DB Schenker Buys a ‘Cargo Supermarket’ Solution to Deliver Ball Valves from Perth to Milan

DB Schenker was the latest global logistics company to take advantage of Volga-Dnepr Group’s ‘Cargo Supermarket’ service offering when it needed to deliver two ball valves fr om Australia to Italy for maintenance work.

By choosing a combination of Volga-Dnepr’s charter and scheduled cargo services, DB Schenker was able to meet its customer’s time schedule and provide a highly cost efficient solution.

The delivery began in Perth in Western Australia when the valves, packed in wooden boxes, were loaded onboard one of the Group’s IL-76TD-90VD freighters for a charter flight to Singapore. On arrival, they were transferred onto one of AirBridgeCargo Airlines’ Boeing 747 scheduled cargo services to Milan-Malpensa Airport, close to wh ere the valves were being sent for maintenance.

As well as requiring a fast delivery, the customer also requested a solution that reduced the number of loading/offloading procedures or the need for trucking between hubs to ensure the safety and integrity of the cargo. Volga-Dnepr was able to satisfy both criteria, helped by the fact one of its IL-76TD-90VD freighters is positioned in the Asia Pacific region on a permanent basis. This not only enables a fast response for customers in the region, it also reduces aircraft repositioning costs for them.

The combination of an IL-76 charter to connect with AirBridgeCargo’s scheduled 747F service ex Singapore worked perfectly for DB Schenker and its customer and was achieved using a single air waybill to reduce the level of documentation work.

Robert van de Weg, Senior Vice President, Sales & Marketing at Volga-Dnepr Group, said: “This is another good example of how we are using the full capabilities of our Group to provide the best solutions for our customers, helping them to respond quickly to their own customers’ requests and also deliver a cost efficient service. We are seeing growing demand for this type of solution, which is why we created our unique Cargo Supermarket service concept.”