From left to right: Jun Ruan, Terra Stachurski, Nicole Engelke, Yolanda Whitehead, Leonor Brito, Ashley Monzon, and Aaron Ruminski.
We are excited to start off the new year by introducing you to our Airfreight team in Chicago! In December you may remember we introduced you to our very first office that opened in New Jersey in 1994. Today we are placing an extra special focus on the Chicago office which became our 2nd Airfreight office issuing its first airwaybill in 1996. Aaron Ruminski started with Shipco in 2000, was promoted to Export Manager in 2009, and is now heading the Midwest since 2013.
Between Import and Export, Import has been the most challenging in the last couple of years. Many airlines/handlers have reduced the free time after arrival. When the free time is up very high (often more than a dollar per kg per day) storage charges are accessed. If your trucker misses a pick-up (even if sitting in line), you might be faced with thousands in storage charges. It’s a constant hassle to follow up with airlines/GHA/truckers to avoid storage charges. And if you end up with storage charges, whom do you blame (charge)? The trucker, the airline, the consignee? Often the forwarder ends up taking the hit, despite being the one trying the hardest to avoid it. We have solutions for you though.
Shipco Airfreight has a centralized import department located in Houston overseen by Director of Import, Mr. Kristian B. Nielsen (pictured left). Kristian and his team handle air imports on behalf of you as the USA import forwarder. “We have our own offices throughout Asia, and we have our AirCargoGroup partners in EMEA,” says Kristian. He continues, “So many small and midsize forwarders rely on us as their ‘in house’ procurement department”.
Shipco is a founding member of AirCargoGroup – a group of Neutral Wholesalers with extensive coverage throughout the world. This allows the USA importing forwarder the ability to take advantage of our wholesale pricing overseas and our vast services.
And we can assist with local arrangements at origin as well. Follow up, inland transport etc. all done in the name of our US based customer. Upon arrival, we are more than happy to make local arrangements up to importers door on your behalf.
For rates or more information on our Air Import product: AirImport@shipco.com
