Samskip is bringing together expertise from its Bremen-based project cargo business and its dedicated air freight team at Schiphol airport in the Netherlands to leverage its full potential as the “hidden gem” in special load logistics, according to the company's release.
The joint initiative creates a focus for capabilities that extend from express air freight delivery, through breakbulk, heavy lift and out of gauge special cargoes movements by sea. The one-stop-shop service includes coordinated plane and ship chartering by Samskip.
Mostly associated with multimodal transport, Samskip has identified project cargoes as a strong opportunity for growth, based on its global logistics presence and the potential to coordinate with its shortsea, rail, trucking, and inland barge service network. The opportunity to add airfreight to the project cargo mix follows the launch of Samskip Air in May 2021.
Seafood volumes moving by air have grown strongly in the second part of 2021, especially through sea-air links into global markets via Schiphol. However, coordinating sea and air services allows Samskip Air Freight Manager Hans Blauw to convert to other opportunities. A recent requirement to help customer-facing production backlogs to transfer a 19-tonne load that would normally have been shipped by sea to air service provided “one example of how this can work”, says Blauw.
However, Blauw is more focused on growing volumes based on logistics expertise rather than opportunism. The former KLM, FedEx and TNT executive say a job for an oil major which involved sending some cargoes by sea and chartering a plane to carry urgently needed equipment by air showed what can be done. Another, for a mining company, saw equipment shipped by sea and plane on a door-door basis, with trucking managed by Samskip at both ends.
The attractions of Samskip as air freight service provider for overweight/oversized cargoes could be a “no brainer” for its existing project cargo customers, according to Siedentopf.
With 47 offices in 35 countries, Samskip also has the network, the local staff, the customs know-how and the digital booking systems “to support pain-free, A-Z project cargo logistics for large and small customers alike, whatever the challenge or routing”, says Siedentopf.
Samskip’s multimodal-focused employees are increasingly getting the message on the potential to introduce customers to project cargo services that uphold the same high standards on safety and sustainability, he adds. Currently, Siedentopf is raising awareness internally of Samskip’s longstanding role in multi-purpose vessel chartering, which often flies under the radar.