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The resource magazine for cargo professionals

June 2015Vol. 23, Issue 1

WDRIVE TIME

With Lynden at the wheel, automotive customers stay on track

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hen Horizon Lines was sold late lastyear, it threw a monkey wrench intothe engine for many automotive com-

panies. For 56 years, the carrier played a key role in the auto parts business flowing from the U.S. to Puerto Rico and its exit from the market left cus-tomers scrambling for capacity.

Lynden customers were in good hands. “We kept an eye on the situation and were ready to help customers find alternatives including our Dy-namic Routing service which combines air and sea transport,” explains Mike Nagle, Lynden Interna-tional Vice President, Strategic Accounts. “We now monitor each sailing to Puerto Rico from a ‘rode as booked, priority containers moved, and how many containers rolled’ measurement. We are doing ev-erything we can to protect our customers and keep the auto dealers in offshore markets supplied with the essential materials and auto parts they need.”

Special attention to offshore markets of Puerto Rico, Hawaii and Alaska is just one of many ben-efits Lynden offers to its automotive customers which include Mazda, Toyota, Honda, Porsche, Mitsubishi, Volvo, Chrysler, Kia, Hyundai and oth-ers. Services like parts replenishment and return, warehousing options and consolidations from ma-jor gateways to offshore locations sets it apart from other forwarders.

Lynden’s unique air, ocean and surface options give customers flexibility and the speed needed to reduce shipping delays and prevent lost sales op-portunities – air for overnight, urgent shipments or ocean for slower moving restock parts. Bumpers, stereos, tires, fenders, engines, sheet metal and plenty of oversized freight moves through Lynden to auto dealers throughout the U.S.

District Sales Manager Maggie Parks over-sees the distribution process for the auto compa-nies she works with from her office in Los Angeles. “The dealers often call me directly when they have an issue,” she says. “This personal contact is a dif-ferentiating factor along with our company-owned and operated offices in offshore markets of Hawaii, Alaska and Puerto Rico. With our own people on-site, we can call on the dealers to personally check in and resolve situations. Boots on the ground is a huge advantage.”

For long-term customer Mazda, Lynden picks up freight from the company’s Parts Distribution Centers (PDCs) throughout the Lower 48 and ships them via air to Hawaii and Alaska and ocean to Puerto Rico from various points including Chi-cago, Dallas, Atlanta and Los Angeles. Lynden also handles Mazda’s inbound freight from Ma-laysia, mostly comprised of navigation and stereo

Laura SandersDivision Vice President, Domestic Operations

Executive Perspective LW

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SYSTEM MEETING IN SEATTLE

ynden is proud of its reputation as the com-pany that can get it done when no one elsecan. Or when Mother Nature throws a

curve ball. Or when everyone else at a transporta-tion company has gone to bed or turned off their phones for the night. Or when all flights have been cancelled and our creative and resourceful people find room for that shipment on rail, truck or barge.

Some of our customers call us ‘911.’ We take pride in this and enjoy knowing that our extra work and effort averts disaster and brings continued profitability (and often relief) to our customers.

We stepped in to help a customer during the months-long labor dispute at West Coast ports this winter by chartering a freighter to move essential supplies for a hotel opening (see page 8) and re-routing around trouble spots at seaports. When Alaska’s Dalton Highway flooded and froze in April, Lynden’s sister companies Lynden Air Car-go, Lynden Transport and Alaska West Express

came up with solutions to move freight from Fair-banks to Prudhoe Bay to keep our oilfield custom-ers and others operating. In a perfect world, your shipments always ride as booked, but when they don’t, it’s important to know that your forwarder partner will work overtime to minimize the disrup-tion to you and your business.

Every day, Lynden employees are answer-ing emergency customer phone calls, scanning sailing and flight schedules, making that one ex-tra inquiry to explore a far-flung idea to earn the reputation ‘911.’ Making the impossible possible is the Lynden way and you can count on us to continue our award-winning brand of service. We’ve got your back.

