G.E. Forwarders Spotlight: Third-Party Logistics
G.E. Forwarders Keeps Products Moving
Shipping containers are the standard vessel to transfer goods by road, rail, and sea. They’ve been around for a long time and haven’t changed much over the years for three reasons: they are simple, they come in standard sizes and they stack like Legos™. In fact, shipping containers are so useful they’ve made it into the mainstream market and are frequently used as homes, businesses, and even swimming pools.
G.E. Forwarders Keeps Products Moving
Shipping containers are the standard vessel to transfer goods by road, rail, and sea. They’ve been around for a long time and haven’t changed much over the years for three reasons: they are simple, they come in standard sizes and they stack like Legos™. In fact, shipping containers are so useful they’ve made it into the mainstream market and are frequently used as homes, businesses, and even swimming pools.
Less Than a Load
There are two standard sizes of shipping containers: A 20-foot container designed to carry heavy cargo and a 40-foot container designed to carry greater volume, but lighter products. These containers can fit a ton of stuff. For example, a 20-foot shipping container can fit 100 washing machines!
What if you don’t have 100 washing machines to ship all at once? This situation is called “Less than a Load,” and it’s where G.E. Forwarders experience and knowledge can help.
Third-Party Logistics
G.E. Forwarders knows a thing or two about logistics and shipping. The company started handling air and ocean consolidations, cross-docking, domestic and cross border trucking, pick and pack, inventory management and customs clearance for its customers way back in 1979.
Its talented management team has over 30 years of knowledge and experience with dangerous goods, perishables goods, automobile parts, Garments on Hangers, and fashion accessories.
As a third-party logistics company. G.E. Forwarders is an essential factor in its clients’ success. The company handles the logistics for its customers from start to finish and counts on Toyota’s electric-powered forklifts to get the job done on time.
Behind-the-Scenes at G.E. Forwarders
Marcelo Mancilla, Managing Director at G.E. Forwarders Rancho Dominguez location, gave us a behind-the-scenes look at their facility to learn how Toyota Forklifts plays a role in making everything flow productively and efficiently.
“On any given day, we receive up to six shipping containers full of goods ready to be separated and distributed to locations all over the country,” said Managing Director Marcelo Mancilla. “This translates to 80 – 90 orders to pick, pack, and prepare for shipping.”
“Reliability and safety are key factors when we choose our material handling equipment,” he said. “We expect our products to function well and to keep our employees safe. In terms of safety, our operators like Toyota’s Active Mast Controller feature, which allows them to see if the load is level and safe by using the mast leveling technology.”
No Time for Downtime
When Marcelo said he needed equipment with no downtime, he was serious. He drove home the point when he told us about a recent situation with a client.
“We had a customer that had a product mislabeled by the manufacturer before it shipped to our facility. The customer needed us to take 1,200 boxes of finished product separated by skew and size, unpack it all, and relabel 19,000 units. To figure out how much time and how many temporary workers we needed, we timed how long it took to relabel one piece and multiplied it by 19,000. It was tight, but we told the customer we could do it.
It’s situations like this that make the reliability of our equipment so critical. We signed up for the forklift maintenance plan, and we expect our equipment to run. If we couldn’t rely on our material handling equipment, we wouldn’t feel comfortable making promises like these to our customers,” he said.
“We pride ourselves in being great business partners, and we expect the same from the companies we work with,” said Mancilla. “I cannot stress enough the level of professionalism we got from our sales representative at Toyota Material Handling Solutions, Rosie Burns. She is dependable and knowledgeable, and she knows my business and her equipment,” he said.
Perfect Partners
At Toyota Material Handling Solutions, we’re proud to be G.E. Forwarders choice for material handling equipment and forklifts, and we’re proud to be a partner they can rely on when it matters the most.
The next time you wonder what happens to the products in a shipping container, remember it takes experienced, talented people and quality, reliable material handling equipment to get the job done. It takes a team and the right partners to get it right. If you’re in the market for a reliable third-party logistics company, you can count on G.E. Forwarders. If you’re in the market for reliable material handling equipment and solutions, you can count on Toyota.