Highlights:
- Peak production and all commercial planes in use…
- Procured a Boeing 747- 200 cargo freighter…
- Loaded 32 custom-built racks into five semi tractor-trailers in Valencia and trucked them 193 miles to the airport in Zaragoza…
- The total time from start to finish was 20 hours – an incredible feat…
- Cost savings of approximately 40%
Challenge:
Their problem — which we immediately took on as our responsibility, too – was that their assemblies for a prototype were in Spain while their manufacturing facilities were an ocean apart in Michigan. With the Spanish citrus industry hitting peak production and using nearly all commercial planes to ship their oranges and lemons around the world, regular air freight was an expensive and time-consuming option involving connecting flights or a road-feeder service.
Solution:
Get our own plane. Fly direct. And save time and money.
We quickly procured a Boeing 747-200 cargo freighter and went into motion. We confirmed our load plan with the charter company and instructed our local agent in Spain to coordinate with the factory and airport ground personnel. We then loaded 32 custom-built racks into five semi tractor-trailers in Valencia and trucked them 193 miles to the airport in Zaragoza. Export Customs clearance and plane loading began immediately.
The flight was met in the U.S. by the ICAT Logistics Detroit team at the airport in Lansing, Michigan. The cargo was inspected and cleared by U.S. Customs, transferred to our trucks and delivered to the customer’s plant near Detroit. The total time from start to finish was 20 hours – an incredible feat. Our speedy solution eliminated a delay in production and provided our customer with cost savings of approximately 40 percent.
Big Picture:
Our customer was thrilled, which was precisely our goal.
“We were able to do this because we have the experience and the expertise on the ground at locations all over the world,” says Chris Cser, Operations Manager and Director of International at ICAT Logistics Detroit. “We’ve done this a hundred times before and we know exactly how to get it done efficiently.”
“In our world, we accept a client’s challenge as it if were our own. Their production delay is our problem, so we make sure we get whatever they need, when they need it – and then we’re all winners.”