APL Logistics, Con-way Freight team up for guaranteed ocean shipping service
Jeff Berman, Senior Editor -- Logistics Management, 8/14/2006
SINGAPORE and SAN MATEO, Calif.—APL Logistics, a global supply chain services provider, and regional less-than-truckload (LTL) freight transportation network carrier Con-way Freight announced today they are collaborating on a new service, which, the companies say, will provide secure, rapid delivery of less-than-container load (LCL) shipments from China to the United States.
The companies claim that the service, called OceanGuaranteed, will offer faster transit times and day-definite delivery that is more efficient than air freight delivery. OceanGuaranteed will offer what the companies describe as port-to-door guaranteed service from Hong, Kong, Shanghai, and Shenzhen to all U.S.-based destinations. The companies also said that shipments failing to meet the delivery date commitment will receive a 20 percent discount.
All shipments shipped from China on APL vessels will come to the Port of Los Angeles, and will be transported via ground delivery by Con-way Freight to 11 U.S.-based geographic zones. APL is also handling invoicing, tracking and, tracing, as well as the ocean carriage portion of the shipment.
The 11 U.S.-based geographic zones include: zone 1-California; zone 2-Nevada; zone 3-Oregon, Washington, and Idaho; zone 4-Utah, Colorado, Arizona, and New Mexico; zone 5-Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Louisiana; zone 6-Montana, Wyoming, North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, and Kansas; zone 7-Minnesota, Iowa, and Missouri; zone 8-Wisconsin, Michigan, Illinois, Indiana, and Kentucky; zone 9-Tennessee, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, and Florida; zone 10-Ohio, West Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, and western New York; zone 11-parts of Virginia, Delaware, New Jersey, the rest of New York, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Vermont, and Maine.
“What we are offering with OceanGuranteed that is not in the marketplace today is guaranteed reliability that when a shipment is tendered and put into the APL-Con-way system in China, there is a day of delivery assigned to that shipment at that time,” said Joe Deluca, Con-way spokesman. “What that means to the shipper is reliability.”
Deluca added that OceanGuaranteed is filling a void for shippers for guaranteed shipments for China at 25 percent of the typical air freight rate, with shipments arriving sooner than they would with standard ocean ground carriage.
The new service is also C-TPAT (Customs Trade Partnership Against Terrorism)-compliant. All OceanGuaranteed shipments will be segregated and off-loaded together at the Port of Los Angeles. C-TPAT-certified vessels, according to Deluca, will clear Customs very quickly and non-C-TPAT vessels will also be covered under the guarantee. But if a non-C-TPAT shipment has a Customs “hold” on it, guarantee is voided.
The collaboration between APL and Con-way Freight had been in the works for most of the last year, said Deluca, and it was based on the results of a market study APL and Con-way Freight commissioned with MergeGlobal, an industry research and consulting firm. The study was comprised of market research with shippers for current and emerging conditions for trans-Pacific transportation service and capacity, and shipping patterns, outsourcing practices, business economics, and customer supply chain issues.
OceanGuaranteed service will begin on September 5. Pricing will be calculated on a per-kilo rate, based on the delivery from China-based ports to the 11 delivery zones in the United States.
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