Joy Orlek
TOMORROW SEES the official launch by forwarder Safcor Panalpina of an integrated, time-definite, daily door-to-door service for airfreight shipments from virtually anywhere in Europe to Johannesburg.
Marketed under the name 'all.in', the service integrates the traditional services provided individually by couriers and freight forwarders to offer customers an all-inclusive package with no weight or size restrictions.
A 48-hour service is provided using daily B747 flights from Panalpina's Luxembourg hub direct to Johannesburg. An important feature of the service is its transit time service guarantee to customers.
It's a first for the local market, says national sales director Chris Cox, and responds to growing customer demand for an integrated service from the supplier's warehouse to the consignee's door, that includes customs clearance in a time definite environment.
Shipments are kept totally within the Safcor Panalpina system, which means they can be tracked and traced at any time. Customers receive a single invoice reflecting one price per kilo for the entire journey plus any duties, taxes and costs of credit extension in South Africa.
Regional sales manager for Gauteng, Andreas Nowak, believes that a major advantage of the all.in service is its clear, door-to-door rate structure, with no weight limitation, provided the cargo can physically be shipped by air.
The service is presently operating from Europe to the USA, China, Hong Kong and Japan. While the South African service will initially be routed to Johannesburg only, the major coastal cities will be included in the near future.
The concept is expected to find wide appeal in the automotive, pharmaceutical, electronics, computer, telecommunications and chemical industries, among others.
Nowak is confident that the rate structure is competitively pegged in relation to the service provided. When the full cost is tallied on a conventional airfreight consignment, the all.in tariff is an attractive option, he said.
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