Heading on the right track

Maersk’s intercontinental rail offers efficient alternatives to car maker.

The background

Seeking logistical efficiency has been a hallmark of some of the most successful brands. They continuously search for solutions that bring the biggest impact through the smallest amount of investment. These solutions can be as broad as launching a new product line to something as focused as shifting to a new mode of logistics. Our customer, one of the largest automobile manufacturers in the world, chose long-term efficiency over short-term fixes.

The challenge

The customer sells automobiles in almost every country in the world and routinely deals with complicated routes. Before, they had relied heavily on ocean freight forwarding and air freight. While these services worked well for long and simple routes, connections through complicated corridors remained a challenge.

Neither mode was fitting in with the customer’s vision of achieving cost efficiency and other targets. The ocean shipping was slow while air freight was expensive and emitted more greenhouse gas emissions. So, they needed an alternative that could address all these concerns and stay true to their larger vision.

The solution

In April of 2019, the customer invited bids for an intercontinental rail (ICR) solution. Before this, they had tested ICR only on smaller volumes.

Rail vs Air & Ocean freights

After exhaustive rounds of discussions, they appointed Maersk rail as their official ICR provider. Since then, Maersk’s ICR solution has been fulfilling all their requirements, not only in terms of cost-efficiency. ICR has helped simplify long and winding routes by acting as a reliable and fast connection between the ocean and road.

The result

Before the ICR partnership, we were serving the customer through our ocean shipping service. With the addition of ICR to the equation, overall customer satisfaction has improved even more. Now their cargo navigates through complicated channels without compromising on reliability. As a result, the customer is keen on extending the partnership to other areas of their business.

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