GRAHAM, PETE AND TEAM HAVE DONE IT AGAIN!

Times are tough and at CII we’re feeling it the same as everyone else. At least once or twice a week, whether it be Los Angeles, New York or Atlanta, our hopes get a boost from a new customer placing freight on our dock or a large shipment arrives out of the blue. This week thanks to a great team effort in Los Angeles, twelve unbelievably dense skids will arrive on our L.A. dock every Thursday, 52 weeks per year for shipment to Melbourne. The down under forwarder came to us with some very exacting questions, pricing and transit times of course topping the list. The Melbourne importer was sick and tired of the constantly erratic transit times. His merchandise was time sensitive and sales were being affected by slow deliveries.

We were honored to be approached but Pete, Graham and the team knew full well we had an enormous task ahead of ourselves to find solutions which would give the customer what he wanted but would be profitable for us at the same time. V.P Operations Mike Castro and his right hand man Fabiano Ferreira put their heads together and studied all the permutations from the physical aspects and the airlines best suited to providing the service needed. Graham and Pete wrestled with the screening issues and turning the shipper from unknown to known. The incumbent forwarder has handled the business for years, long before security became an issue and literally had done nothing to tweak any changes as the times changed.

Our précis of how we saw the freight should be handled was sent down to the Aussie forwarder. He used what we provided as the basis for his presentation. The customer was so impressed, he gave the immediately gave him the nod and this morning Graham was on the phone to the supplier setting up the first shipment for next Thursday. Furthermore, even though our pricing was more competitive, the importer said because we would be cutting a minimum four days off the average transit time they have been experiencing over the past year, they said matching the rate was our bonus for the solutions we offered!

So here’s the plug; we will move heaven and earth to do best job we can for every shipment passed over to us. We are not a faceless outfit run from some far off land; we are real Americans dedicated to quality of service. And we are grateful for every kilo placed into our care.

Tags: Graham Burford, Melbourne, Mike Castro, Peter Lamy