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The Professional Packers’ Choice | Production Transport Services
When dealing with valuable freight, you have to be picky about who—and what—you work with. That’s why Production Transport Services prefer to ship with Fiasco cases.
It’s not every day a freight company is asked to transport a whale skeleton. But then, Production Transport Services is not an everyday freight company. They specialize in valuable freight, freight that, according to Logistics Manager Declan Cudd, “needs a high level of attention, is packed securely, and not double-handled.” In other words, when you’re trying to figure out how to get the entire skeleton of a Gray’s beaked whale to Whanganui Regional Museum, you call Production Transport Services.
What makes them better equipped to handle valuable freight than other transport companies? For Declan, it boils down to having the right people. Their stable of drivers are all experienced production technicians. While other outfits are often guilty of having freight fall off trucks or damaged by forklifts, Production Transport Services protects its cargo by handpicking drivers with a keen awareness of its value. “We’re pretty selective,” explains Declan, who himself spent years in the trenches as a lighting tech. “We want to maintain the service, so we are picky about who we use.”
Packing Trucks in Half the Time
You could say, therefore, that the company has a knack for recognizing quality. This eye for excellence apparently applies not just to people; it extends to products too. Although they have no need to buy road cases themselves, they often handle their clients’ road cases. So while not a Fiasco customer, Production Transport Services are experts in truck-packing. And in their informed opinion, Fiasco cases are the best for loading trucks efficiently and safely.
It’s no wonder. Fiasco has gone to such great pains to develop a superior truck-packing system that they have their own name for it: “Truck Packology.” Truck Packology works because all Fiasco cases are built to standardized dimensions, which makes life simple for Production Transport Services. Declan notes, for example, that unlike custom-built road cases, Fiasco cases can be easily double-stacked.
“All our trucks are 2420mm in width,” Declan adds. “That’s the crucial number for 600mm-wide road cases. Because everything’s that width, you can maximize the ability to get four across the trucks.” If math isn’t your strong suit, then here’s a figure that’s easy to grasp: “I reckon it halves the loading time,” says Declan when asked if packing a truck with Fiasco cases is quicker than doing so with ordinary road cases.
“I reckon it halves the loading time.”
All in all, that makes for a more enjoyable, hassle-free job. “Often, you rock up to load a truck for a client . . . and see a lot of different types of cases, then you know you’re in for a tough load and it’ll be hard to maximize space,” says Declan. “But when you rock up and see Fiasco cases, you think, ‘Sweet!’”
“When you rock up and see Fiasco cases, you think, ‘Sweet!’”
Balancing Act
There’s another, less obvious reason for his preference for working with Fiasco cases: safety. “When loading a truck, you need to balance the load. You can’t have cases on one side and truss on the other. That’ll increase the risk of rollover,” explains Declan. “Fiasco cases mean you can stack them really evenly throughout, and so it’s a lot easier to balance the truck.” He goes on to add, “It’s a huge safety thing. An imbalanced load is going to increase the stress on the truck, and the stress on the driver.” This is an important point. Fiasco is not just about looking after your gear right; it’s about looking after your people right too. As health and safety regulations become increasingly stringent, using safe, secure equipment is paramount.
Production Transport Services have been impressed by the superiority of Fiasco, and it appears they’re not the only ones taking notice. “We work with a lot of companies and most are now using Fiasco,” says Declan. And while many clients’ road cases are still a mix of Fiasco and other manufacturers, a clear trend is emerging on the New Zealand scene: “As [production companies] replace, they’re replacing with Fiasco cases.” It seems more and more people are learning what the Production Transport Service team already knows: Fiasco road cases are the best way to store and move your precious gear, no matter what it is—even whale bones.