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and Seattle were recognized for Operational Ex-cellence and, for the second year, Calgary was awarded the Lynden International Logistics Co. (LILCO) Operational Excellence Award.

Lynden Canada Co. was recognized for a second year for Customer Experience Excellence in Toronto. Lynden’s Top Gun Service Centers for 2014 included: Moscow, Brussels, Anchor-age, Portland, New York (JFK) and Atlanta. The Anchorage and JFK Service Centers received the President’s Circle Award for the highest all-around performance.

Rob Clarke, Director of International Business Development in Canada, and Paulette Shatara, Director of Business Development Oil & Gas, shared the Rainmaker Award, which recognizes a manager or owner that meets growth and profit-ability goals and delights customers.

Rick Pollock, Regional Vice President-Alaska/Russian Far East, was presented with the Hall of Fame Award for a manager who provides long-term success within Lynden or the industry. Pollock is a 30-year veteran of Lynden. “I was surprised, humbled and proud to receive this award,” he says.

trategic growth was the theme of LyndenInternational’s annual System Meeting inSeattle, and the employees who were rec-

ognized helped foster that growth with outstanding sales and operational performance.

Rick Pollock (left) with Dave Richardson, and Richardson with Paulette Shatara and Rob Clarke.

For 2014, the Anchorage Service Center was awarded the Stanley Cup as the most valuable location with the highest freight margin growth, customer satisfaction and adherence to system operations requirements. New York’s JFK Ser-vice Center received the Top International Service Center Award for total international gross profit, operations performance and profitability. Chicago

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time they are touched there is a risk of damage,” he explains. “One of our selling points is guarantee-ing customers direct delivery of after-market parts from the manufacturer. Lynden allows us to keep that promise,” he says.

Lynden is known for find-ing solutions. “We want to en-sure that the parts get to the destination in good condition so they can be put into the system immediately,” Parsley says. “We also build affordable consols that allow our custom-ers to enjoy air transport at barge pricing. Our packaging and prices are hard to beat.” Lynden ships three to four con-tainers each week from Port-land to Anchorage for automo-tive customers.

“Lynden has been a great partner for us here at Mazda. They provide a great service, but additionally, they clearly un-derstand the customer service piece,” says Joe Wright, Trans-portation Manager for Mazda North America Operations in Irvine, CA. “Through-out their organization, their staff really wants to get it right.”

Continued from page 1equipment for dealer installation.

Customers sometimes ask Lynden to step in and mobilize quickly. Last year, employees made a presentation to a potential customer on a Thurs-day. They were awarded the business on Friday and began moving freight from San Diego to Puerto Rico on Monday. Within two months, 215 loads were delivered with over 99 percent on-time performance.

Another customer asked Lynden to repair a deteriorating situation with a company handling delivery of spare and replacement parts to its Alaska dealer network. Using Dynamic Routing, the customer chose a transportation mix based on preferred delivery schedules and a goal of lower-ing operating costs. The Lynden team went one step further by developing an Auto Parts Handling Guide for the customer outlining specific proce-dures for shipping parts.

“Lynden’s creative approach reduced ship-ment damage through improved packaging and handling procedures and resulted in a significant reduction in claims for the customer in just the first year,” Nagle says.

Damage-free shipping and claims prevention is always a factor for customers, but it is extremely important in the automotive industry. “Auto parts can be tough to handle. We sometimes have pack-aging integrity issues with shipments coming from Asia,” says Sam Parsley, Operations Manager at Lynden’s Portland Service Center. In one case, head lamps were arriving in a plastic bag inside a cardboard box with no padding. Lynden’s opera-tions team made a suggestion to the manufacturer and the head lamps now arrive packaged securely in foam.

Lynden recently met a shipper’s requirement for no trans-loading or disturbance of a container-load of hand-packed auto parts from Taiwan. The parts rode ocean to the Port of Seattle where the container was picked up and loaded onto a steam-ship to Alaska. The parts arrived untouched and in perfect condition at Pro-Fit Parts in Anchorage. Owner Mike McGovney said he was having trou-ble finding a way to get the parts shipped direct to Anchorage and called Lynden. “We were sending parts to Las Vegas and repacking them for ship-ment to Anchorage which was very costly. Every

Lynden’s Maggie Parks with Joe Wright at Mazda North American Operations Head-quarters in Irvine, CA.

