Relying on a quality freight forwarder is key!

What’s the first thing you think when you read “dangerous goods”?

Maybe “things that explode”? Or nowadays… virus, bacteria and other biohazard stuff?

The list is actually quite diverse. First, it is interesting to know it can be sorted in two groups: dangerous goods (DG) and hazardous materials (HAZMAT).

Dangerous goods are products that, during their transportation, offer risks to health, safety, property or the environment. HAZMATs, in turn, are risky even when they are not being transported. The list includes materials that are radioactive, flammable, explosive, corrosive, oxidizing, suffocating, biohazard, toxic, pathogenic, or allergenic.

Just paint

In our history today, our logistics experts fortunately did not have to move large explosive charges or potentially killer biological agents.

The task was to move something that probably yourself, dear reader, have already moved in your own car: paint. A trustworthy freight forwarder must be involved when the challenge is to move great volumes of this type of product. In this case, six 600lb steel drums each. In other words, more than a ton of flammable or combustible material. The most efficient way to move that volume is by ground transportation, in a 53-foot closed box unit.

The cargo should leave the supplier in San Antonio, TX (USA), bound for Toluca, Edomex (Mexico) with a border crossing in Laredo, TX (USA). A 900 miles trip, which could normally take 18 to 24 hours, with all the necessary security.

Nevertheless, with the cargo already on the road, our client faced a great challenge: at least part of the cargo needed to arrive at his plant at 7am, but… the unit’s scheduled arrival time in Laredo was 7pm the day before. And after that, there were still more than 700 miles to go.

What’s the experts’ favorite gimmick? Alternatives!

Our client is a Tier 1 at the automotive sector, expert in pre-assembling several car parts and in ensuring the color tones perfectly, in the exact shade and quality required by the OEM. This is its great differential in the market.

The paint needed to arrive at 7am to avoid risks to its just-in-time and just-in-sequence production line.

Since the first contact with Europartners Group experts, we prioritized the cargo as critical and thought quickly in two smart alternatives:

• Ground expedited
• Charter flight

The decision? The best was to reach the cargo in the customs warehouse in Laredo, grab part of the merchandise and send it from Monterrey (MTY Airport) to Toluca (TLC), in a 1h30min charter flight. If alternatives are our best gimmick, flexibility and tailor-made solutions are some of our best market differentiations!

Now, our critical cargo teams needed to find charter flight available, negotiate a good rate and organize the operational process.

Until loading one of the drums into the Metroliner III we got, it was necessary to “depalletize” the drums and to obtain the permits to move dangerous cargo at the airport of origin and also with the airport authorities in MTY.

In the image above, we can see four of the most common charter airplanes: clockwise, from the top left, a Metroliner, a Falcon, a Short 360 and a Lear.

A happy end, just in time!

As we mentioned a few lines above, if at least part of the painting did not reach the production line, the just in time process would fail and would be interrupted. However, with the intelligent and efficient work of our teams, the part of the product necessary to avoid product disruption took off at 4:32am from MTY, when our teams in TLC were already prepared with the necessary permits and airport-door transportation.

Just in time the products flown by charter flight reached the client’s plant. The painting lasted exactly the necessary as a production input, until the other drums arrived in the ground unit, from Laredo, in a perfect coordinated work between different Europartners Group teams.

Today we learned how the ability to come up with alternatives is a great logistic gimmick and tailor-made solutions & our Critical Cargo teams are some of our best differentiators. But we also want you to learn one of our biggest secrets: a corporate culture that seeks talents to cultivate, instead of employees. Get to know our services, how we work for you to have the best customer experience and contact us. We want to make your local or global dreams come true!