War is war, but shipping bulk orders have to be on schedule
Even if the sea is closed...
But let's cut to the chase. It's no secret that we have always had a strong productive relationship with wholesale buyers abroad. A few months before the war, we had signed an important contract with a company in the USA to produce a large number of maps, 862 of them!
Impressive, isn't it?
We completed the production very quickly. The delivery was to be done entirely by sea. A number of Ukrainian companies use this type of delivery for large shipments.
So, all 862 freshly made maps were loaded into a special container and the first stage of the journey began.
Stop 1. The maps were delivered from our manufacturing facility in Irpin to a port in Odessa. Here the cargo passed a thorough inspection and customs control.
By February 23, our maps had been loaded on the ship and ready for the long voyage. We sent the tracker to the partner. However, as you all know, on February 24, at 4 am, a full-scale war began, the invasion of the territory of sovereign Ukraine by the Russian army. They occupied the sea lanes as well.
The cargo was blocked. We were stunned, and our partners were stunned. We did not know what to do next. There was a lot of uncertainty, close to panic.
Within a few days, it became clear that it was impossible to ship the maps from Ukraine by sea. We canceled the sea orders and sent the maps to western Ukraine which was still safe from the bombings.
Stop 2. The container was then shipped to Hamburg, Germany, by land. Here is the map so you could visualize the route.
Stop 3. Port of Hamburg. The container went through a lot of inspections again and finally successfully sailed by sea to its final destination.
This is the first time that our company has experienced such logistics problems. Prior to that, even if there were any difficulties, we solved them quickly. These circumstances (add to that: the destruction of our production and office that followed) tested our level of stress resistance and ability to problem solve to the maximum. But we did it! The client was very happy because he did not expect that not only would we be able to save ourselves and our families during these most challenging times, but we would also fulfill their orders.
And that was only the beginning of all the challenges that we had to face during the war. Stay tuned for more stories!
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