Guthrie Adams wraps a consolidation for shipping in Lynden’s Portland warehouse.

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here is no spiking the football or dancingin the end zone at Delta Cargo in Atlanta,but the airline certainly has reason to cel-

ebrate. Delta acquired Northwest Airlines in 2009, creating a global airline with major operations in every region of the world. The merge made it the world’s largest carrier in every market it flew with more international capacity than any U.S. airline. Six years later, it remains solid. In March, it con-cluded the best financial quarter in its history.

Touchdown Delta.“We have been cited, very humbly, as struc-

turing and managing one of the best integrations ever,” says Vice President of Cargo Sales Ray Cur-tis. “If you look around the industry, you see that

our model is now being followed by other com-panies.” Curtis led the integration of Northwest Cargo Sales into Delta Cargo less than 90 days after the acquisition. “We didn’t belabor things,” he recalls. “We followed an adopt and go process based on best practices of both companies. Us-ing customer feedback, the merger was done in a manner that was seamless for them and offered immediate access to the combined networks of the two companies.” Curtis is now responsible for leading Delta Cargo’s commercial business, which generates nearly $1 billion in annual rev-enue. His organizational focus is on maximizing performance and leveraging the size and scope of the airline’s global network, which includes joint venture partners, to ship thousands of tons of car-go and mail each day.

But the merger and the lessons learned from it still resonate. “Have we gone back and revisited things? Sure,” he explains. “Hindsight is 20-20. We made decisions that were best at the time that may now need tweaking. We’ve given ourselves some run room, and now that things have settled, we are fine-tuning our business.”

One look at Delta’s profits from last year tell the tale. In 2014, the company generated over $40 billion in revenue, with Delta Cargo earning $934 million, and the least cancellations of any airline in history since data has been kept. It is evi-dent that we are running the most reliable airline in the world,” Curtis says. “We delivered a 98.6 completion factor for the first quarter of 2015. How well the core airline operates is important to our cargo customers.”

Like any good coach, Curtis attributes the successful union of the two airline giants to its em-ployees, which he calls Delta’s secret sauce. In-ternally, it’s called the Delta Difference. “I started working in the industry in 1984 and there is a cul-ture, business approach and employee engage-ment here that I have not seen at any other airline. I feel incredibly fortunate to be a part of it,” he ex-plains. It’s also one of the greatest challenges of the combined airline. “To get 80,000-plus employ-ees pulling on the rope in the same direction is not always easy, but it works here. Everyone shares a vision.” The profit sharing doesn’t hurt either. Last year was a record distribution in profit sharing – more than 16 percent of employees’ salaries.

The Delta Difference LARGE

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From its roots as a crop-dusting op-eration in Macon, GA to transporting mail in the 1930s, Delta has been a front-run-ner in anticipating customer needs. In the fiercely competitive business of air car-go, Delta has won customers by offering unique advantages delivered by a team committed to excellence. It was the first airline in the world to offer on-demand GPS service with features such as tem-perature monitoring, light sensor, humid-ity and tracking through deltacargo.com.

Delta continues its expansion in Se-attle, operating 89 peak-day departures to 30 destinations, offering nonstop ser-vice to more international destinations than any other airline from that hub. The vast network is a plus for Delta Cargo’s fish traffic and other year-round freight. Another market the airline is winning in is New York, where its two hubs, JFK and LGA, are located in close proximity of one another.

As the perishables market contin-ues to grow, the carrier has invested in upgraded facilities in Atlanta and Los Angeles. State-of-the-art coolers have been implemented in Atlanta and Detroit and oth-er cities to support requirements for storage and transit of time-sensitive shipments. Delta recently announced approval of the Envirotainer RKN-e1 container for temperature-sensitive freight without using dry ice. Pharmaceuticals also remain a key focus for the airline this year.

