Construction of a wind farm in Canada a.k.a. how to transport 26 tons of steel

Air freight is the fastest yet the most expensive means of transport available nowadays. Customers often choose this mode of transport to haul valuable goods with small dimensions but it is not common to see elements of steel construction to be taken on board of a plane. This time it was different however. The pressure of time was so great that other methods of international freight forwarding were out of the question.

But let us start from the beginning...

APPROPRIATE PACKAGING

Long before the first transport left the manufacturing plant (a specialist site located in Poland), our expert studied technical drawings of the products which were supposed to be transported. In order to efficiently plan the whole transport process, he had to know the product inside out. Logistics services often pose unusual challenges for our specialists. We are talking about structural elements of industrial staircases for towers of wind turbines - even packaging them was a serious task.

Apart from selecting packaging we also had to plan the whole process of preparing the products for shipping - when the people responsible for packaging the products could visit the manufacturer's site and who and how would transport them to the selected airport. An additional obstacle of the planning stage was the pressure of time which was passing inexorably. Co-packing ended successfully.

AIRCRAFT - NON-STANDARD DIMENSIONS AND WEIGHT

We decided to pack the products is special, custom-made crates. Unfortunately their dimensions (even 4 meters long) and weight (up to 2.5 ton) exceeded the standards of air freight. In the end it was necessary to use a cargo aircraft.

This solution naturally meant extra costs. Nevertheless, through negotiations we were able to keep them at a manageable level. Undoubtedly the size of our company, our long presence on the logistics market and our knowledge of the business boosted our negotiating position.

WATCHING OVER EVERY ELEMENT OF THE PROCESS

After delivering our crates to the airport in Toronto, someone had to pick them up and deliver them to the end customer. Fortunately we could count on the support of our Canadian partners and thanks to their market expertise we encountered no problems whatsoever.  Naturally each part of the supply chain, from warehousing to road transport, to collection, had to be verified and regularly monitored.

Before first crates were assembled, we informed the Customer in detail about the costs. We wanted our calculations to be as precise as possible. We have very serious approach to this part of our work since we know that it has tremendous impact on the rationale of decision-making processes of our Customers.

HAPPY END

Just before Christmas Eve the consignee received the second shipment. In total the order covered the transport of 28 pallets and crates with the total weight of 26,514 kg and size of 33.34 cubic meters. There were no delays or unscheduled extra charges. The Customers might not have realized how complex the order was.

Before it was executed, our experts who specialize in various forms of transport put their heads together to tackle the challenge the Customer had faced us with. They utilized all their knowledge and experience to select the optimal combination of means of transports and then made sure that no surprises emerged on the way. Now they can feel proud that also their work contributed to the fact that at this very moment turbines on a wind farm somewhere in Canada are generating electricity.