FREIGHT forwarder Morrison Freight has completed the delivery of four pieces of large, heavy plant machinery to Baku in Azerbaijan.

The specialist consignment consisted of digging equipment to be used as part of a construction project in the oil and petroleum industry.

Great Blakenham-based Morrison, a European road haulage specialist, had not previously delivered to Azerbaijan.

The new route saw vehicles transit through Belgium, Germany, Austria, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Turkey and Armenia before finally arriving in Azerbaijan.

Despite the 13 day transit time and a 36 hour stop to complete customs formalities at the Azerbaijan border, Morrison delivered the machinery 48 hours before the scheduled arrival time.

Detlef Liebscher, managing director of Morrison Freight, said: commented: “We want to make exporting goods easier for local companies. We know we’re experienced in European road haulage but this project took us into new areas geographically and operationally.

“With over 100 years’ combined experience in European road freight services we knew we could offer a solution for any logistics challenge. For this project, we had to source specialist vehicles to accommodate the height of the equipment and we organised a change of driver in Turkey.

“This was to make certain we had the relevant cultural knowledge and language skills required to ensure our customer’s load arrived at its final destination safely and on time. We also managed the customs documentation to offer our clients complete peace of mind.”

Recent figures from HM Revenue and Customs show an 18% increase in East Anglian companies exporting to non-EU destinations, compared with only a 1.6% growth rate in exports to countries within the eurozone.

Morrison says that, with continued financial instability in many European countries, developing oil rich nations have become an attractive market for East Anglian companies looking for business growth but transportation has often been an issue.