Question regarding manufacturers shipping new cars abroad

[RobM77]

Apparently the ship that ran aground in the solent had around 1200 cars on it from manufacturer Jaguar Land Rover:

http://uk.reuters.com/article/2015/01/06/uk-britai...

I commute down the A34, which leads from the Midlands, where most of JLR' production takes place, to Southampton docks. On my commute I regularly pass transporter lorries carrying Land Rovers. Each transporter carries 7 Land Rovers. What I've been idly wondering during my commute is how JLR accumulate 1200 cars to load onto ships such as the one that was recently in the news. If they all went by road, then that's 171 trips, so even at one lorry load every half hour for ten hours a day that's nearly 9 days or two working weeks of trips. Do they all go by road? If so, it's going to take some time to shift them all, so how are they stored at or near the docks prior to be loaded on-board a ship? 1200 cars is a lot to store somewhere, and it'd be a major operation moving them from where they were stored to the ship. The whole process interests me.

I'm just curious - does anyone know how it all works?

[trashbat]

There are large car parks, if that's the right word, at Southampton Docks for exactly this. Have a look at the satellite view on Google Maps.

Southampton is frequently serviced by freight trains but I can't remember seeing many vehicles arrive by rail, whereas there are lots brought by road.

Edit: see e.g. https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@50.909848,-1.429952...

Edited by trashbat on Monday 26th January 15:12

[jbswagger]

Some of it goes by train.

http://nick86235.smugmug.com/Trains/2010/A-Grand-D...

[Shuvi]

The Birmingham plant shifts 176 cars a day by rail.

http://www.jaguarlandrover.com/gl/en/responsible-b...

[RobM77]

Thanks very much. I know Southampton reasonably well, but obviously not as well as I thought I did! I guess they just keep trundling cars down there 7 at a time, build them up and then ship them out.

[jamiebae]

Minis go by train, most of the stuff I used to see on the A34 was Solihul built Land Rovers and Hondas from Swindon. Nissan ship a lot of stuff but that goes from the North East, a lot of the space at Southampton (and the other big docks like Portbury) is for imports though, there are millions of cars a year brought into the UK as well as the locally produced cars we buy.

[-crookedtail-]

Shuvi said:

The Birmingham plant shifts 176 cars a day by rail.

http://www.jaguarlandrover.com/gl/en/responsible-b...

Ahh that is what those mystery blue freight trains are near Southampton then, I've wondered for ages or whenever I have to take the train down south!!

[RobM77]

Train would certainly make a lot more sense than lorries sending 7 at a time - thanks.

[mrloudly]

RobM77 said:

Thanks very much. I know Southampton reasonably well, but obviously not as well as I thought I did! I guess they just keep trundling cars down there 7 at a time, build them up and then ship them out.

There's a massive multistorey car park on the dock for new cars. When we had our boat on the Itchen, I was fascinated by the whole loading/unloading process going on along the end. Minibuses shuttle drivers from the transporter back to the car park to collect more cars.
Was amazing the amount of gear that came off of and went onto the ships! Very cool!

[Chrisgr31]

I used o act for the company who used to drive the cars from the dock and on to the ship, or vice versa when the cars are imported. Forgotten who it was now but they used to have to get the cars off/on incredibly quickly and there was a relatively large number that would run out of fuel during the process.

[RobM77]

mrloudly said:

RobM77 said:

Thanks very much. I know Southampton reasonably well, but obviously not as well as I thought I did! I guess they just keep trundling cars down there 7 at a time, build them up and then ship them out.

There's a massive multistorey car park on the dock for new cars. When we had our boat on the Itchen, I was fascinated by the whole loading/unloading process going on along the end. Minibuses shuttle drivers from the transporter back to the car park to collect more cars.
Was amazing the amount of gear that came off of and went onto the ships! Very cool!

Thanks - that's something else I'd wondered about - how the cars get onto the ship.

[RB5Bird]

I drive freight trains and sometimes transport cars (Jags, Range Rovers, and Minis - although not seen them for a while) to the east docks in Southampton.

I'm pretty sure I once counted at least 130 evoques on a train, and the jags are double deckers so twice that.

There are indeed massive "car parks" down there where they store them until a boat comes in.

Most seem to be going to the Middle East. Seen a few McLaren's waiting in the storage as well. Loads of i8 things down there a few weeks ago as well.

[davepoth]

I work at Portbury, and we see a few truckloads from JLR moving through. It's tricky to tell what's coming in and going out though. I go exploring at lunchtime, looking into all of the yards. Recently a ship seems to have unloaded a thousand Vauxhall Mokkas.