One of the side effects of being in the logistics industry is that you look at certain things through a different set of eyes. When I go shopping, I look at country of origin markings. When I see foreign aircraft I usually know the flight number and where it’s coming from. Ocean containers are a whole different discussion altogether.
So it was kind of funny when I happened to be perusing my Facebook feed and a brand that I liked asked a logistics question. I didn’t think anything of it at the time – just answering a question for something in my area of expertise and it opened up a dialogue about the challenge they were having.
Well, one thing led to another and before I knew it, they had engaged us to move twelve stainless steel fermentation tanks in six ocean containers from the manufacturer overseas to the United States for a factory under construction. The shipment was complicated by the fact that like all good projects, it had to arrive at a certain time in the build-out, otherwise the facility would not be ready to receive them. The customer had also smartly purchased cargo insurance to protect from damage in transit, warehouse to warehouse.
Everglory has plenty of experience handling project cargo of all shapes and sizes, whether by air or by sea. This fit very well in to the suite of services that we provide clients and it was quite amusing to watch how a conversation on social media turned into a business transaction.
This wasn’t cargo we could transload, either. It required riggers to load the tanks into the containers at origin and riggers to get them back out here at destination. Demurrage, storage and detention on containers and the equipment has gotten prohibitively expensive over the past several years – when cargo arrives, you have to get it pulled and emptied and returned to avoid significant financial penalties.
It all came together neatly – ocean freight from Koper to Boston, we cleared Customs here without a hitch and coordinated an on-time delivery that was safely unloaded. They’re slated to open in the fall, and I cannot wait to taste product fresh from those tanks.
In the meantime, pardon me as I return to social media to try and find another new client…
