“When the boat comes in”

by Nick Drew | Tue 29 May 2018

“When the boat comes in”

We all visit the big plant shows and dealers yards from time to time, but do we ever give much thought as to how these machines arrive on our shores? UK Hyundai PR woman Louise Murphy recently went to see the latest delivery arrive in Tilbury Docks.

Weighing in at one hundred thousand tonnes the giant Singapore based Tosca ship has the capacity to carry 6000 cars. On this occasion the ship had spent one month at sea after departing from South Korea, stopping once on route to pick up more cars, it is one of five ships that visit the docks on a regular basis each month.

Alistair Flint at MK Shipping is responsible for the ship during its time in port and as part of his role has to check the boat in, check the Hyundai cargo is on the boat as listed and check the crew lists. Effectively if the boat arrives at 1am, 2am, or 3am Alistair has to be there. Alistair was also instrumental in gaining clearance for Louise to go on board the massive vessel to take a look around.

The Tosca is manned by just 23 crew members, most of whom are sourced from the Philippines. Incredibly even the lowest member of the crew can earn more than a bank manager in his native country and its regarded as a very prestigious job to have.

Part of the boats cargo on this occasion were 47 brand new Hyundai machines consisting of: 1 x HL965 19 x HX130LCR 7 x HX140L 1 x HX140LD 5 x HX145LCR 1 x HX180LD 7 x HX220L 1 x HX300 1 x HX520L 3 x R25Z-9AK 1 x R60CR All these machines including the all new HX130LCR which will be making its UK debut at Hillhead next month, will be destined for the various Hyundai Construction Equipment dealers around the UK and following PDI work, onto their customers in due course.

All the machines are strapped down with holding chains in the cargo bay to prevent them from moving around in rough seas and its vital that such work is done meticulously to avoid any costly damage to the goods. I know in the past I have seen photos of machines that have broken loose and it’s not a pretty sight!

The boat arrived at 10am and was scheduled to leave at 8pm so once docked, the race is on to get the cargo off as quickly as possible. The Hyundai machine’s come off in one’s and two’s as there are simply not enough people to operate them.

Probably for speed and convenience the machines are stored in an overnight storage area and then the following day moved to another yard around the corner in preparation to be collected by the dealers for onward transportation.

Check out this video featuring some of the machines being unloaded.

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