Thursday, May 23, 2013

Containers Overboard!


Containers Overboard!

Israel was rocked by a tremendous storm over a 6 day period that intermittently shut down the ports as strong winds buffeted the area.

On 10 January, the last day of the storm, strong winds again shut down the port.  As per protocol, vessels in port were towed out to sea to ride out the storm.  While being towed out to sea, the Zim Constanza was hit by a huge wave knocking 26 containers overboard including two containers belonging to our clients.

One FCL and one groupage container with 3 clients including a brand new 2013 Mustang were our casualties.

Even though our weekend had started, Meirav Azulai, Import Manager, went to the office to pull the files and immediately update the insurance company.  She forwarded them the relevant documents so they could begin the claim process.

As shown in the pictures about eight containers were washed up on a sea wall including our groupage container.  Our FCL remains underwater and may never be recovered.

Besides the heartache of lost and irreplaceable memorabilia, all our clients were fully insured including coverage of the cost of shipping.  The insurance company and their appraisers are working on these claims while we have made every effort to keep our clients informed of any new development. 

While this is thankfully, an extremely rare event, we have remained in constant contact with our clients offering words of support as we help expedite completion of the insurance process.








Thursday, May 9, 2013

When the Mover Moves



Who knows better than a mover, how stressful a move can be?
  Sonigo (Israel) International Shipping knows better than most.


After 6 years at their last warehouse and office, they shut down all computers, servers and switchboard at 2 pm on 20 December 2012 and moved to a beautiful, new facility 3 kilometers away.  This followed two weeks of massive transit of some 350 storage containers and vaults.  87 trips by flat-bed trucks and 36 trips by closed trucks moved Sonigo to their new facility.


Most important, according to David Sonigo, our mail server was back up by 6:30 pm on 20 December.  “We knew there would be down time when we disconnected our switchboard and all our computers and we prepared as much in advance as possible…but I never believed we would be back on line within 4 hours.”



Sharon Raz-El, Deputy General Manager, oversaw the logistics of this massive move of people, equipment and stored goods that occupied some 4000 square meters.  Even though the new facility is only two years old and has some of the newest state of the art equipment, there was still a tremendous amount of planning, building and refurbishing required to bring everything up to Sonigo’s standards.

Sonigo said, “We are completely back to work and making efforts to fill our books for the summer.  We are building new strategic alliances with the best and most experienced moving and relocation companies in the world.  At the same time, we continue to explore the latest techniques and technologies that will allow us to provide a smoother, safer and stress free move for our clients. 

“Our new facility makes these efforts even easier for us and nobody knows better than us…moving is a stressful business.”

Sonigo International Moving, established in 1986, employees some 60 full time staff, specializes in household goods shipping and concert project logistic management.