Priority Freight, the award winning global lead logistics provider of time-critical freight transport services is exhibiting for the second year at ‘ap&m europe 2013’ Europe’s leading networking event for the Commercial Aviation MRO & Aftermarket. The exhibition is being held in Olympia Grand Hall, London from the 7th to 9th of May.

“The aviation, aerospace and AOG sectors remain areas where a particular type of specialised logistics services such as ours are often called for to deliver parts for both construction and maintenance in a time-critical and reliable manner.” comments Priority Freight’s Group Managing Director Neal Williams. “Attending ‘ap&m’ last year my colleagues and I were impressed by the quantity and calibre of airlines, manufacturers, parts suppliers and maintenance companies that were gathered there. We certainly want to be part of that dynamic community.”

Priority Freight will be showcasing its expedited freight services that have been honed to the height of efficiency by years of experience in the demanding aviation and automotive sector on Stand F54 at the exhibition this year. The company has an experienced multilingual staff that operates from nine offices located in seven European countries. It provides emergency freight solutions to time-critical transport problems 24/7, 365 days a year around the world.

‘ap&m europe’ is proud of the place it holds in the airline supply chain, facilitating business exchanges and contacts between airlines and their technical supply base. Covering the full range of MRO and related services, exhibitors, delegates and visitors between them represent the full spectrum of activities which go into keeping airlines flying.

Load date/time: 

Origin location: Wuppertal, Germany

Delivery date/time:Thursday 19th July, 12:00

Destination location: Solihull, UK

Payload: I box critical parts

No matter how large the logistics company, what resources it has at its disposal, the value of the assets it owns or how well its brand is known, it is people who deliver service. Priority Freight has this fact at the core of its business philosophy.

A job carried out for a major automotive OEM over the summer proves the point. A small but critical quantity of parts were required urgently from a supplier in Germany. There was a real danger of the production line in the UK being halted if delivery wasn’t affected by late morning.

With the goods not available until 07:30 an air solution was the only option. In order to avoid an expensive air charter Priority Freight arranged a personal courier to pick-up the shipment and accompany it on-board a scheduled flight from Dusseldorf to Birmingham. To minimise the chance of any delay a driver met the on-board courier on arrival at the airport and delivery to the plant was successfully made at 11:30. No production down time was necessary.

In the trade such on-board courier service is called ‘Hand Carry’ and is considered by many to be the pinnacle of individual, tailored service. At Priority Freight the personal touch means much more, each and every shipment we arrange is treated as if it’s to be….. hand delivered.

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Priority Freight last week received the prestigious Third Party Logistics Award at the inaugural Automotive Supply Chain Global Awards in Frankfurt, Germany.  Nominated by manufacturers and their suppliers within the automotive community, it was judged by an international panel of industry experts.

Chairman and founder of the winning company, George Williams said, “We are delighted to win this award.  The united drive and commitment of our team and our approach to logistical solutions may be regarded as unique and this experience, backed by our advanced IT programs and enhanced technologies is what makes Priority Freight outstanding among others.”

The company was particularly praised for its role in acting as a lead logistics provider (LLP) by employing multiple transportation contractors on behalf of its customers and by monitoring their shipments through the entire supply chain. Additionally, Priority Freight focusses on reducing costs for premium freight users by using rationalised procedures and processes to produce its innovative and secure timed logistics services.

The Automotive Supply Chain Award winners were selected from a list of nominees by an independent panel and these companies were judged as having made an outstanding contribution to the automotive industry within their respective sectors.  The award categories covered every major supply chain activity.  In winning the Third Party Logistics Award, Priority Freight showed the judges a wealth of practical experience backed by strong testimonials from industry leaders.

