ASDA has reduced the volume of its trucks on the already over-burdened UK road network by using PD Ports' Logistical Link shipping service.

PD Ports' new Ports Logical Link shipping service has saved one of UK's leading retailers, ASDA, over one million road miles.

The Ports Logical Link shipping service, launched in January 2009, is a coastal feeder container shipping service offering a next-day connection between Felixstowe and Teesport. PD Ports says the thrice-weekly service has achieved its goal of reducing operational costs for customers and minimising the impact road transport has on the environment in its first year of service.

ASDA, which opened the first port-centric import centre at Teesport in 2006, has reduced the volume of its trucks on the already over-burdened UK road network by using the service, leading to a reduction in overall supply chain costs and a 2,200 tonne cut in CO2 emissions.

Frans Calje, PD Ports' managing director unitised, says the supply chain services provider is delighted to see ASDA improving its green credentials because of the Logistical Link service.

"There is, without doubt, a continued and vital need to reduce the amount of freight transported by road from Southern UK ports but which is destined for the north of the UK," Calje says.

By locating an import centre at Teesport to serve its northern-based stores and consumers, ASDA has reduced the movement of trucks on UK roads, which have previously been carrying goods purchased in the Far East, brought to a southern UK port and then road-hauled up to the north of the UK.

PD Ports claims the service has saved ASDA and its George clothing range 1,265,459 road miles.

According to www.carbonbalanced.org, the 2,200 tonne reduction in CO2 emissions is equivalent to that generated by 284 passengers on a return flight from Newcastle to Sydney, Australia.

Teesport is one of the top three UK ports, handing over 40 million tonnes of throughput a year.