idle yard trucks a/k/a terminal tractors at Holyhead Commercial Port in Holyhead, Wales, UK 5/22/23
Channel: John Edwards
Date: 2023-09-28

These are yard trucks a/k/a terminal tractors at the Holyhead Commercial Port in Holyhead, Wales, UK on 5/22/23. As further explained below, it unfortunately appears a number are not in active use, and since this was a Tuesday morning, if the port were operating anywhere near full strength, one would not have expected to see so many parked in a manner suggesting they were not contemplated to be needed for immediate use. Other names for these vehicles are shunt truck, spotter truck, yard shifter, yard goat, yard dog, yard jockey, yard spotter, hostler, and mule. I'm sure there might be others. In the U.K., terminal lorry and terminal trucks are oft used terms for them. They are used to move semi-trailers around cargo yards, warehouse facilities, intermodal facilities and commercial ports much like a switcher locomotive does at a railroad yard.  The most important difference between them and a regular over the road truck is a fifth wheel coupling with an integrated lifting mechanism which allows the operator to move and lower the trailers without needing to get out of the truck or cranking the legs of the trailer up or down. Such a vehicle can typically move 3 trailers in the same amount of time that a regular tractor could move just one. As you can see here at the Holyhead port, there are a number of such vehicles, many of which do not seem to be in use. This is not surprising given that since Brexit the previously robust freight volume at Holyhead, which is on a direct line with Dublin, Ireland is down some 30% while a port on the southeast coast of Ireland, Rosslare, has seen an increase of over 53%.  The date is 5/22/23 and I am filming this from a Viking cruises tour bus, hence the narrator. I still marvel that so many Brits either didn't care or didn't seem to even be aware that Brexit would substantially impair their business and trading relationships with Europe. They are findlng out now if they didn't already know.  Indeed, a particular March 2021 report showed that Holyhead freight volume was down 50% just from 2020. I can only imagine it's gone down since although it's obvious that not everyone agrees on the percentages of decrease, it seems clear there is consensus the decrease for Wales is huge, and unfortunately will probably continue to grow unless the UK can figure how to rejoin, which seems unlikely anytime soon.