Contingency planning key to any project move

Detailed contingency planning is an essential feature of any project move and having the right team in place is the key.

For project cargo specialists, detailed contingency planning is a basic tool of the trade. Figuring out all the possible twists and turns — both literal and figurative— is what sets the successful project cargo personnel apart from the rest. But occasionally, something comes up that has even the most experienced scratching his or her head.

Two years back, Logistics Plus was tasked with planning and executing the transport of 13 giant brewery tanks, from the port of Izmir, Turkey, where they arrived by ship from Germany. They took the tanks by road to a Tuborg factory near the center of Turkey’s third largest city. Each tank weighed between 24 and 31 metric tons, was at least 20 meters long and more than five meters high.

The 18-kilometers journey had all the usual pitfalls and challenges, like squeezing through crowded neighborhoods, removing overhead street signs, protecting CCTVs, working with the local police and coordinating with the electric company to cut power along the route. But in this case, the logistics team had no choice but to pass along a road lined with dozens of bars and discos on both sides. Because of traffic considerations, this operation had to be done in the middle of six consecutive nights, which meant no power for two hours a night. That meant revelers flocked outside, trading loud music and dancing, for alcohol-infused rubbernecking.

“You’re dealing with all the bar owners, drunk people all around,” said Bahadir Erdil, Logistic Plus’s global projects director, as well as the managing director of the company’s Turkey operations. “It was horrifying. It was very stressful. It was also very funny.”

He then related the story about how one night a young woman came up to them with an empty glass, asking for beer, believing the tanks were full.

“I told my team, ‘with this operation, you’re having a masters’ degree in logistics, because you have everything in it,’” said Erdil.