Group Managing Director, Neal Williams and CEO, Andrew Austin collected the award on behalf of the staff and Directors of Priority Freight at a gala ceremony held at the Steigenberger Frankfurter Hof Hotel last week.   Andrew Austin commented “The reason we won this top award is that we consistently meet our clients‘ requirements and expectations. Additionally, our progress superceded our original plans within the 48-month programme that we set ourselves. We’ve expanded into new territories as well as alternative market sectors whilst continuing to invest heavily in sales and new operations.“

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Load date/time:

Origin location: Mouzon, northern France

Delivery date/time: 19th October, 19:59

Destination location: Washington, north-east UK

Payload: Three pallets of automotive carpet

Dimensions: Each pallet – 205 x 134 x 68 cm

Production delays at a manufacturing facility in northern France was threatening downtime at an automotive plant the north-east of England. Priority Freight’s customer, Faurecia, the multi-national automotive components supplier required a speedy solution.

Priority’s Ed Bembridge determined that the express road freight option was not going to deliver within the required time-frame and so sourced an air charter from Vatry Airport some seventy-five miles away. Due to pallet dimensions and requirement to ship all three at the same time a AN-26 aircraft was on procured and a truck dispatched to the Mouzon factory

With the delivery vehicle awaiting the plane at Durham Tees Valley airport to make the 35 mile trip to the facility at Washington, County Durham, the consignment was successfully delivered within a transit time of eight and a half hours. No production downtime at the receiving factory was reported.

Priority Freight notified Faurecia of arrival and departure at each critical waypoint, complete visibility and traceability of the consignment throughout the transit. No production downtime at the receiving factory was reported.

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Load date/time:

Origin location: The Ruhr, Germany

Waypoints: Oporto, Portugal & the Ruhr, Germany

Delivery date/time: Monday 2nd July, 10:00

Final destination: The Midlands, UP

Payload: 4 large pallets Aluminium sheeting/Automobile parts

Just like in those ‘Road Trip’ movies where the characters just have to be somewhere by a strict deadline, the route taken by some of Priority Freight’s expedited cargo is not always A to B. In this story C and D also feature.

A large automotive client called us on a Friday. They had a potential production line stoppage, unless additional supplies of a part from Germany were not delivered by the following Monday.

At first glance this appeared to be a simple task until the full ‘road trip’ scenario was revealed……the required parts had not been manufactured yet, they were still in their raw state, sheets of aluminium. And there was another twist in the plot….the metal sheets needed to be treated before they could be turned into car parts….. the treatment plant was in Portugal!

The timeline was interesting too. The Portuguese factory needed eight hours to treat the product and the factory in Germany would need a further 24 hours to produce the parts. Then they needed to be on the production line in the UK by Monday morning.

So our dedicated team swung into action. The four large pallets of aluminium sheet were immediately trucked to Baden Baden airport, where a Saab aircraft had been positioned for the flight to Oporto. As soon as the aircraft came to a halt in Portugal the aluminium was trucked to the pre-warned tier-three supplier. As the vehicle waited and the air crew took its statutory break, the metal was treated and on the Saturday morning it was on the plane back to Germany.

Fortunately the script contained a helpful tailwind, which resulted in an arrival at Cologne airport ahead of schedule; much to the relief of both our UK client and their German tier-two supplier who were kept up-dated as the scene constantly shifted by our round-the-clock logistics team. The supplier’s factory was well prepared to start production of the parts as soon as the treated aluminium was delivered; just 24 hours after we had received the initial request.

So to the last reel of the film; on the Sunday we had a vehicle on standby, waiting at the German factory for the manufactured parts to be loaded and trucked to the UK. And the final denouement to minimise any delays, we arranged a driver swap en-route. Delivery was accomplished well ahead of schedule and costly production downtime was prevented. The end……well, not quite…. it’s all part of a long-running saga for Priority Freight.

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Date:

Where: London| United Kingdom

Welcome to ap&m europe 2013 – Europe’s leading networking event for the Commercial Aviation MRO & Aftermarket.  Join us in London on May 7th – 9th for the 10th anniversary edition of the show and become part of the ap&m family.

For more details click here

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Date:

Where: Silverstone | United Kingdom

The Automotive Supply Chain Congress provides the opportunity for leading industry players, both domestic and international, to meet, network and debate the issues and challenges which the automotive supply chain industry faces now and in the future. All sectors of the industry will be represented, from tier suppliers and vehicle manufacturers to logistics service providers and aftermarket specialists.

