Forwarding agent Quick Cargo Service (QCS) has started a series of air transport consisting entirely of temperature controlled (at 15-20 degrees) pharma shipments. The agent opted for a charter solution to get the temperature sensitive goods safely from Frankfurt to Shanghai.
When asked about the project, Quick Cargo’s Managing Director Stephan Haltmayer spoke of a very ambitious task that needs the utmost care and a lot of expertise to get it done properly. His
client, whose name he was not at liberty to disclose, expects the job to be accomplished precisely and without any hassle. The entire project consists of more than 500 tons that need to be moved,
in the wake of Chinese New Year, when available aircraft capacity is traditionally very limited.
Established contacts to carriers are key
To ensure efficiency, QCS decided against splitting up the shipment into different consignments and handing over the goods to line-haul carriers serving the Frankfurt-Shanghai route. In contrast,
a series of ad-hoc flights seemed to be the better solution, guaranteeing the timely transport of the temperature sensitive pharma products as defined and expected by Quick’s customer. Stephan
Haltmayer: “Accomplishing such a project, at a time when capacity is critical, proves to be a real challenge that can only be successfully met with a lot of market expertise and – equally
important – well established contacts to reliable carriers.”
4 charters total
The first flight took off two weeks ago, deploying a Boeing 777F operated by Lufthansa Cargo. Next, also LHC, was a flight conducted last Friday by one of their MD-11Fs. This week and the week
after two more charters will follow, operated by capacity providers (still to be determined), that offer the most favorable conditions, especially service-wise.
This way, the - in total 500-plus tons - of pharmaceutical products will have been flown from Germany to China once the job is accomplished, organized and managed by QCS. “A big advantage we have
is our in-house X-ray machine which saved us and our customer a lot of time and hence a lot of money when securing the consignments,” states Stephan.
Charter flights can save a lot of money…
He contends that QCS was the only forwarder that could guarantee this particular customer the accomplishment of an ambitious project of this nature in a reasonable timeframe, at a fair price and
with the quality needed.
The entire load (stemming from the Frankfurt area) picked up by QCS personnel is brought by air-conditioned vehicles to the agent’s warehouse located close to Rhine-Main Airport.
…and safeguard reputation
Stephan points out that his firm opts for ad-hoc flights when no line-haul carrier can guarantee timely capacity. He went on to say: “Two months ago, we chartered capacity for a major German car
manufacturer to deliver automotive parts to Mexico.” In this particular case, an assembly line came close to a shutdown due to the shortage of parts and components. This would have cost the
company a staggering amount of money - US$ 8,000 per minute!
Stephan emphasized that this is just one example where QCS got involved, organizing a charter flight to best serve the market and save (the client) an awful lot of money as well.
Heiner Siegmund / Michael Taweel
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