Now corrected in original text. New keyboard!
Which brings us back to why this is happening. When Medlog (MSC) purchased Maritime Transport Ltd the road haulier was the preferred carrier for both Hapag and CMA-CGM as historically MSC had previously used Goldstar Transport Ltd, although they had also been building up their own fleet mainly in Felixstowe. However, in 2016 Goldstar was sold to Turners (Soham) Limited which historically had connections to OOCL and the following year Cosco who also used Maritime Transport purchased OOCL.
To make matters worse particularly for Hapag, as by January 2024 Wincanton their other preferred haulier was in negotiations with CEVA Logistics owned by CMA-CGM for them to buy Wincanton. However, Wincanton's board later recommended a higher offer from GXO Logistics in March 2024, and the deal was ultimately cleared for GXO to acquire Wincanton in June 2025. This in part explains Hapag's decision to by Tilbury based AHL Transport in January 2024 as part of a build up of it's own fleet. This took out of the London Gateway /Tilbury general market a haulier with a fleet of its own 120 vehicles and 200 other subcontracted vehicles which was a major provider for the reefer container movements which formed a fair chunk of the local business and are operated by Maersk, CMA-CGM, and MSC.
Hapag and Maersk had originally intended to use Felixstowe for it's Asia-Europe services, Southampton for it's Transatlantic services and London Gateway Port for it's Indian Subcontinent and Middle East services, but as the planning developed it became apparent to Hapag in particular that they could not secure sufficient road and rail capacity in and out of the Suffolk port so they quickly changed the plans moving the Asia -Europe Services to London Gateway Port.