For the first time ever, Dublin Port Company has seen one million Ro-Ro freight units passing through the port within the year. The millionth freight trailer in 2018 arrived on board Irish Ferries’ Ulysses when she docked at 6.30am this morning. The truck was one of O’Toole Transport’s vehicles on board the fully booked vessel arriving from Holyhead. Every morning 13 kilometres of trucks roll off the Ro-Ro ferries arriving at Dublin Port, meeting the requirements of the retail sector and industry throughout the country.
This is the first time for Dublin Port to surpass one million Ro-Ro units in a year, and signifies continued growth in Ro-Ro freight moving through the port.
Dublin Port now handles nearly 90% of Ireland’s Ro-Ro freight and the addition of the world’s largest short sea Ro-Ro ship, MV Celine, in the past year accounts for an additional 8km of freight lanes / 600 freight units alone. To date, Ro-Ro freight at Dublin Port is ahead by 4.3% compared to this time last year, and up by some 41% on boom time levels last seen in 2007.
The milestone for Dublin Port coincides with a significant week for Irish Ferries, which also sees the arrival of W.B. Yeats scheduled on Thursday, the much-anticipated new luxury ferry that will service the Dublin/Holyhead route during the Winter periods and the Dublin/Cherbourg route from mid-March to September.