Supporting our customers to truely benefit from the possibilites in the logistics market – that is our goal. This approach also convinced the company Dragotec International GmbH to choose us as their freight forwarder.
Dragotec International is responsible for international sales and service of Olimac harvesting machinery and equipment which is used for example in corn harvesting. The U.S. are an important market for them – and it is currently a challenging tradelane in regards to international freight forwarding.
Fully booked vessels, high shipping rates, a shortage of containers and special equipment and unpunctual vessels are some of the aspects shippers and freight forwarders currently face when it comes to shipping goods from Europe to the U.S. via container vessel. And in terms of on-forwarding of containers in the U.S. they are faced with a “trucker shortage”. In regards of these dynamics alternative transport concepts may provide benefits and help shippers circumvent the imponderables they are currently faced with in container shipping. Dragotec International was looking for such an alternative – and we provided it to them.
Utilizing the advantages of Ro/Ro shipping
Our approach was to provide a shipping concept using Ro/Ro instead of container service for the ocean carriage. “Dragotec International benefits from this approach in different ways”, says Florian Strasser, Business Development Manager at Karl Gross in Regensburg, Germany, and one of our specialists for U.S.-destined freight traffic. “With the market situation we currently witness in container shipping on the tradelane U.S., our Ro/Ro approach improved the cost-efficiency of Dragotec International's shipments and it improved planning and timing matters.”
Our customer benefits from our transport concept involving Ro/Ro shipping in regards to predictability and cost-efficiency.
Additionally, our Ro/Ro solution solved two other problems Dragotec International was facing: “Our customer needs special equipment when shipping via container vessel because their machinery - corn heads - do not fit into 40’ Standard Containers. Currently, there is general shortage of containers worldwide. This, of course, also makes special equipment less available than before. With our Ro/Ro approach, we avoid delays due to a lack of special equipment available. Instead of using containers, we have the corn heads stowed on mafi-trailers”, Florian Strasser explains.
Accounting for the current market situation – optimizing on-carriages in the U.S.
“Looking at the on-carriage in the U.S. our Ro/Ro approach provides additional benefits: we organize for delivering the corn heads directly to the consignees using conventional trucks. This makes unloading easier and faster compared to unloading the machinery from a container.”
In terms of transport costs, using conventional truck delivery is also interesting. “We save costs because don’t have to return any empty containers. Also, the current trucker shortage for container trucking in the U.S. may result in delays during the delivery of cargo the consignee and costs such as demurrage and detention may arise. Our concept of delivery by conventional truck circumvents these types of possible additional costs”, Florian Strasser states.
We organized the transports of more than 115 corn heads for Dragotec International within a two months timeframe – smoothly, on time and in a cost-efficient manner.
Profiting from “a fresh look” at existing transport chains
May other companies also benefit from a Ro/Ro shipping approach instead of continuing shipping via container vessels? “Yes”, says Florian Strasser. “The way the market situation in container shipping currently is, we quite frequently see benefits in shipping via Ro/Ro – for customers who have project cargo as well as for customers who have ‘classic container shipping cargo’”.
