ROUND LAKE – Freight companies have struggled to navigate labor shortages, supply chain disruptions and recent trucker protests at the U.S.-Canada border.
But Trans-Border Global Freight Systems (TBGFS) in Round Lake said it has so far navigated the sea of challenges successfully and come out on top, growing its business.
“We navigated through uncertain times so well our business doubled,” TBGFS President Martin Hellwig said.
In the past year, TGBFS’ workload has doubled while the number of shipments is up 25 percent from 2021.
The full-service freight forwarding company handles 30,000 shipments, including high-tech machinery, medical supplies and raw materials, for about 1,800 businesses in North America and beyond each year.
Recent protests that broke out at the U.S.-Canadian border did delay several of TBGFS’ shipments. Hellwig said cargo routed through there isn’t an “enormous” part of business and his company’s contracted shippers were able to find other crossings to transport the goods through.
Other shipping routes, specifically those through Asia, have proven more problematic. Whereas a company could have done little planning for a shipment and experience a 30-day delay for ocean freight to come from Asia before the pandemic, they’re now waiting 90 days or longer, Hellwig explained.
What’s more is that some manufacturers are also facing shipping costs three times higher. Hellwig cited the cost of a shipping container inbound from Asia. The previous average rate was $7,000 for one container. Now, pandemic complications have pushed rates up to as much as $21,000 for a single container.
Hellwig said 25 years of resource building and TBGFS’ contacts with trucking, aviation, railway and marine vessels allowed it to lessen delays for its customers when shipping issues arose. So, when one shipping plan falls through, TBGFS can create a backup plan that gets the product where it needs to go.
Also, the fact that TBGFS tries to go beyond physical shipping and help clients create schedules while helping them with the banking and regulatory aspects of transportation drew more customers.
“We are embedded, [like] an extension of most of our customers’ shipping departments that they come to for strategy and planning so they can clinically make sure that when it’s time to ship very high, expensive equipment, that all exposures have been considered,” he said.
As a result, TBGFS’ revenue has increased by 25 percent compared to this time in 2021.
“Everything is moving in a positive direction,” he said.
