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INTERNATIONAL AND DOMESTIC AIR, SEA AND GROUND FREIGHT SHIPPING AND LOGISTICS

Oversize, Overweight and Right up our Alley The ICAT Logistics DTW team recently put a particularly large package onto a truck traveling from Detroit to Norfolk, Virginia where it was loaded by crane onto a flat rack and then onto a ship to begin the 10,300 nautical mile trip through the Panama Canal and ultimately to Shanghai, China.  Our team called it “The Beast to the East.” How big was it? The package was 30 feet long, 8.5 feet wide and 10 feet high.  It weighed 42 tons.  Certainly large, but not in a class of its own from ICAT’s…

Brazil to Detroit: Right on Time How do you get from Bahia, Brazil, to Detroit? If you’re moving nine crates of vehicle side panels that weigh three tons, as ICAT Logistics DTW did in August, the answer is: Very carefully. That’s because moving such heavy material 6,000 miles isn’t only about getting the right trucks and airplanes. It’s about planning. In Brazil, and wherever ICAT ships industrial materials around the world, the company maintains a close working relationship with the agents who follow their clients’ cargo…

No Need for Big Headaches with Oversize Shipments An oversize freight load doesn’t have to cause oversize problems – as long as you have the right shipping partner. That was good news for a Michigan manufacturer whose experience shipping four-ton dynamometers to international ports had been so poorly handled by a previous shipping company, the freight was arriving in parcels and on different ships.   That caused confusion, missed deadlines and unhappy customers. “There is a lot of detailed logistical planning that goes into shipments like…

Dan's Downloads Dan’s Downloads   Dan Cser, owner of ICAT Logistics DTW, is tracking the constantly changing world of logistics, freight forwarding, shipping and supply chain management. Here is a roundup of news items that caught his attention:   Inflation is Coming to the U.S. on an 18-Wheel Flatbed CNBC https://tinyurl.com/yd7ksrt7   China’s Scrap Ban Leaves Supply Chain Unsettled Supply Chain Dive https://tinyurl.com/y7sol4xf   Wi-Fi in the Road? Kansas City Start-Up Developing ‘Smart’ Pavement…

A Natural Disaster, a Friend in Need and a Logistics Solution It’s good to have a friend in the logistics business.   That’s the word from Chris Bennett, a Michigan businessman who last year was stranded with his family when Hurricane Irma ripped through their St. Thomas home in the U.S. Virgin Islands.   The ferocious storm packed wind speeds exceeding 180 miles per hour, destroying houses and knocking down trees, power lines and cell phone towers. Irma left St. Thomas without electricity and without an operating airport.   In Michigan, news reports…

Don’t Become a Victim of the “Fast, Easy” Quote Some supply chain managers would like to believe that an internet price check is a quick and practical way to find a freight hauler who will save them time and money.  After all, it seems so easy. All you have to do is type in what you’re hauling and where it’s going and just like that some stranger will hook you up with a trucking or sea-going company that is willing to accept your check. No fuss, no bother – at least until your shipment is packed incorrectly, left sitting in a warehouse,…