IFLN News 2019
Kaleido and Garland Maroc Handle Moroccan Transport
Kaleido & Garland Maroc, Renault plant in Tangier
Madrid, Spain-headquartered IFLN Network member Kaleido Freight Logistics recently handled the transport of a number of shipments destined for Renault car plants located in Spain, Russia, France, Turkey and Morocco.
For the latter, Kaleido worked with fellow IFLN Network member Garland Maroc. The cargo originated in Japan and China, the Moroccan shipments destined for the Renault plant at Zone Franche de Melloussa Tangier.
The out-of-gauge movements overseen by the forwarder partners involved both acceptance of the cargo at the port of Tangier and then trucking to the plant.
For the job, “We were approached by our Japanese customer two years ago,” remembers Xisela Vázquez, who works in Kaleido’s commercial forwarding department. The customer/shipper was Japan-based car manufacturer Nissan Motor.
The cargo was moved on flat rack containers between 250 and 300cm over width, their major ports of loading being Yokohama in Japan and Shanghai in China.
Kaleido along with Garland Maroc arranged arrival with the carrier and then overland movement to the plant, Vázquez explains. Import procedures were handled by the Renault plant directly.
A number of specific challenges were associated with the job. First, the consignee required Kaleido to hire a special crane to handle the unloading operation. And, second, the Japanese customer required Kaleido to handle insurance for the inland trucking movement locally in Morocco.
This represented a particular challenge as insurance companies in Morocco do not normally arrange insurance coverage for another company based abroad. “Having Garland’s assistance was particularly helpful in this regard,” says Vázquez.
Bruno Diogo, Morocco country manager at Casablanca-headquartered Garland Maroc – part of the Portuguese Garland Group – notes that Kaleido and Garland Maroc have been working together for some years now. “And due to the fact that we are both Iberian companies, that has facilitated relations between us,” he considers.
Diogo continues: “This shipment had tight delivery schedules. Garland Morocco helped by coordinating the arrival of cargo and handling and all the liaison between shipper, Kaleido and consignee.
“Obviously, because of the size of the project, this was challenging. Communication was the biggest challenge. But Garland and Kaleido were always in contact. In fact, sometimes we needed such close communication and that information was passed so swiftly that we used only the phone.
“The most important thing in a relation is trust! If you don’t have trust, than you are not really in a partnership. But between Garland and Kaleido, everything went fine and the cargo was delivered on time and as expected,” Diogo recalls.
And, he adds: “We have worked well with Kaleido and we are happy to work with them in the future. Kaleido is a Spanish group and Garland is a Portuguese group. So all in all we really are like sisters.”
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