At SFS we pride ourselves on our ability to handle project movements that require close attention to detail and around the clock supervision. In October this year we were called by a good friend and partner in Miami regarding a time critical project to Guatemala to enable the zafra (sugar refining process) to begin.

Our partner Al Germi of Acco Foreign Shipping, Inc in Miami, Florida explains the story;

“We coordinate shipments for all the major sugar mills in all of Central America. The zafra or burning of the sugar cane typically begins around the first or second week of November.

The sugar mills are the biggest employers in most Central American countries, employing upwards of 10,000 people or more per mill during the zafra, and generating millions of dollars in revenue on a daily basis.

For this reason, it’s critical that all equipment and parts are shipped, cleared, delivered, installed and tested prior to the commencement of the zafra. Otherwise, each day the start-up of a sugar mill is delayed can mean millions of dollars in losses.

So when I was in Guatemala on business in early September, one of the largest sugar mills in Guatemala enlisted our assistance. They had ordered critical parts and equipment for their mill through a local distributor in Guatemala, who in turn was sourcing the product from a supplier in Europe that has factories throughout Western Europe.

Whereas the shipments were to have already been received in Guatemala at the time we met, the sugar mill was now being told that it would not be until early or mid-November until the cargo would be ready to ship. This would mean the loss of tens of millions of dollars in lost production.

Knowing that if there was anyone that could help them, it would be Acco Terramar, we came up to the plate, and told the customer to leave it to us. Because the majority of the cargo was originating from the UK, Acco Terramar partnered up with Ross Negus and Russell Cox of Southampton Freight.

Over the course of the next 2 months, the Southampton team worked day and night, often travelling to different parts of Europe to meet-up with factory personnel, calling and e-mailing both ourselves and our customer in Guatemala until the early hours of the morning.

Using pressure, persuasion and nothing short of sheer genius, Southampton Freight had the factory make the cargo available for shipment in the nick of time, and proceeded to successfully orchestrate countless air shipments, open tops and dry containers.

It all culminated in a phone call from the head of the sugar mill that I received today, where he profusely thanked Acco Terramar and Southampton Freight for our herculean efforts, as all the cargo had arrived on time to be installed, and that the mill will now be ready for the zafra.

In all fairness, respect and deference to Southampton Freight, I told the customer that much, if not all, the credit belongs to Southampton Freight and it was an honour to work with them on this project.

Having successfully coordinated this project move, not only have we strengthened our relationship with this customer, but will now be afforded the opportunity to coordinate an extremely large generator and turbine from the Far East and Europe in the coming months, not to mention the fact that Southampton has now made a name for itself and very good inroads with this particular shipper on this project.”

The shipments were a mixture of out of gauge ocean and air consignments and we had to use a number of different types of equipment to move such as open top ocean freight containers and flat bed vehicles for the transportation. The air shipments were a mixture of heavy pumps (weighing several tonnes each) and also a shaft almost 6 metres long weighing 1.7 tonnes!

We would like to thank Al and his client for the opportunity to be involved with this exciting project and look forward working on future projects. Watch this space!

The operation required a 40′ open top container and the hard work of Hunter Aviation to dismantle the beautiful BAC Strikemaster jet and pack inside the container for transport.

In October our Managing Director, Ross Negus visited the South Island with Tony Newell, of Compass Shipping, and met Brian Hall (pictured), a charming and delightful enthusiast who purchased the aircraft and has been carefully overseeing the complete restoration at his hangar on Christchurch airfield, with the expertise of flight engineer Kevin (also pictured).

As you can see the work is almost done and we’re looking forward to seeing it fly in the near future. We would like to thank Brian and Tony for the opportunity to be part of something so unique and exciting, and wish Brian and Kevin the very best of luck with the final restoration.

We have been informed that two engine trials have been completed on the ground at maximum revs, so hopefully we can report back soon with pictures of the flight!

Our personal care and attention to such movements is borne of a desire to challenge ourselves on a daily basis. There are times, however, when a certain request proves to be more of a test of character !

In July 2011 we were requested by Prestige Cruises, our joint Cruise & Marine Logistic Network client, to pack a piano and airfreight it to Vancouver. Whilst this sounds like a fairly simple exercise, the challenge was that the AvantGrand hybrid piano was on-board the Oceana Regatta cruise vessel, arriving into Dover at 0700 hrs and leaving at 1800 hrs the same day!

