things get updated in batches rather than in real time.

I'm not going to pretend I understand the nuances of VW's logistics but I'd say on the whole VW want to get the car to you ASAP because the sooner you take delivery, the sooner the money comes in for them for the car they've already spent many thousands of pounds lovingly manufacturing for you. Fingers crossed for you that it's on its way to you soon! 

[Jimmy Filth]

Thanks for that, really helpful!

So , let's hope that my car stays true to form and I get a text this morning saying I'm on 5b.

African Highway docked at silly o'clock this morning, so could leave late this afternoon. Let's hope that a) it is going to Sheerness and b) my car is on it! Emden has gone to Spain.

[Jimmy Filth]

Just got the 5b text, at 08:44 this morning. Exactly 48 hours after the 5a.  As stated above, the African Highway is currently in port, so still got my fingers crossed for this ship!

[Jimmy Filth]

Since I've had my 5b notification Schelde Highway and EMS highway have left for Grimaby and African Highway has just left for Sheerness.  Hopefully that'll be the last of the BW12 cars. Fingers crossed!

[Mohsin]

Great news Jimmy! Oh so close now..