Delta is currently the only U.S. carrier operat-ing wide-body aircraft into Brasilia. On a typical day, Delta planes will carry tuna from Indonesia to Tokyo, salmon from Chile to the U.S. for its larg-est importer, Costco, and lobster from Boston to Barcelona in addition to vehicles, high-fashion re-tail items from Prada and Gucci, just-in-time auto parts and pharmaceuticals.

“At the end of the day, Delta’s planes do not fly any faster than our competitors. We are all dealing with rain or snow in Boston. There’s a lot of choice out there. So why Delta?” Curtis asks. “We continually strive to be different – to set our-selves apart with customer service, modern inno-vations and new routes. We continually seek the

voice of the customer, and we take their feedback seriously. In the end, it’s all about our people and the relationships we have with our customers.”

In July, Delta is adding a new nonstop route from Los Angeles to Shanghai with no payload re-strictions. It is also launching a re-tooled website with new features to streamline the online cus-tomer experience and support its goal to increase electronic Air Waybill (e-AWB) adoption, an area in which Delta is an industry leader.

The airline is even looking ahead to recruit the next generation for Delta’s secret sauce by offer-ing a co-op (intern) program for students at col-leges such as Georgia Tech and the University of Cincinnati.

Could it get any better for Delta? Apparently so.

In February, for the second consecutive year, Delta was named to Fortune magazine’s list of 50 Most Admired Companies. It was also named the most admired airline for the fourth time in the past five years. Behold the Delta Difference.

Ray Curtis, Vice President of Cargo Sales

Delta earns most reliable airline status

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n businesses, employees are often placedinto teams to work on a project. Teamworkskills are excellent to have and great to

develop.Here are some top tips for how to work well in

this environment.

1. Communication is keyWorking in a team requires good, effec-

tive communication. Everyone should be able to speak to each other and team leaders/managers should be able to speak to all staff on the same level. Communication should be directed towards achievement and success, and it should be moti-vating and encouraging.

2. Strong leadershipA team leader must have strong leadership

skills. The head of the project or task needs to ex-hibit good behavior and management, while show-ing direction and focus. This will easily rub off on the rest of the team and encourage improvement in their performance.

3. Goals and aimsBusiness objectives and aims should be

established right at the beginning of the project. These should be written down and given to ev-eryone as a reminder. People want to strive to do well so the aims need to be common goals among all the team members so they work together to achieve the targets.

4. TrustWithin any team, trust is essential. Details

of new projects or developments should be kept within the team, not hidden from one another, but not exposed elsewhere unless necessary.

5. Set a good exampleEvery single member of the team needs to

take pride in their work and be a good role model for others. Outperforming targets and suggesting new ideas regularly are all ways in which you can show others a good example.

6. Take turns and respect each otherRemember, everyone on a team is equal to

one another and everyone has good ideas. In team meetings, each member should be given the chance to speak and voice their opinion. Acknowl-edging others when they are speaking also shows respect and equality within the team.

7. There is no I in teamThe team is considered a ‘we’ not a ‘you’ or an

‘I’. To help team morale, act selflessly and take ev-eryone else into consideration. Don’t show up late or leave first, and make sure the work is divided equally between everyone.

8. Avoid negativityNegativity in the office can have an effect on

team members so pessimistic feelings such as jealousy should be eradicated as soon as possible.

9. DevelopResolving conflict, problem solving, feed-

back and communication are all important skills to develop in regard to team work. Development training is important within a team and employees should have that opportunity.

10. Celebrate and praiseFinally, if the team has achieved a goal or met

a deadline then take some time out to celebrate. This can be very motivational as it makes staff feel rewarded and important.

www.laf.lynden.com

TOP TIPS FOR WORKING AS A TEAM

Sue Walsh is a Head of Business Development at Corporate Performance Development. A sales specialist by origin, she travels globally to design and deliver state-of-the-art personal, sales, management and recruitment programs. Article source: www.articlesbase.com/team-building-articles/top-tips-for-working-as-a-team-6850765.html. Author’s website: www.corporatepd.co.uk/

Published content is licensed under http://creativecommon.org/licenses.

