The UK’s busiest passenger ferry port and second largest cruise terminal rarely rates a mention unless things go wrong. Port of Dover chief executive Doug Bannister aims to change that. He spoke to Ian Taylor
The Port of Dover reported “a strong recovery” in 2022 with the return of traffic largely free from disruption apart from the first weekend of the summer peak.
Chief executive Doug Bannister said: “We carried double the number of cars in summer 2022 as in all of 2021. Traffic built up over Easter and through the summer and from July to December passengers were probably two-thirds of the 2019 level.”
But he noted: “We had an issue on the first Friday of the summer 2022 getaway [July 22-23].”
Insufficient capacity at the French border control facility on the UK side of the Channel led to excessive queues and long delays.
Bannister explained: “We operate juxtaposed immigration controls so technically you enter Europe in Dover. It means there is no waiting on the other side.
“I would rather it that way round, but when there is disruption [on the French side of the Channel] we feel it in Dover.”
As a consequence, he said: “We’re highly reliant on French immigration control. It was the first post-Brexit and post-Covid summer so we knew there would be additional friction.
“We had a plan – with more staff available and ‘passenger champions’ to provide information.
“We brought in additional welfare facilities for people delayed and provided more welfare for pets. We invested in 50% more booths for French border staff and produced an hour-by-hour schedule of forecast traffic for everyone. But we had insufficient French frontier police turn up on the first Friday.”
He noted: “At a peak on the Saturday [July 23] we had 1,500 trucks held on the M20. By Sunday morning we had cleared the backlog.
“We operated normally through the rest of the summer. We forecast a wait at peak times of up to 90 minutes. It rarely got up to 45 minutes and most times it was about 10.”
Bannister added: “We didn’t have any disruption at all over Christmas. We had probably the smoothest Christmas period since I took the job [in January 2019].”
Fears that strikes by Border Force staff would cause logjams at arrivals over the Christmas holiday proved unfounded despite media forecasts of “havoc”. The Port of Dover was not affected by the strikes and Bannister said: “Border Force did a great job with its contingency plans.
“We had more than 300,000 more ferry passengers in December than the year before and didn’t have any dramas.”
He added: “We have a track record of clearing delays quickly because of our frequency and the resilience it gives. Our ferries do up to five round trips a day and the ferry operators provide a turn-up-and-go model so if you miss one ferry you can go on the next. It gives people more confidence – it’s not like missing a flight.”
Brexit impact ‘not as great as forecast’
Bannister acknowledged Brexit has had an impact on the port’s cargo operations, saying: “The additional paperwork is putting a burden on the supply chain. There are challenges there.”
But he added: “The government worked out that, worst case, traffic volumes could fall 13%-14%. We saw nothing near that. Also, separating the impact of Brexit from the pandemic is difficult and now we have the economic situation on top. We’re trying to understand the various elements.
“The market rebounded more swiftly than we anticipated. Brexit has not had as great an impact as forecast.
“Imports from the EU into the UK are doing well. But we have seen an impact on UK trade to the EU. There is a greater impact in some sectors than others because of the additional paperwork. When the process became more cumbersome, some smaller businesses refocused on the domestic market.”
The Port of Dover also faced a specific problem as cross-Channel traffic resumed at volume last year when P&O Ferries, one of three ferry operators at the port, disregarded the UK’s employment laws and sacked its entire workforce without notice.
The ensuing furore saw the ferry line suspended, protests at the port and P&O Cruises denounced in Parliament.
Bannister said: “We had one third of our capacity removed for a time, but the biggest impact was on the local community. P&O Ferries employed lots of local people. We put on jobs fairs with partners and hired some of those affected, mostly on the marine and engineering side.”
He added: “The capacity came back over time. We did lose a bit of traffic, but other ferry operators were able to compensate to a degree.
“The traffic we carry and which Eurotunnel carries is pretty fluid. People can flex between the two. That is unique.”
It means the port operates and cross-Channel capacity is available even if an individual operator is shut down.
Bannister explained: “The majority of our freight operators have multiple contracts with all three ferry operators and with Eurotunnel so drivers can decide when driving down the M20 which they go with.”
‘A cracking recovery in cruise’
Dover is also the UK’s second-largest cruise port after Southampton and Bannister sees scope for further development.
He said: “We had a cracking recovery in cruise. We had 30-odd ships call at Dover in 2021 and probably 120 last year. We have a good, mixed cruise business – half is turnaround for disembarkation and embarkation, and half port-of-call business.
“It’s a significant business. We handled between 250,000 and 300,000 cruise passengers in 2019. The cruise lines enjoyed a good recovery and what the cruise lines love about Dover is that the port is iconic. You set sail from the White Cliffs of Dover.
“We have two dedicated cruise facilities and we’re an hour from central London by train.”
He said “a large number” of cruise passengers travelled to the port by train last year and added: “We regard cruise as one of the core parts of our activity. We’re working with our cruise line partners on what the future holds at Dover.”
Bannister is drawn to cruising himself, acknowledging the allure of “checkng into a five-star hotel with great food and have it move to a succession of interesting places without having to pack and unpack”.
Green shipping corridor planned across Channel
The Dover chief is keen to stress the progress the port is making on sustainability, pointing out: “We’ve reduced our carbon emissions by 85% already – through lower-energy equipment, LED lighting, converting landside vehicles to vegetable oil and installing photovoltaics [solar energy panels] throughout the port.
“We launched the port’s sustainability agenda in May 2022 with the target of being net carbon zero by 2025. Only the port of Copenhagen has a similar goal. and we’ve not a lot left to go. I feel we’ll be there before 2025.”
He added: “We aim to operate the first ‘green shipping’ corridor by 2030 in coalition with ferry operators and our sister ports in France.”
Green shipping corridors aim to utilise zero-emission fuels on routes between two or more ports. The UK and France, along with other states, signed up to the Clydebank Declaration in 2021 committing to establish at least six green shipping corridors by 2025.
Bannister noted turning Dover’s routes to Calais and Dunkirk into green corridors “would have a profound effect because we handle so much traffic”.
P&O Ferries is due to introduce two new, hybrid, diesel-battery-powered ferries this year on the Dover-Calais route, one imminently and the second by the end of the year. Built in China, the ferries will be the largest ever to operate between Dover and Calais.
But Bannister expects electric ferries to be operating from Dover well before 2030, saying: “If it’s going to happen anywhere, it will be here – it’s such a short route. The entire fleet may not be replaced by 2030, but I expect we’ll be well advanced.”
The challenge will be accessing the power required. Bannister said: “We’re looking at what our overall electricity demands would be. This is a huge piece of work, and it will be a challenge.
“We can put in shore facilities but if we’re not getting the energy supply, we can’t use them. If we had the energy capacity today, it wouldn’t take long to install the facilities.”
The port is also developing facilities to supply liquified natural gas (LNG), the next-generation fuel for cruise lines.
Bannister said: “We have new port facilities that can do this already. But we’re a space-constrained port so we have to be innovative in how we go about it. We’re developing plans for the next phase of the Dover Western Docks Revival.” This will see development of a new marina pier and transformed waterfront.
He added: “We have a big infrastructure programme underway involving a significant transformation of outbound processing in the ferry port – re-ordering the flow and extending the border, and we’re looking at automating the journey through the port to minimise the impacts of surges in demand.”