OVER the past 10 years John and Amanda Marshall have seen their specialist vehicle handling business based at the port grow steadily

J&A Marshall started life with just the husband and wife team but a decade later they employ 20 people including Amanda’s son James and daughter Christina and they have just invested more than £300,000 into two Mercedes car transporters capable of carrying 11 vehicles each.

They have built a business that centres around exporting and importing vehicles in containers – and they have handled some impressive cars over the years.

“We handle a lot of prestige cars like Lamborghinis, Rolls-Royce and Ferraris. We’ve had everything from a £1m car to some ‘restoration projects’ that require a lot of work on them,” said John.

The new car transporters will travel all over the UK collecting and delivering vehicles some of which will be delivered to J&A Marshall to be exported in containers all over the world.

Amanda explained they have included some special safety and environmental features on the transporters.

“Our new transporters, built by Transporter Engineering in Essex, like the rest of our small fleet have been built to the latest Euro 6 fuel and emissions standards, the transporters have been fitted with the latest tech from The Vehicle Group and are equipped with cycle safe sensors, an audible warning system, blind spot driver view camera and a reverse feed audio system that can relay someone’s voice outside the vehicle directly to the driver.

“The vehicles also have a 360 degree view CCTV system installed,” said Amanda.

John, who was formerly the transport manager for haulage firm Norman Offer, said they are handling up to 200 vehicles a week and looking forward to seeing further steady growth.

“We love the variety and there is always a sense of anticipation when we open a container – the ones from America can have as many as four cars and spares inside.

“Investing in the transporters makes sense for us so we can manage auto movements across the UK,” he said.