Ford is expecting deliveries of new cars to its UK network to return to normal following today’s resolution of an industrial dispute at Ansa Logistics, its transport contractor.

The carmaker has been operating a contingency plan to maintain supplies of vehicles to showrooms since the strike began on August 1. It says the dispute has had a “minimal impact” on the network.

Around 350 workers at Ansa Logistics depots in Dagenham, Southampton, Liverpool and Moss End, Scotland formed pickets in protest over changes in working practices and pay cuts. At the beginning of the action, keys for 2,000 new Fords went missing for more than 24 hours, leaving the vehicles stranded in storage.

Today, members of the Transport and General Workers Union accepted a deal which will see 60 redundancies at the Liverpool and Dagenham sites, plus changes to wage agreements and working practices at all four locations in order to benefit productivity.

Ansa Logistics managing director Mike Cowie says he is delighted the matter is settled. "People on both sides of the table have worked very hard and very positively to achieve this. The company will now focus on resuming, maintaining and developing a high level of service to the customer,” he adds.

Ansa Logistics distributes 300,000 vehicles a year to Ford franchised dealers.