For more details click here

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The faces and characters of globalised supply chains have undergone profound change over the last five years as a succession of factors have conspired to fundamentally alter the relationship between manufacturers and their logistics service suppliers.

The world has become an incredibly more complex place, in what seems like an intensely short period, previously the data on outsourcing large swathes of production to lower cost regions spoke for itself, but the input values have changed, and quickly.

Labour and land costs in the manufacturing clusters of China have shot up; as have fuel costs; freight rates have swung violently; the world economy has been hit by several waves of financial crises; and lastly, the world itself has suffered a series of dreadful natural disasters; tsunamis, floods and volcanic ash, that have at times brought supply chains to a shuddering halt and exacerbated the already tough economic operating environment.

Corporations have responded to these multiple disruptions to their supply chains in a number of ways, most obviously by increasing their spend on express freight. Shipments of goods and parts, the lack of which potentially could shut down production lines, suddenly had to be sent around the world at short notice.

Express shipments have always represented a percentage of spend in any large organisation’s supply chain, but that spend, by its very nature, was unpredictable. Our services represent an expenditure that often results from failure, perhaps because of a weak supplier base or poor geographical coverage by a logistics provider.

In recent years there has been an astonishing number of events that have had a disruptive impact on global supply chains. These events have demonstrated to manufacturers that, if previously their budgets for material supply had been factored as cost A and their logistics as cost B, then the spend on expedited services would be represented by cost C; whereas now manufacturers are entering cost C as part of their regular budget calculations. A and B and C are now all combined to make a total cost consideration. This has effectively created a new sector of supply chain provision: what we have come to call Expedited Contingency Logistics, or XCL.

The process of XCL becoming a defined part of supply chain operations; as much a defined part as freight forwarding, modal freight transport and contract logistics, has been underway for about the last five years. Over the past six to twelve months multiple OEMs have come out and publically tendered for XCL contracts as part of their overall logistics spend, thereby aligning part of their budgetary component to us and companies like us.

Manufacturers have realised that there is a trade-off in outsourcing to lower cost regions. There are longer lead times, but by taking the benefits of lower production costs they also accept that they run the risk of occasionally having to use XCL services. Equally, services like ours are an essential cost if you are not carrying any stock and are outsourcing large parts of your storage requirements.

So there is a trend to lock-in expedited freight on a contractual basis, because shippers have realised that the need to use premium freight products is inevitable. While this is an enormous opportunity for us, it also presents substantial challenges, such as developing a strong, long-term relationship with our shippers.

Because some customers are now giving XCL its own budget, such services are being tendered by procurement departments that are commoditising XCL in the same way as they source materials and that means applying commodity-type pricing. This is not an easy thing to do: how does a shipper prescribe a value to something that is largely unpredictable and equally, how do you sensibly bid for something like that?

Shippers’ procurement departments are trying to commoditise our services while we are trying to turn that commodity into a relationship. Unfortunately many prefer the impersonal process of tendering through web-based platforms, which naturally leads to commoditisation.

Developing this process to its logical conclusion, there is a real danger that customers will not appreciate the true value XCL services deliver beyond that of transporting an item from A to B as quickly as possible.

That said, there are signs of a demand for XCL services on a 4PL management fee, cost-plus basis; rather than a transport fee-plus-profit margin. We know that the largest shippers are moving along that line because they see it as the only way to build a mutually satisfactory relationship with their service providers.

This model creates the grounds for longevity of relationships; it provides the opportunity to study customers’ operational needs and understand where the risks and potential for failure lies. The consequences of failure are what we deal with on a day-to-day basis. For many OEMs, such as automotive manufacturers, these risks may not exist in their own supply chains, but in the supply chains of their tier one suppliers and below, the tier two, three and four suppliers. The sphere of XCL is wide-reaching.

