Lynden serves the cruise industry by providing supply chain management, freight forwarding, and specialized transportation for major cruise lines operating in Alaska including Holland America, Viking, and others. "We transport everything from wine and cheese, to hospitality supplies, and to-go boxes for these floating cities," explains Lynden Transport Regional Sales Manager John Husby. "Referred to as ‘ship provisioning,’ we are the final leg to replenish the ships when they are in port in Alaska. We also assist ships in Australia, Japan, and all over the world to deliver replacement parts to maintain cruise fleets."
John recently fielded a request that required reaching out to his fellow employees Lynden Logistics Account Manager Matt Kelly in Anchorage, Lynden Logistics Assistant Service Center Manager Debbi Crain, Operations Manager Kirk Knudson in Seattle, and Lynden Transport Operations Supervisor Brandon Bovy in Anchorage. Originally a cruise ship was expecting 26 pallets of replenishment items on a normal timeframe in Alaska. The freight was coming into Seattle via rail from the east coast, with final delivery scheduled for the cruise ship while it was docked in Seward, AK. But the train was late, and complications arose.
The ship could only stay in port so long, then needed to move on to Valdez. When the train finally rolled into Seattle, the cruise line asked that three pallets be separated from the 26 and rush delivered to the waiting ship before it sailed.
"They were sending pictures to Debbi in Seattle of the specific things they needed. Debbi and her team were able to get the correct freight pulled and then made arrangements to fly it to Anchorage," John says. Matt helped connect the dots by booking space on the plane and separating the three pallets from the 26-pallet total. Brandon lined up Driver Matt Kudla (pictured above) to be at the plane to load the three pallets and hit the road via hotshot truck delivery covering 300 miles to Valdez. Almost six hours later, Matt delivered the fragile pallets of wine to the waiting ship in Valdez with 30 minutes to spare.
"We move thousands of pallets each week, but to fail was not an option here. It’s another reminder that we have great people, great processes, and many options to meet customers’ needs in challenging circumstances. Matt, Debbi, Kirk, Brandon, and Matt Kudla were all rock stars." John singled out Brandon for his specific help with the project. "He is a pillar of our operation in Anchorage," he says. "He performs miracles on a daily basis and wears many capes."
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