Life of a Forwarder & Enjoying Success In The Pandemic by Milestone Logistics

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March 2020 will be a month that we will not easily nor quickly forget.

Despite all the measures that the Dutch government took, The Netherlands also was getting infected by this horrible virus.

First, the number of diagnosed patients started slowly but this changed rapidly and in no time, we went from 10 patients to 500 patients and it became clear that we were facing a new era. 

On March 12, the government announced the Lock-Down. A so-called Intelligent Lock-Down.

And from this point, as all over the world, the economic situation in our country changed. Many sectors were affected by this virus. Milestone was already affected by several lockdowns in Asia meaning that volumes from there decreased from February figures. After Chinese New Year, the volume never recovered back to normal.

However, February to May is also a big peak-season for Milestone Fresh for fresh melons and mangoes from Costa Rica to Rotterdam. 

Also, our flower airfreight export was a sector hit extremely hard. 

As countries around us went into a full Lock-Down there suddenly was a big decrease in demand. 

The airfreight carriers were forced to suspend most of their fleets due to a lack of traffic.

Our legendary flowers, the pride of our countries exports was suddenly facing their biggest challenge for decades. Flowers cultivated in greenhouses from all over the world were shipped to Aalsmeer Auction and from there, shipped throughout the globe.

The Dutch exporters were tearing their hair out as there were no sales of the flowers brought in for auction and when the clocks hit the 'sell-by' date, these beautiful flowers had to be destroyed.




Also, for us as horticultural airfreight specialists, this was a disaster. 

At a time when Mother's Day is celebrated in several countries, this was normally our busiest month, but in fact, there were almost no shipments.

Normally, when the volumes are as low as this, the carriers usually have good space availability, but this was not the case as the number of flights being operated was reduced by the lines and the airfreight prices, therefore, climbed substantially leading to an aggressive market where rates went up per day and so, finding space to move product at a reasonable price, became almost impossible.

This was a similar situation we encountered with our PPE shipments later. 

When we started shipping face masks from China, we faced many different challenges, one of them, the aggressive market with rates escalating and going up to 15.00 US$ per kg!

A crazy time, but we wished that would have been the only challenge, as China changed the regulations for the export of medical products and with that, increased the inspections, thereby creating a big backlog at the Chinese Airports which of course disrupted the supply chain flow.

Luckily, at the end of 2018, we changed to a new digital infrastructure for our offices. Our new operational software, new rate management tools, and various EDI connections with our suppliers has during this difficult time, enabled us to work paperless from wherever we are, aiding us to be ready to respond to your requests super-fast!

During the coming weeks, our electronic management system will be rolled out on our website for our partners, where they can apply and receive automatically generated quotations instantly. The system will operate 24/7 dealing with bookings and status updates. 




Despite the Covid-19 disaster, we have been looking at various options. 

By being creative and innovative we have been able to beat our budget so far. Our results over the first 4 months of 2020 are better than the results over the same period last year. And just think, without the Corona pandemic, the results would have gone through the roof!

THE MILESTONE NETHERLANDS TEAM - GOING THE EXTRA MILE

We are aware that with all these challenges we have been demanding a lot of our staff, having to set up a home-work-environment. Many of our people have been working from their home address, and the multi-tasking went to another dimension. Besides the daily job of the freight forwarder, we suddenly changed into being talented hairdressers, schoolteachers, and licensed shrinks. We are proud of every single team member; everybody is contributing to the best of their abilities to keep our company focused on our key elements 'Going the Extra Mile!' An important principle for success in anything in life, is the willingness to do just that little bit extra. For us, this means a willingness to make a positive impact, more and better than is expected of you.

Milestone Logistics Netherlands, with offices in Rotterdam & Amsterdam, has been a member of our G7 and X2 Cold Chain Networks since 2017.

We'd like to thank Peter van der Klift and Juri Falandt for sharing this success story and we wish them continuing successes in this year and beyond.

Milestone has branches in Alajuela in Costa Rica, Guatemala City, & San Pedro Sula in Honduras, & Bangkok, Thailand.

See more about them their website at https://www.milestonelogistics.nl/en

Strategic Partners

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It is wonderful and amazing to be a member of G7N with a very good exposure to the worldwide logistics players. G7N Conference is a great way to get exposure, and we got to meet a lot of other members, and develop business relationships. It is incredible and very exciting to be a part of your valuable network.
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Sobel Network Shipping Company has had the pleasure and privilege of being a part of the G7 Network for a few years. The G7 Network has had a reputation of being very well managed by an excellent team. Membership to the G7 Network is very exclusive with a small group of companies that are well connected and trustworthy, creating lifelong friendships even beyond the scope of work. Through these connections and networking, the G7 Network has provided some very lucrative opportunities for Sobel Network Shipping. We look forward to being a part of the G7 Network family for many years to come.
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G7N continues to be an amazing network for developing business partners and key relationships globally. Being such a dynamic operation, communication remains very prompt at all hours over a wide variety of channels, creating a friendly and vibrant atmosphere between all members. The knowledge base within the G7N Team themselves remains astounding and would certainly recommend them as first port of call.
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As founding member of G7N we wish to point out that we are extremely happy to be part of the group which has been growing constantly in the last few years in spite of the challenges coming from COVID 19 emergency which is causing unprecedented troubles to all of us, in our business and personal lives. G7N management succeeded in passing through this “crazy” time with lucidity in mind and with the right measures to keep members tied and constantly in touch.
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The concept and environment G7N team created for the conference and the Cargo Weekend is awesome, it allows you to build a friendship that is the base of strong business relationships. I hope I can keep being part of this family and meet all my new friends in the conference to come representing JM Logistics.
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Being a proactive and professionally managed network with its productive members and overnight replies to all inquiries together with providing a sense of confidence with its financial protection system, we as 3K Logistics, Turkey are very much delighted & glad to be a member of this valuable family.
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Having recently joined the G7N Logistics Network, I must say the team behind the scenes make every effort possible in ensuring partners are well connected with each other no matter the nature of the consignment. The network does a fantastic job is ensuring that all members despite their geographical locations feel part of one family!
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Thus far, Owakhe has been seeing potential in the group and we look forward for another exciting year ahead.
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The conference and members are awesome and the interactive atmosphere is particularly impressive! Never seen such a difference in networking and opportunities for everyone! You can feel the professionalism, experience and the energy of the network!
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Yes we really do enjoy our G7N conference. For the last 23 years that I’ve been attending network conferences this one is really special and cool. Members are so friendly you will really feel that we treat each other as family. We feel found a family with G7N.
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