Another Outsize Project Cargo Sent Via the Shipping Container Route by Forwarding Agent

GERMANY – MEXICO – Our photograph gives an indication of potential shipping problems when one is given the task of loading pieces up to four and a half metres high stowed aboard a variety of flatrack and standard containers, even when the first leg of the journey for such outsize freight takes place in the North of Germany, one of the more friendly places for transporting out of gauge loads. The 368 tonne project was given to forwarding agent Tuscor Lloyds to puzzle out, and the first task was to utilise the services of a suitable surveyor to study the initial route.

The giant consignment consisted of flexographic printing machinery, which would require twenty seven standard ISO boxes as well as ten flatracks, and firstly the 155 mile road haulage leg from the site at Bielefeld to the Port of Bremerhaven had to be checked out by the team’s route surveyor to ensure the pieces, up to 4.5 metres tall, would meet no obstructions en route. Once this was confirmed the cargo was given a permit to take to the roads, together with a police escort to head for the port.

The cargo arrived at the port of Bremerhaven on schedule, the oversize pieces already loaded and secured to flatrack containers which had been carried on low loader trailers for the road trip. Once quayside the cargoes were unloaded from the low loaders using a heavy lift crane (which Tuscor Lloyds organised to be available in-line with the unloading/loading schedule for the cargo). Now a further survey was undertaken before the cargo was loaded onto the vessel transporting it to Veracruz, to check over the flat rack containers and confirm the loads were secured and safe for ocean transportation to Mexico.

Once again shipping via a standard container vessel meant that costs were considerably reduced as against any alternative options and travelling on a scheduled ocean service also meant a more rapid, just fifteen day, transit to Veracruz where the goods were offloaded.