Case study: green light for the greenhouse builders

Situation

During the course of a greenhouse building project in Utah, dockworkers in all American West Coast ports went on an illegal strike for weeks, causing huge congestion at the terminals and a shortage of trucks to haul containers. The result: lengthy delays and high prices. For our client, the strike meant that a team of 30 greenhouse builders, flown in from overseas, would be left without materials, or that the materials would arrive in the wrong order.

Solution

As soon as the problem occurred, our teams on both sides of the Atlantic started looking for solutions. Thanks to longstanding personal relations with local truckers and terminal operators, our project team on the West Coast managed to find alternative ways to get the containers off the terminal and onto the construction site with minimum delays.

Meanwhile, our project team in Rotterdam searched for alternatives for containers that were already on the water or about to leave. We rerouted containers to other routes, ports and local means of transport.

Result

Our client was extremely pleased with our 24/7 problem solving capacity, and appreciated that our e-services allowed him to track the cargo throughout the process. The greenhouse was ready when the plants arrived. Our happy customer was able to fulfill all contractual obligations toward his client, delivering the project on time and on budget.