Delivering Reliability in a Challenging Market
THE CUSTOMER:
This global shipper is a leader in frozen and refrigerated (reefer) food products and logistics marketing. They work with supplier partners and customers in more than 140 countries on six continents. They’re one of Maersk Line North America’s top five refrigerated export customers.
THE PARTNER: Maersk Line, Florham Park, NJ
Founded in 1904, Maersk Line, part of the multinational Maersk Group, is a trusted, global transportation partner dedicated to reliable services that deliver its customers’ promises and support their success. Unmatched schedule reliability, extensive resources, and depth of coverage produce optimal results. At Maersk Line’s core is a strong heritage of uprightness, constant care, and innovation.
In a time when operational challenges plague our industry, customer service can make a difference. Such was the case for our customer, a world leader in marketing frozen and refrigerated food products.
Too much or too little product is a problem under any conditions, but when it comes to refrigerated cargo in the complex port of Luanda, Angola, such problems can have costly consequences.
With limited cold storage capabilities in Luanda, it was critical that only a manageable number of refrigerated containers would be delivered each week. Too much cargo would result in additional storage charges and customs clearance delays, while too little cargo would result in missed product delivery to the market. Consistent, reliable delivery was paramount.
Through monitoring of reefers to Luanda, an increase in the number of containers being advanced on earlier than scheduled vessels at the transhipment port was noted, which resulted in too many reefers discharging in Luanda at one time. Seeing this, Maersk Line’s customer service team went into action.
It started with visibility of all refrigerated containers hitting the transhipment port from around the world that were destined for Luanda. Maersk Line customer service monitored, directed, and communicated the proper adjustments associated with operational changes. A customer specific space commitment was developed that would ensure the right number of containers loaded to the right vessel each and every sailing from the transhipment port. This change helped ensure improvements as container movement became more fluid, exceptions reduced, and utilization levels stabilized.
The visibility gained from in-transit data, combined with cross functional communication and teamwork, not only improved reliability for our customer’s cargo to Luanda, but across their entire global operations. This partnership and commitment to excellence resulted in Maersk Line’s customer service team being seen as a strategic partner to our customer’s supply chain.
The shipper remarked, “Your friendly, responsive customer service team in Houston is great. They know our business and are a real differentiator. No other carriers’ even comes close.”
Delivering reliability in a challenging market is difficult. It rests with our dedicated people who provide expert refrigerated cargo service and support worldwide.