Emergency logistics team saves car maker $1000 a minute

The quick-thinking team adopted an innovative approach by driving the goods to Germany, repacking the parts into suitcases and arranging for two onboard couriers to oversee their journey from Frankfurt to Bangkok. The shipment arrived in time for production to be maintained. Evolution Time Critical managing director Brad Brennan commented: "When analysing the most efficient route, we consider all available options, as the most obvious may not always be the most rapid. The overriding factor is whether the route is robust and direct enough to reach the manufacturer's production line in time to keep production going. In this case, we calculated that driving the components to Frankfurt Airport would be faster than booking them on a flight from Spain." Within two hours of the initial enquiry, Evolution had a driver in position to transfer the pallet of components from Spain to Germany. Simultaneously, the team arranged for two onboard couriers to be ready to meet the driver in Frankfurt, as the airline would not allow a single courier to book all the goods as excess baggage. Evolution arranged for their couriers to purchase nine suitcases en route to the airport in order to re-pack the components and prevent them from being damaged. On arrival in Frankfurt, the components were quickly and safely transferred from pallet to suitcases and checked in by the couriers. As soon as the flight landed in Bangkok, the couriers declared the goods to customs and delivery was made the same morning, 36 hours after the customer had originally made contact. "We have contingency plans in place in case any element of the journey should fail, and our analysts track the shipment at every step in order to provide real-time updates to customers," said Brennan. "We are increasingly finding that shipping time-critical deliveries by onboard courier provides the agility needed to meet urgent customer requirements."