by Michael Gallagher
Although Spectrum Aeromed is based in the prairie lands of the United States’ upper-Midwest region, 80% of our customers are overseas . That means a large percentage of our high-end air medical equipment has to be shipped internationally. As if that didn’t already present a logistical challenge, we also offer door-to-door shipping as an option for our customers. No, we’re not crazy; we just believe in customer service, and we’ve developed a reliable shipping system that makes the work efficient. Here’s a few of our tips on how we do it.
Shipping Matters: It may be stating the obvious, but it’s first important to note that customers want a shipping option — and they will use it. When we quote a project to a client , we let them know that for an extra cost, we will handle the shipping for them. It’s a service we will help facilitate if they need it. Most customers end up using that service – out of 150 orders only about two customers will handle shipping themselves.
Make it Custom (And recycle while you’re at it!): Our customers include hospitals,aircraft operators, and people who handle charter services or patient transport. Many of them may be familiar with shipping via UPS or FedEx, even internationally. But to get a large crate with high-end aircraft equipment around the world is a much different process. We use special packaging materials, including a large cardboard crate that can be recycled, which is custom designed to ship our products internationally. (The crate can weigh up to 300 pounds!)
Keep to the Skies: All of our international packages are shipped by air. This is partially for speed and partially for the safety of the packages themselves. We’ve had amazing results; in the last three years we have sent over 450 shipments internationally and we have only had two shipments damaged.
Know Your Broker: We know how to work with customs brokers in the U.S. that assist us with clearing customs here and will assist us in clearing customs in the customer’s country. Every country that we ship into has different requirements and different challenges, so we work with trusted vendors to coordinate logistics. Many of those vendors work with us on a daily basis. Once a customer’s shipment arrives in their country at an airport and goes through customs, our logistics people coordinate delivery right to the customer.
Do you want to learn more about what Spectrum Aeromed can do for you? Contact one of our sales representatives.
Michael Gallagher joined Spectrum Aeromed in 2011 as Project Manager and currently serves as VP-Director of Production. In this role he leads the Production, Purchasing, Project Management, and Customer Service teams in a mission to delight our customers with world-class products and service.