From road to the sea, the story of José-Antonio Del Río, UECC
Moving project cargo on Pure Car and Truck Carriers (PCTC) has evolved over the years, with the option now certainly delivering plenty of benefits to market players. José-Antonio Del Río, has been there to see the progression from a tramp to a liner concept.
Del Rio is head of High & Heavy and Breakbulk at UECC and head of the company’s Spanish division. Having started in 1986 in a road transport operator with the task of developing the intermodal sea solutions, he is now in the lead of developing the strategy for the High & Heavy and breakbulk cargo at UECC.
Developing the concept
Del Rio told Project Cargo Journal that developing high & heavy and breakbulk concept on PCTCs is not easy, however, the company has been able “to move from a tramp to a liner concept by increasing our deck strengths and heights so we can accommodate bigger/heavier cargoes, where the high density cargo below three metres have become a factor to maximise the intake of our vessels not losing the hoistable decks for cars.”
Going forward, Del Rio noted that current evolution is based on space charter sharing with other carriers on a Hub and Spoke concept; the economy of scale required by this market is going against the liner concept in shortsea shipping and one cannot depend on their own tonnage to deliver a service.
Personally, Del Rio would like to see a change in the model, where hinterland is not the main driver of a service driven by an OEM, which reduce the possibilities for a shuttle model with more frequency and higher vessels productivity by reducing the port calls and times on port related to the size of the vessels.
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