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“Don’t show up late or leave first…”

InsideInformationNews briefs fromaround the LyndenInternational system

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New office in NewfoundlandTo better serve its oil and gas customers in

Eastern Canada, Newfoundland and Labrador, Lynden International opened an office in St. Johns in February. The location provides a direct connec-tion between Lynden offices in Houston and the island to support the growing oil and gas, mining and fishing industries. “We look forward to building our customer base and providing new opportuni-ties to new and existing customers,” says District Operations Manager Jim Giles.

The Inside ScoopWhat customers are sayingabout Lynden International

“When it comes to making sure that the logistics happen, Lynden is my first and only choice.”

James David HardenDealer Support Specialist

Porsche Cars North AmericaAtlanta, GA

Anchorage celebrates safety milestone

Lynden International’s Anchorage Service Center has logged more than 150,000 hours without a lost-time incident. “Anchorage is unique because it employs the largest number of warehouse workers, with round-the-clock op-erations. The team supports Lynden Air Cargo by loading/unloading Hercs, driving trucks, con-ducting refrigeration operations, and working long hours during fish season – they are doing a broad spectrum of work and doing it with a good safety record,” says Safety Manager Gregg Bergstrom. To celebrate, Vice President Rick Pol-lock and District Opera-tions Manager Jeff Pen-nell cooked and served a prime rib dinner for all three shifts – from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. “I think the team appreciated the recognition,” Pollock said. Chefs Pollock (left) and Pennell are pictured at right.

Senator Sullivan visits Lynden in BostonAlaska’s newest U.S. Senator, Dan Sullivan,

stopped by the Lynden booth at the Seafood Expo North America in Boston this spring. The event is the largest seafood trade show in North America. Sullivan is pictured above in the front row, far right, with Lynden employees from Lynden International, Alaska Marine Lines and Lynden Air Cargo.

Ken Hodges goes Above & Beyond Lynden Operations Manager Ken Hodges

of Honolulu was presented with an Above & Be-yond Award for first quarter 2015 for continuous improvement. “Ken will celebrate 15 years with

Lynden this year,” writes District Manager Chris Palmer in his nomina-tion. “He has worked tirelessly throughout the years to create new processes to meet or exceed the needs of both external and inter-nal customers.” Hodges

works through weekends, makes service calls to top retail customer stores to monitor deliveries and rides with drivers to identify areas for improvement.

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Lynden in the Spotlight

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LYNDEN FINDS A WAY

I t helps to have a big family. Lynden Interna-tional’s family of companies and its variety oftransportation modes were put to use for cus-

tomer Hospitality Freight Cooperative (HFC) earli-er this year when the West Coast labor dispute led to congestion and delays at many U.S. seaports.

“When HFC’s ocean shipping arrangements fell through, we were called in to help move the freight to meet a re-opening deadline at a hotel in Chicago,” explains Dave McGeath, Ocean Opera-tions Manager in Seattle. “We investigated ocean options to Chicago avoiding the problematic U.S. ports. By routing ocean to Prince Rupert, B.C., then rail, the less-urgent cargo was on its way.”

McGeath and the Lynden team then put to-gether a transportation plan using commercial flights and a chartered 747-400 freighter from

Vietnam that was going to be in the area at the right time. Cargo was prioritized with hottest ship-ments on the charter, commercial airfreight for the overflow and ocean for slower-moving pieces.

Chicago District Operations Manager Jason Hiti-Shannon was onsite to greet the charter on a Saturday morning (see above) and supervised the unloading and delivery from the airport warehouse to the customer’s facility. An unexpected snow-storm prevented the final deliveries, but by Mon-day afternoon, the charter cargo was delivered just five days after it left the factory in Vietnam.

“I knew no other company could help us com-plete the task like Lynden,” says Randy Gentz, HFC President. “As a 3PL, we are only as good as our resources. That’s why we have a 32-year relationship with Lynden.”