October 4, 2020

Award recognition for Crane Worldwide Ireland.

On Thursday, October 1st, the Crane Worldwide team in Ireland were awarded with a Strength in Unity award by Fleet Transport for their essential work during the Coronavirus pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic took the transportation world by storm earlier this year when the virus ravaged its way across Europe and began impacting the way in which we conduct business globally. 

At Crane Worldwide Logistics, as part of our value proposition to our clients, we highlight that people make all the difference when transporting freight around the world.

There was no way, we could have predicted the months that followed the initial outbreak of the Coronavirus. The exceptional skill, dedication and motivation of the key workers in our company in Ireland kept our client's supply chain's moving. Working in partnership with our clients, they proved that team work matters, working tirelessly to create transportation solutions.

To protect the work force when the outbreak was announced, most of our workers in Ireland were sent home to work, for safety reasons, as the country went into lockdown. WIth the exception of a few individuals, our essential workers, who took on the task of managing, maintaining and supporting our international and domestic operations. 

The international freight market was in turmoil, flights were grounded around the world and cargo capacity was at a low that has never been experienced before in the air freight market. A limited number of drivers were available yet due to the nature of our client base, urgent and critical shipments were coming into Ireland that needed to be supported for the welfare of those impacted by COVID-19.

There was heavy focus on the lack of personal protective equipment, that filled most of the spare capacity that was available, however, vital equipment was also urgently needed by hospitals to treat those hospitalized by the virus. Ventilators were in short supply. Our team of key workers stepped up to the challenge, managing the imports of batteries to a major ventilator producer in Ireland who had ramped up their production by 40% to adhere to the increased demand on getting ventilators into the Irish hospitals.

The batteries are a crucial component of a ventilator machine and are a specialized freight movement that requires close management every step of the supply chain. With very limited options to move shipments from Vietnam into Ireland, the team managed all the express air shipments into the country for the client.

In addition, the team supported a client with final mile deliveries of ventilators that were being assembled. Under the Irish government’s guidance of lockdown, final mile delivery was a challenge with limited operations staff and drivers. Further information here

In addition to the sense of urgency of many of the incoming and outgoing shipments, as well as the personal pressure of having vulnerable members at home and own safety, they never missed a freight shipment, providing urgent logistics services to our clients in a very demanding environment.

‘Customer service is at the core of everything we do at Crane Worldwide and we are really obsessive about our client’s everyday needs. How our team has reacted to COVID has been seamless, and the impact to our client’s operations was non-existent.’ adds Chris Deans, Managing Director Crane Worldwide.

Thank you to Fleet Transport, for the recognition of our essential workers at this difficult time and congratulations to all award winners for their essential work during the Coronavirus pandemic. Transport Heroes.