Ship to truck loading in Guayaquil
Project managers from a. hartrodt Ecuador manage inland transport of 573 steel pipes.
Drinking water is in short supply in the greater Quito area. Under high pressure, solutions for a reliable supply of the Ecuadorian capital region have to be realized – and this is where the project logistics experts from a. hartrodt come into the game. For a pipeline between the drinking water treatment plant in Paluguillo and the suburb of Puembo, 573 imported steel pipes with a diameter of 1.42 meters were to be shipped from the Pacific port of Guayaquil to two warehouses. "The customer had estimated a maximum of 15 days, but we completed the whole project in only six days by mid-June," sums up Shirley Secaira, Managing Director at a. hartrodt Eucador.
Avoiding additional costs, guaranteeing safety
The tight time window meant an enormous challenge with a total of 191 truck transports of three pipes each weighing 8 tons. Jonathan Pico Orellana, Project Manager at a. hartrodt Ecuador in Quito, sums up the tough task as follows: "We had to avoid stand-by costs and additional port charges by any means, but at the same time carefully implement every safety measure for the road transport."
24/7 loading from ship to truck
At the bulk and multipurpose terminal of the operator Andinave, the 12-meter-long pipes could not be stored temporarily. Therefore, on the ship, a team of three from a. hartrodt 24/7 supervised the loading into 20 vehicles belonging to a reliable partner. "We coordinated trucks for round trips, assigned drivers to shifts, managed contracts and insurance," Jonathan Pico Orellana reports. In addition, a. hartrodt Ecuador handled customs clearance and unloading. The transit time to the warehouses in Nobol and Puente Alterno Norte was only a maximum of two hours. "But there are a lot of people walking on our highways," Jonathan Pico Orellana mentions one difficulty.
Project management is a growing business for a. hartrodt Ecuador and, according to Jonathan Pico Orellana, there are few providers in the South American country. Since January 2019, he has managed eight projects – currently the second shipment is underway for the drinking water treatment plant.