MHD sits down with Carlo Cutinelli Executive General Manager for Customer and Business Development at LINX Cargo Care Group to find out how, despite the impact of COVID-19, its role in the supply chain didn’t skip a beat.
LINX Cargo Care Group offers combined capabilities across ports, automotive, roads, rail and forestry. Offering supply chain solutions across a truly intermodal supply chain, the Group boasts some of Australia’s largest blue-chip companies as its customers.
Having invested heavily in its intermodal capabilities over recent years, LINX Cargo Care Group is dedicated to ensuring that its customers can reduce complexity in their supply chains and run as efficiently as possible.
“Because we are truly intermodal, we’re not as rigid as our competitors. We look at unique opportunities where we can assist our customers and pass on our expert knowledge about how to run a much more efficient supply chain,” Carlo says.
Developing relationships with its customers is a key driving factor for Carlo and the team at LINX Cargo Care Group and this is evident in the way that it was able to flex quickly and service its customer base during the early challenges of COVID-19.
“We operate in the FMCG sector and have many customers in the Riverina, NSW. COVID hit off the back of an economically challenging drought period for this region and it was absolutely critical for livelihoods in this area to keep goods moving regardless of the challenges presented by COVID,” Carlo says.
Carlo is proud to report that LINX Cargo Care Group was able to flex quickly and adapt its supply chain to keep these valuable goods moving. “This industry is used to having to adapt quickly. We have robust work programmes in place for managing safety, fatigue and recruitment and it’s this kind of ability to adapt that meant we were able to deal with COVID very quickly and keep delivering,” he says.
LINX Cargo Care Group has a significant footprint throughout Australia and New Zealand, with more than 3,600 skilled personnel operating across more than 70 sites.
“We handle more than 11 million tonnes of bulk cargo per annum and maintain more than 130,000 square metres of warehousing space nationally,” Carlo says.
With corporate offices in Sydney, Melbourne, Perth and Newcastle, as well as key operations across Queensland, Victoria, South Australia, Northern Territory, Western Australia and New South Wales, including a major transport hub in the Riverina, LINX Cargo Care services many of Australia’s largest logistics operations.
COVID-19 caused many customers to rethink their supply chain operating models and LINX Cargo Care Group was able to advise its customers what the best route to market would be. “We had to flex very quickly and make mode changes to assist our customers. Some may have usually moved their freight on road, but we realised that might work better on rail in this instance and vice versa,” Carlo explains.
According to Carlo, a lot of the initial disruption during COVID-19 was caused by panic and shock as well as a lack of communication. “It wasn’t really the supply chain that couldn’t cope it was more about communications across the supply chain. While there was the issue of empty shelves, it was more about getting the goods onto the shop floor quick enough than a failure in the backend of the supply chain,” he says.
LINX Cargo Care Group is also finding efficiencies for its customers in coastal shipping, where many other logistics providers do not have capabilities in this kind of logistics offering. “Coastal shipping can offer some significant benefits for interstate freight and we are working with a number of our customers on this strategy at the moment,” he says.
When it comes to the logistics and supply chain industry at large, Carlo praises LINX Cargo Care Group’s ability to respond and react quickly. “We ensured we had our compliant, High Risk COVID-safe Plan in place very quickly. We changed our working environment ensuring social distancing was adhered to and the appropriate PPE was worn, right down to our road linehaul drivers having sanitiser and doing regular safety checks. But this is testament to the entire logistics industry, we all did what needed to be done,” Carlo says.
Carlo is proud to report that the LINX Cargo Care Group supply chain didn’t skip a beat. “Even in the strictest lockdowns we were able to support our customers and ensure that they got their goods to market in the most efficient, safe and timely way,” he says.