Remember the ZIM Kingston freighter debacle last fall? There’ve been so many disruptions in the past two years, it mostly was forgotten after the flames were put out, and you’d be forgiven for forgetting.
The ship lost 109 containers overboard after an intense storm off the coast of Vancouver in October. A day later, a fire broke out and burned aboard the ship for more than a week before authorities were able to douse the flames. The ship sat anchored for weeks, much of its cargo rotted, ruined or in ashes while waiting for approval to dock and begin wading through the mess.
I had several shipper friends with freight on that ship. They had to go to their bosses every day and answer questions like: Was our cargo on that ship? Was it lost overboard or burned? Is it recoverable? What’s the value of product we had on the ship? Do we have the same SKUs on any other ships?
Very few freight forwarders could answer those questions for their customers, meaning those shippers didn’t have answers for their bosses. The forwarders that did have answers won customers for life.
Read the Full Article