TNT Express has announced it has launched cargo trucking services between Bahrain and Saudi Arabia across the King Fahd Causeway as a key element of its regional investment programme.

Tim Lorenti, regional operations director for Africa and the Middle East, said the trucking service was developed in tandem with new investments at Dubai Cargo Village and the Free Zone in Kuwait.

"We have a 40-ft TNT-branded truck and trailer passing via the Causeway every day, linking Bahrain International Airport in Muharraq with our operations in the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia, and serving the King Fahd International Airport," he said.

The Dubai regional hub will move into a purpose-built express facility at the Cargo Village at the end of 2002, said the official. "The service enhancements for our customers will be tremendous, especially where transhipment connectivity is concerned. There will be later cut-offs, quicker transit times and opportunity for much faster worldwide delivery."

TNT's regional hub is currently located in Rashidya where the company's Dubai city centre office will remain.

In the first half of next year, TNT Express will move into another purpose-built facility in the Free Zone area in Kuwait city. The company says it expects significant service enhancements to result.

"Each of these developments involves an important commitment by the company to our customers in the region," said Lorenti. "And they are only the first in a series to be made in the near future."