Few want to discuss failure. Yet, failure is part of life—and business. It’s how we manage the tipping point that proves our mettle and helps us grow and improve best practices.
In our 45 years’ experience in logistics, we’ve never lost a priceless piece of art, damaged delicate equipment, or failed on an unusual project. At worst, we’ve encountered delays due to route changes beyond our control, or inclement weather. We still consider those wins because we keep our clients informed every step of the way. Every challenge is an opportunity to refine our tools and processes.
Refining the Process: Boat Hauling
On a recent shipment for a corporate executive, our driver contacted us the day after loading with a dreadful message: the captain’s chair was missing. There were no loose bolts, nor any indicators of transit issues. His best guess was that it had blown out or was stolen overnight while the drive team slept.
We notified the sales agent immediately. She worked to locate a replacement so that we could explain the situation with a solution ready such as “The seat was lost, but we have located a replacement.” But a replacement seat was nowhere to be found.
The agent called the shipper with the bad news and was surprised to hear, “There never was a captain’s chair on this boat.” While we were embarrassed not to have noticed that detail during loading, we were very relieved!
The failure was not having reviewed the photos taken by the driver during his initial inventory. This simple step would have provided clarity and saved unnecessary grief. We now study and log inventory photos from drivers at the start of every assignment so we can easily reference a visual manifest and ensure misunderstandings like the missing captain’s chair do not occur.
Want to know more?
To learn more about this project, and about how we can handle your specialty projects, call us at 800-545-2899 7AM to 6PM ET, Monday through Friday, or email blog@safewaylogisticsus.com.
You can also download this tear sheet for more information about the Safeway Logistics Specialty Flatbed Boat Transport Solution.