We arranged for our packer, accompanied by our Cruise Logistics Manager, Russell Cox to board the vessel at dawn and begin the packing process. Our careful and meticulous planning ensured we already had measured each individual section of the of the instrument, and had part prepared a case for the items.

The piano itself was behind the entertainment stage area and had to be moved through the ship to the loading area where we could then undertake the dismantling, wrapping and packing – whilst the passengers were still on-board the vessel! Our team, assisted by two crew members worked tirelessly to ensure the process went to plan. Indeed they were finished in record time and the packed piano was unloaded from the cruise ship at 1300 hrs and returned safely to our warehouse by 1700hrs where it underwent final checking, weighing and labelling before being loaded onto our night truck destined for London Heathrow Airport.

Less than a week later the piano was loaded onto the cruise ship in Vancouver by our partners Aerostream Logistics, leaving our client extremely happy with the seamless professionalism of our Global Cruise Network.

Caring for the local community, working with local people and businesses is important to us. For some people, the wider community is a real lifeline – a way of surviving. In a little town in Northern India a local Catholic Priest runs an orphanage housing the ‘forgotten children’ of the Railways, abandoned by their families and left to fend for themselves.

Our client, The Rooflight Company, asked us to assist with a reduced charge for sending some charitable items to the orphanage. After hearing more detail we decided to offer the export completely free of charge. When you read the story below, you’ll understand why…

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Five years ago when a Catholic priest from Kerala took two street urchins from the Agra Cantt station into his protective care to rid them of the “drug-sniffing” habit, little did he know he would soon be a father to more than 50 kids who had made the railway platforms their permanent home

Father Akkara’s Navjeevan Bal Bhawan in Aligarh has 50-odd street children as inmates. “They come from varied backgrounds, different religions and are in the age group of six to 20. They are all studying in different schools like Lady Fatima, St Fedilis; some are in a Mathura school,” Father Jose told local press.

Rakesh, Shaheen, Farooqi, Gulzar and many others like them who know nothing about their backgrounds, laugh, chat, fight or watch TV, play computer games and study in a homely environment.

“Each day brings in a new challenge, I hardly get to sleep, someone’s always sick needing affectionate care. I try and make them comfortable and see they don’t miss anything in life and they respond with such warmth and love. We make no distinction of caste or religion here,” Father Jose explained.

When Father Jose started the centre for street children about five years ago, the Agra Archdiocese was cold and reluctant to help him. “But the new archbishop has seen the usefulness of the centre and the role it is playing. He has extended support and very soon we may have our own premises and better facilities,” Father Jose added.

Two years ago Aligarh’s district magistrate Bhuvnesh took the kids to see the popular film “Taare Zameen Par”. “It was a wonderful feeling to see an IAS officer mixing and chatting with the kids for three hours and watching the film together,” recalls senior Tamil journalist Shaffi Munna who operates from Aligarh.

“Every now and then we go to the railway stations in Aligarh, Mathura or Agra and look for abandoned kids or others who have no shelter or wherewithal,” Shaffi said.

“The idea came to me whenever I took a long distance train to visit Kerala or some other place. All through the journey kids would come and clean the compartment or sell something. When I talked with some of them, I learnt there were quite a few at every station,” Father Jose told IANS in an interview.

“When I returned I took a small house on rent and started with two-three kids. But help did not come my way and I was in fact transferred to Shillong. I returned after two years with more resolve and determination.

“People in Aligarh helped me raise some support and provided me with flour, dal, and other cooking materials free on a regular basis. Till date I keep getting free support from locals and it gives me a wonderful feeling of being of some use to society,” he said.

The senior-most boy Shaheen, from Bihar, said he does not want to return to his home as “I will not be able to pursue my education there.”

Dressed in a simple kurta-pyjama, Father Jose today has many admirers and supporters in Aligarh, but his dream is to set up a string of such shelters in all the districts so that street children not only get care and protection but also an opportunity to pursue their studies.

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The Rooflight Company sent clothes and sporting equipment for the children. We would like to thank them for the opportunity to help such a wonderful cause.

We would also like to thank our partners Air India, UCH Logistics, X-Ray Logistics and OM Freight in New Delhi for their help in delivering this consignment.

Whether we’re moving an envelope containing passports for crew members on-board a cruise ship in a remote part of South America or loading a container of medical equipment to move into the USA, every day is a challenge.

