Professional guide

Shipping the goods

How you ship your goods will depend on one very important factor: That you have placed your order within the deadline the manufacturer tells you. Pressing the deadlines will mean two things: You risk late deliveries and orders being cancelled, or you will end up with a much higher cost and impact on the environment. Because of the current economic situation, ocean carriers offer some of the lowest freight rates in years.

According to WWD it could take several years for the world's major ocean carriers to dig themselves out of an over supply issue that they spent the last decade or more creating. While the capacity doubled between 1998 and 2006, ocean carriers like Maersk, APL, Cosco and Hanjin Shipping have reported that revenues have fallen by 30 % and about 10 % of shipping capacity has been taken out of service. Prices on container-freight have been cut more than in half, according to some sources.

Using light materials also impacts transport, both volume and weight  

Combining sea-transport with rail-transport rather than trucks, is also becoming increasingly viable. Several companies in the US have found to their surprise that they can actually transport goods via rail. In Sweden they have taken this very seriously, setting up logistic systems to fascilitate a seamless systems with ocean- and rail-transport. Cooperating with other companies, so that containers do not travel half-full, is good for the environment - but also demands that you are very focused on deadlines. Since so much of our clothing is manufactured in China and India, designers and major textile companies need to take a hard look at their "clothing miles". Using light materials also impacts transport, both volume and weight.  

The Spanish fashion chain Zara has a different approach than many other global chains to production: Fabric is cut in-house and then sent to a cluster of local cooperatives for assembly, closer to the market. The production is carried out in small quantities to avoid over supply. Benetton, the Italian brand, has a logistic system where transport and production is carefully monitored in order to keep both at a bare minimum.

The twin ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach have launched a Clean Truck Program with the goal of lowering air pollution from more than 16,000 trucks working in the ports by 80 % by 2012. In February they started collecting a fee of $ 35 per 20-foot container for goods that weren't being moved by clean trucks. In the EU, the transport sector is responsible for one third of energy consumption and half of the CO2 emissions. Which means there is a lot of room for improvement.