Perhaps the reduced stream of MINIs arriving in Southampton due to Plant Oxford's scheduled summer shut-down enabled the coronavirus-hampered shipping company to clear out the giant parking lot where some cars languished for more than 6 weeks.
I found an interesting
2012 article in the New York Times that describes the transportation of cars across the oceans on enormous 5,500-car (and larger) car-carrying ships. The cars are packed onto up to 13 floors within the ship. They get a foot of clearance between the bumpers but only inches between the doors. A loose car could cause millions of dollars of damage, so they're strapped well in place.
After the ship arrives at its destination port, the first team in removes the straps and hooks holding each car in place. Then a well-coordinated, high-speed unloading process begins with vans ferrying stevedores into the ship. The stevedores drive the cars out to assigned parking spaces. The vans then collect the stevedores and take them back into the ship to get the next batch of cars. Meanwhile, the car company reps have to quickly inspect each car for external damage. The unloading has to be quick because the dock fees in 2012 were $3,000/day.
Here's and
informative documentary about the process.