A high-end furniture importer was having trouble balancing costs and delivery guarantees. Freight rate levels had more than doubled from the previous year. The client had been working on an FOB basis, meaning that costs for transporting goods to the port and loading freight into ships fell to the goods’ seller, and the goods’ buyer picked up costs for ocean freight, insurance, discharge and transport from port to destination. DSV worked with shipping lines who were focusing on reefer exports in South Africa and determined which carrier would benefit most from us using their reefers on a NOR (Non-Operating Reefer) basis from China to South Africa. This type of arrangement is beneficial to shipping lines because it requires us to assist in repositioning their containers. As a result, we were able to secure preferred rates for 40-foot NOR containers for the client and negotiated with a private rail provider to get the goods to port less expensively. The outcome was a massive cost savings on freight, a reduction in border police stops en route to port, reduced carbon emissions and a transit time in line with customer expectations.