Some of the OEMs are already encouraging their suppliers to use the same XCL provider as themselves to enhance the holistic view of the subsidiary supply chains that contribute to their own. Issues at the tier two or three stage can be identified and feedback provided to the OEM. If a tier one supplier to the OEM has a problem with a tier two supplier that is going to impact the production line of the OEM.

A major component is information, as the ability to execute is also of paramount importance. If the tools provided are good enough to show where problems occur, then the supply chain can be made more robust. But being able to use those tools effectively requires the existence of a strong relationship. Is it the expedited freight company’s business to profit from moving as much time critical cargo as possible or should its aim be to work with the customer to reduce that requirement? We firmly believe an XCL provider’s role is the latter.

The XCL approach encourages planning and efficiencies. Having the comfort of a strong relationship with an XCL provider prevents any disruption in a manufacturer’s supply chain from turning into a production disaster.

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Load date/time:

Origin location: Iceland

Flight arrival time: 7th May, 00.08

Delivery time: 7th May, 07.00

Payload: 150 pallets Pharmaceuticals

Speed is not always of the essence for Priority Freight’s customers but timing is critical on every occasion. Being first to market with a new product was certainly critical for a large pharmaceutical company. Its drug was controlled under license in the UK and could only enter the country after 00:01 on Monday 7th May, but to maximise sales, the product needed to be in the shops by Monday morning. The source point was in Iceland; the shipment size was considerable; the customs documentation was complex and it was a Holiday Weekend in the UK. Priority Freight took on the challenge.

First off, Priority Freight despatched an experienced member of staff to oversee the operation. A specially chartered Boeing 767 aircraft was readied at Keflavik Airport and the consignment of 150 pallets loaded. Precision planning ensured the aircraft touched down at 00:08 on Monday in the UK… perfect timing!

UK Customs had been pre‐alerted and the cargo cleared without delay. A fleet of vehicles was on standby at the airport and the drugs were despatched to the distribution centre in the North of England, arriving well within the required schedule. The product hit the shops on time for a completely successful launch. The marketing people’s suffering was alleviated.

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Priority Freight, the leading logistics service provider specialising in time critical deliveries across Europe, has announced the establishment of its local business entity in Poland, Priority Freight Sp z.o.o.

Having been active in the Polish market for some three years, Priority Freight is now underlining its commitment to the service of established and potential customers by investing in a Polish business entity based in the region of Lower Silesia in Wroclaw. The move is also part of the Company’s on-going strategy of expansion in Europe designed to strengthen its service offering to the industrial sectors in which the primary demand for time critical transport occurs: automotive, aviation/aerospace, energy and pharmaceuticals.

“In order to most efficiently fulfill the demands of our customers’ increasingly complex and vulnerable supply chains throughout Europe, we are continuing our programme of establishing our own offices in critical locations,” explained Priority Freight Group Managing Director, Neal Williams. “Wroclaw’s location means that it is well situated to serve the growing Polish automotive supply sector. Poland is now one of the leading producers of auto parts in Europe and is experiencing consistent economic growth despite the current global recession. The new office complements our existing bases in the UK and Germany and will be critical in managing our expanding network of transport service providers.”

Priority Freight has a no-nonsense approach to its customers’ emergency freight transport needs. It emphasises careful planning, where possible, meticulous attention to detail in considering alternative solutions to a given challenge and hands-on attention to a shipment’s progress at every stage of its transit. Utilising its experienced staff of dedicated, multi-lingual professionals to communicate closely with clients about their delivery timings and related costs, Priority Freight prides itself on engineering the most suitable ‘mode-mix’ in any given situation to achieve a successful time sensitive delivery.

Operations Manager Poland, Arek Kowalewski will lead the Priority Freight team in Wroclaw. Arek has career experience in both the automotive and aerospace sectors, which he believes is essential in managing the nuances of the supply chain demands unique to those industries. He comments, “In the time critical niche of logistics service provision, intimate knowledge of the particular characteristics of a customer’s business model is very important. Priority Freight’s staff in Poland, as is the case throughout the Company, are constantly aware of the customers’ goals and service parameters which they apply to each and every shipment.”

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