Case Study

Rogers & Brown North American Logistics (RBNAL) in Greer, SC was and still is a great example of what drives customer appreciation and loyalty regarding an import shipment via a New York port.

The scenario flowed as follows:

• Foreign vendor was late shipping raw material to the United States.
• Vessel arrives at the NY port on Tuesday.
• The Container is route-coded* with steamship line for delivery to a warehouse three states away. Steamship line cannot provide immediate truck dispatch.
• Shipment product is split between two consignees (delivery locations).
• The Consignee (delivery point) at furthest distance from warehouse is in excess of 1,000 miles from warehouse.
• This consignee is critical for raw material and faced with a plant shutdown.
• Customer calls our team member and breaks the route code on a Wednesday. Breaking the route code allows another carrier besides the steamship line to move the container.
• Our team member finds trucker to get to NY port on Wednesday afternoon only to find the container in a “restricted port zone” and the trucker is turned away.
• Persistence prevails – the container is removed from “restricted” area on Thursday AM.
• Trucker is resent and arrives at NY Port at “noon” on Thursday to find the port entry gates backlogged in excess of two miles.
• Our team members relationship with trucker paid off and the driver stayed in line, with departure from port around 5:30 PM on Thursday.
• The container moved nearly 500 miles Thursday night and delivered close to 8AM on Friday.
• He also arranged for another truck to pick up on Friday at the warehouse and deliver to the critical consignee (1,000 miles away) on Monday.

*Route-coded means the Steamship line is obligated to move the container to the delivery points.

Results: Happy RBNAL customer, happy consignee (customer’s customer), service at its best and repeat business. Building our company for the future!