When contingency actions began in Europe, 24/7 logistics plans to remove automotive supplies from factories were more than crucial.

In the last weeks of March 2020, rumors about the factories’ shut down across Europe began to spread. COVID-19 cases started to escalate quickly, mainly in Italy and Spain, where some of our client’s main suppliers are.

An important Tier 1 of the Santa Rosa Industrial Park, in Lerma (State of Mexico), dedicated to assembly starters, generators and alternators for combustion, hybrid and electric vehicles, contacted EP Automotive to solve a series of continuous critical cargo shipments. It was a huge crisis.

Due to the time change between Mexico and Europe, information about possible plant closings came throughout the night. It was necessary to act quickly, since the confirmation of closure only came when it was not possible to rescue the merchandise.

Critical decisions about the cargo should be made by our client and with the agents in the middle of the night.

Before the full contingency in our client’s Tier 2 and 3 countries, we managed to import 11 tons of supplies from Spain as critical cargo, 24 hours before the shipper’s factory closed. From Italy, we’ve rescued a 2.5t cargo, including a 700kg dangerous cargo (DGR) that required cold chain!

Each day, we also got requests to import cargo from a supplier in China, which had to be executed immediately.

Available 24/7

In today’s success story, our 24/7 service was not a luxury: it was crucial for the maintenance of the business. Our agents received orders in the middle of the night and immediately had to contact the best agents, the ones capable of responding efficiently and fast.

The monitoring of the entire operation was also surgical. Any changes in the plans should be received in real time and communicated at that moment to the following agents in the operation.

The picture shows two cellphones, in one, the person has no answer. On the other, our time critical cargo team is there to tell where the cargo is. On the top of the ad, it's written: when we say 24/7, we mean it.

Tense situations

The delivery of merchandise these days in factories in Europe was in an operational turmoil state.

On a Thursday, upon the arrival of our ground freight forwarder, one of our client’s shippers could not find the cargo. Everyone was tense for a few hours. The cargo was found, but it was not palletized. It was necessary to respond efficiently. While the material was being properly packaged, our agent made four trips, in two days, to ensure that the maximum number of products was delivered on time to the airline.

A fifth collection was necessary to remove what was left of the merchandise on Saturday, when the factory would only open the warehouse for 10 minutes. It was going to be more expensive than the previous ones, but our teams made everything possible to find a worthy cost-benefit alternative, and the cargo arrived on time at the Frankfurt airport, to fly to Mexico.

Trust in the reactivation

Now that the automotive industry is beginning to reactivate – followed by several other sectors of the economy – it is essential to have a trustworthy freight forwarder for your planned cargo or in critical situations. Contact us right now to find out how we can support you.