An apparel manufacturer importing weekly air freight shipments from Hong Kong and Vietnam was facing the challenge of serious pilferage in South Africa. The client’s cargo arrived in shipments of 40 to 600 boxes that couldn’t be palletized by the origin office due to the fact that documentation received by vendors listed the number of pieces for customs purposes. Agility stepped in to help the client prevent pilferage. We gave instructions to the origin offices to black-shrink wrap each box. Then, we increased security even more by collecting all freight four hours after its arrival and placing it under camera surveillance in case of late afternoon or weekend arrival. Additionally, we engaged the services of a company to conduct surveillance on our vehicles when collecting the cargo from the airline and transporting it to our degroup facility, then when it was collected by the local transporter and taken to the warehouse. By investigating every stage, we have been able to reduce pilferage and are working with the client to investigate the clearing agent, local transporter and warehouse agent to ensure the pilferage isn’t taking place at these touchpoints.
