Con-way Freight’s Global LTL service – today’s answer to the clipper ships?
More than 150 years ago, the Gold Rush in California and an increasing market for Asian goods drove demand for just about every commodity. For the merchants of the day, success was a matter of transporting freight from source to market as quickly and reliably as possible. Transit times had to improve, since popular products like tea from China often took so long to arrive on cargo ships that they were stale or damaged by the time they reached customers.
Enter the clipper ships: long, sleek tall ships with billowing sails, loaded to the brim with freight and crashing through waves at previously unimaginable speeds. In fact, China clippers — noted as the fastest merchant vessel — could reach average speeds of more than 16 knots (18 mph). These ships could travel 400 miles per day, compared to the standard cargo ship, which could only travel 150 miles per day. Fast and reliable, they became a truly innovative solution to the long and complex supply chains of the day.
As a result, the tea could get to market before it went bad. And products could get into shops in San Francisco during the Gold Rush heyday with record lead times and within narrower delivery windows. Markets throughout the new American West were created and nurtured, because transit times got faster and reliability got better.
Sound familiar? Clipper ships delivered the way Con-way Freight’s Global LTL service does today — from our OceanGuaranteed® solution out of Asia to our alliance with TNT for expedited service from Europe. Consider this: Typical LCL shipments can take 28 to 32 days to reach the United States from Asia. With OceanGuaranteed, the same LCL shipments take only 17 to 20 days. The clipper ship? Nearly three months!
While our solutions might lack some of the majesty of the historic clipper ships, Con-way Freight is on a mission. To deliver in a changing world where only the best survive.
