Customers need innovation, especially in tough times. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the transportation industry learned that all links in the supply chain can break at the same time, delivering challenges across the globe.
When “normal” didn’t work, shippers and carriers leveraged boots on the ground and innovated. Moving freight to lesser-known alternative airports was often a key solution. At times, it seemed like the 4.5 million workers missing in the US economy were all dockworkers and truck drivers. Even with rates up and delays the norm, relationships with customers proved to be positive and supportive.
For Wen-Parker, our staff, who pride themselves on mastering this logistics game, made the difference under trying circumstances over the last two years, when almost nothing has worked with the precision of the past. That frustration, along with hundreds of charter flights, historic ocean moves, COVID-19 concerns, trucking shortages, missing containers and cartons, and that amazing “lost” US labor force made for a serious morale problem.
We tried to alleviate that with some salary adjustments, work-from-home accommodations, station lunches, interim bonuses, and the recognition that we can’t be as good as we want to be in this market. Striving to meet our customers’ needs while celebrating what we can accomplish is a delicate but necessary balance.
Cash is king, and the economic law of supply and demand still rules. As demand rose in 2020, basic air rates jumped about 400 percent before doubling again in 2021 during peak periods. Air and ocean providers usually require payments up front, which makes the search for space both a test of relationships from an operations perspective and a cash scramble to cover eight to ten times the working capital for the same volume as two years before.
A keen watch on receivables and terms, a creative finance staff around the world, and a nimble workforce got Wen-Parker through record volumes with only emotional scarring.