Some days however are a little more exciting… for example when we moved a beautiful Lamborghini Gallardo Superleggera by ocean freight to the Far East. We export hundreds of motor vehicles via ocean and air each year, although not all of them are quite so specialist as this 5.2 litre, V10 supercar – with a top speed in excess of 200 mph ! Needless to say we were not able to take it for a spin, however being part of the logistics process for such a beautiful motor vehicle is drive enough for us!

Thanks for the email. I have had the delivery confirmed by our customer, and told him we’ll also credit him back the shipping costs. He is quite happy, as am I. This hasn’t reflected badly on SFS thanks to the understanding and personal care which all of your team has shown. You have a first class customer service, which has only been backed up by recent bad experience I’ve had with one of the main domestic courier, who couldn’t give two hoots that they had lost a large and high value item.

I would like to thank you, and everyone who was involved in sorting this out for us, it is very important to us that our customers have the confidence in us to deliver a service, and working with people like yourselves I know even if it does go wrong, you have the custom care to back it up. You have gone above and beyond our expectations

Andy

LDC Sailing

Collection was made on individual flat bed vehicles and transported to our packing yard for wrapping, (heat shrink wrapping for some of the units), loading and lashing. All of this was completed under the watchful eye of our experienced surveyor, who was checking to ensure the units were adequately secured and protected prior to their journey – some 9000 nautical miles.

Because the generators were protruding the top of the container we have to overwrap each unit and then secure with tarpaulin to ensure no water could damage the expensive cargo. Desiccants we attached for moisture absorption and shock watches to record and measure any impact during transit. For added safety from mother nature,we arranged for the containers to be stowed under deck for added protection, although the initial shipments were due to arrive into Fremantle during the peak of the winter season, so heavy rains upon arrival were a concern. However the movements were delivered without any problems and several more shipments followed. We loaded a further 5 units in the middle of November weighing a combined 100 tonnes! These were delivered on site between Christmas and New Year.

Project moves such as this allow our ocean export team to express their ability of working to tight deadlines, under constant pressure to ensure each section of the huge logistical operations moves without a hitch. In doing so we ensure our partners are constantly in control of their cargo, safe in the knowledge that Southampton Freight Services are working as an extension of their own operation – even if we are several thousand miles and half a working day apart.

Manager Jamie McInnes has steered the side to a win in their first game of the season. This comes off the back of a rather impressive pre season of hard fought wins against older opposition, and some sprightly displays in atrocious weather conditions during ‘summer’ tournaments.

“We have had an excellent pre-season and the boys are in great shape, we won our first league game 4-2, against a team we had previously never even got a point!

Pre-season we played two U13 teams (a year older) and drew 2-2 one game and won 4-2 the other, and we beat Brading U12s 5-1″ said Jamie, son Angus McInnes – our Export Manager for Sea & Road.

We all wish Jamie and the team the very best of luck for the new season…

To follow their results you can use the following link http://www.sandownandlakeyouthfc.co.uk/club/103151/Fixtures

In support of the ‘Help for Heroes’ campaign the Jubilee Sailing Trust offered the Armed Forces an opportunity for up to 20 disabled/wounded soldiers, air force and navy staff to join the sailing vessel ”Tenacious” for a day sail on Monday 8th August 2011. They were joined by 25 ‘voyage crew’ members from the general public providing the ‘sailors’ for deck work but also as buddies for the day making a fun experience for everyone.

Southampton Freight Services Ltd supported the day by paying for two able seaman to work on-board the vessel,  our Export Manager for Air & Courier, Stuart “Swabbie” Green and our Accounts Manager, Wendy “Gilligan” Baldwin. Despite repeated requests and offers of additional payments, we couldn’t get the crew to agree to a plank walk for the two of them … but boy did they have to work hard!

Both Wendy and Stuart thoroughly enjoyed the day and have expressed an interest to return. “The impressive design of the ship meant everyone could do everything, from climbing the rigging, to hoisting the sails, regardless of being in a wheelchair or missing limbs, it was quite remarkable and quite humbling” said Stuart. The design of the vessel enables people of all abilities get fully involved in the working of the ship.

As a company we are proud and delighted to have been part of the day, our only regret being both Stuart and Wendy weren’t given a dunk in the ocean!

For more information on the Jubilee Sailing Trust or the Help For Heroes charities, please see the links below.

Help for Heroes

Jubilee Sailing Trust