ODFL adds ten ports to Pacific Promise service

Spurred in large part by a 40 percent gain in shipments from Asia in 2011, less-than-truckload (LTL) transportation services provider Old Dominion Freight Line (ODFL) said it has expanded its Pacific Promise less-than-container load (LCL) service to ten ports in eight Asian countries.

Introduced by ODFL in March 2009, the Pacific Promise is a less-than-container load (LCL) service between ODFL and various ocean carriers. This is a joint guaranteed LCL service from Asia to the U.S., which allows importers to move LCL quantities “with a much higher degree of velocity, predictability, and visibility” than has previously been available and is also backed by a money-back guarantee.

The Pacific Promise service is now available in 23 ports in ten countries, with the new ports including: Manila, Philippines; Singapore; Jakarta and Surabaya Indonesia; Penang, Malaysia; Port Klang, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia; Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam; Bangkok, Thailand; Phnom Penh, Cambodia; and Busan, Korea.

Last June, ODFL added three Taiwanese ports to the Pacific Promise service: Taichung, Keelung, and Kaohsiung.

ODFL officials said that the Pacific Promise offers shippers standard guaranteed transit times and simplified rates from the ports it serves to any U.S.-based destination and also includes port-to-door tracking for all shipments. The company also said that this benefits companies shipping from a single origin to multiple destinations as well as those using air freight, which cannot entrust time-sensitive shipments to a traditional LCL.

“In an average month, we move shipments between the U.S. and more than 40 countries, with a significant amount of that freight to and from Asia,” said Greg Plemmons, Vice President of OD-Global, an international shipping division of Old Dominion, in a statement. “Expanding Pacific Promise to include the countries in Asia to which our customers most frequently ship gives them greater access to our reliable and cost-efficient service. The result is an increase in supply chain efficiency, thereby saving our customers time and money.”

“For shipments that cannot be trusted to standard ocean LCL service, Pacific Promise offers customers an LCL shipping solution that is up to 75 percent less expensive than air freight,” said Plemmons. “Customers also benefit from the service’s predictability, visibility and reliability.”

In a previous interview, Plemmons said that customer demand has driven this program from its inception and will drive further expansions in the future.

Plemmons commented that the Pacific Promise service has generated a lot of interest, and while bookings started off slowly in 2009, he said it has grown considerably, as customers who are tired of paying air freight rates have learned that they can accomplish almost the same service with better visibility and savings of up to 70 percent.

When asked about specific transit times for the Pacific Promise service, Plemmons explained that transit times vary depending upon the origin and destination. ODFL officials added that shippers can ten days or more from standard LCL transit times.

Other examples of LCL services in the marketplace include an Asia-Memphis LCL service rolled out by Averitt Express in July 2008 and OceanGuaranteed, collaboration between Con-way Freight and APL Logistics that was first introduced in August 2006.