Business News
Spares sail on through volcanic ash air catastrophe
Tuesday 27. April 2010 - Heidelberg UKs stores systems manager Ralph Woolford found himself stranded in Germany and was couriered back on a spare parts van!
This was only the most bizarre part of a spares part success story which resulted in 90% of spare parts ordered still being delivered within 24 hours throughout the week of airline disruption caused by the volcanic ash from Iceland. Most of the remainder were delivered within 48 hours.
Ralph Woolford had been at a meeting in the Print Media Academy in Heidelberg. Finding himself caught up in the airline disruption he decided to use his initiative. He found that the daily spares van to Brentford had been delayed from its normal 3.30pm departure because the spares normally delivered direct to the end users by airfreight were going to be added to the shipment. The Russian driver said hed be happy to take Ralph up front in the cab with him so at 7pm on Friday night they set off, arriving via the Calais-Dover ferry crossing in Brentford as the dawn broke above the tower blocks on the Saturday morning.
“I wouldnt hesitate to travel this way in future. No airport queues for check in and security and, having travelled to Sweden to my wifes family with her and three kids before now, this was positively comfortable,” he says.
For the period of disruption Heidelberg relied on its substantial UK stock holding and switched all deliveries shipped by its central hub in Germany from air to land freight and worked closely with customers so that the most urgent needs were met and print schedules were not disrupted.
Stephen Kyle, operations and consumables manager, says: “Its in challenging times that customers need to know that their supplier will raise its game and do their very best to support them. Our staff really went the extra mile to do just that.”