Some of the largest international Transport groups and Freight Forwarders load their traffic using our services.
The name ‘LCL’ reflects the initials of the three founding partners; being the same as a popular shipping term, standing for ‘Less than a Container Load’, is just a fortunate coincidence.
LCL International Ltd was formed in 1980, as a service to transporters using the Port of Dover. We provided Customs Clearance, third-party ferry sales and locating re-loads for East European road hauliers; who were keen to regard us as their UK partner.
Our office was situated in the centre of the Port of Dover, convenient for Drivers to call in and deal with our multi-lingual staff as they passed through.
Dover itself enjoyed substantial traffic growth during the 1980s, and LCL International Ltd
grasped the opportunity to expand along with the Port. We developed a large
throughput of Import and Export Customs Clearance at the centre of our
operation, and earned a good reputation for neutrality and reliability which
enabled some of the larger Agents and Forwarders to give us their
business through Dover.
In the early 1990's, with EU trade barriers due to be lowered upon the advent of The Single Market,
Customs Clearance requirements in the Port of Dover were due to decline. As some companies which had featured in the Port of Dover for many years began to wind-down, LCL International Ltd developed its contacts into a new area of growth - Freight Forwarding; specializing for Eastern Europe.
The more adventurous Eastern European transporters began regular trips to the UK and found our assistance provided an obvious point of control for their drivers and a link to opportunities in this country.
With the beginning of the break up of Yugoslavia in 1991 and the Bosnian Civil War in 1992, we shipped ever increasing amounts of
Commercial-Cargo and Humanitarian-Aid to those areas and our Serbo-Croat speaking staff established a strong position for the market in
both directions. Since then, we have taken on Russian speaking staff and extended our outlook to include former Warsaw-Pact countries.