News & Insights

The World Economic Forum (WEF) has identified eight points of resilience to help manufacturers and trading companies prepare for supply chain disruptions. The qualities of the most resilient supply chains are based on a survey of 400 senior supply chain executives and representatives from gove... Read more

HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) announced last week that the Customs Declaration Service (CDS), a system integrated with our market-leading technology, will serve as the UK’s single customs platform from 31st March 2023. Operating since 1994, HMRC is finally retiring its Customs Handling of Im... Read more

In an effort to protect supply chains and essential services the government released a list of sectors where fully vaccinated workers may be exempt from isolation if they are told to quarantine after coming into close contact with a positive COVID-19 case. Many of these are within the supply chai... Read more

The delta variant has broken through virus defences across the Indian Subcontinent and the whole of Asia and reached nearly half of China’s 32 provinces in just two weeks, threatening more supply chain disruption. Developments are raising the threat of delays at ports and airports as authori... Read more

Container carriers are injecting additional capacity into the critical Asia-North Europe trade as they prepare for a strong and prolonged peak season and elevated rates. With the massive consumer and inventory demand continuing, carriers are transferring capacity from other trades and deployin... Read more

As a service business, exceeding customer expectations is a critical success factor for us and gathering regular feedback from you provides the insights we need to drive future decisions and maintain a truly customer orientated business. Quality, efficiency, service, creative solutions and rel... Read more

The record-breaking sea freight rates, driven by restricted volumes, equipment availability and service disruption is pushing increasing quantities of ‘distressed’ ocean cargo to air freight solutions. Metro have advised and updated regularly on the dynamic air freight market, which has re... Read more

We are in a new world of shipping. There have been spikes in demand and freight rates before, but never for such a long time and never on such a continuously upward trajectory. The challenges we face are unique. Even with demand levels increasing on the most popular trades, equipment availabil... Read more

Container shipping lines are becoming ever more inventive with the names they apply to the surcharges they keep adding to already over-loaded FAK rates. The latest example is Hapag-Lloyd’s ‘value-added surcharge’ of $5,000 per 40ft, from China to the US and Canada. The carri... Read more

UK hauliers are under massive pressure, struggling to counter the border delays, increased administration and crippling driver shortages that have plagued the industry since Brexit and now, as they fear the full UK border checks due in January, drivers are planning a strike in August. Surges i... Read more

One of the key success factors for high performing service providers, is consistently enhancing their ‘product’, by putting their people first, with efficient and effective HR strategies. There are many different types of HR strategies, but at their heart, they all start with the same foun... Read more

An unexpected upturn in consumer demand is playing havoc with Europe’s automotive supply chains, as supply shortages disrupt OEM’s manufacturing productivity Factory shutdowns were a significant contributor to poor sales in 2020 and there were fears that a shortage of semico... Read more