APL, Con-Way add Guangzhou, Canadian cities to OceanGuaranteed

APL, Con-Way add Guangzhou, Canadian cities to OceanGuaranteed APL Logistics and partner Con-Way Freight have added Canada as a new destination and Guangzhou, China, as a new point of origin for the partnership's OceanGuaranteed less-than-containerload service.
   Guangzhou is the ninth Asian point of origin and the first inland point there for the service. The addition of Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver, B.C. are the first outside the United States to be offered by the service.
      According to officials at APL Logistics and Con-way Freight, the two-year-old service is maintaining a 99 percent on-time rating and keeping costs for the service about 75 percent below LCL air freight rates.
   OceanGuaranteed allows shippers to transport cargo from the Asian ports the U.S. Canadian destinations utilizing Transpac services operated by Singapore-based APL, the world's eighth-largest container steamship line. Once discharged at APL's Port of Los Angeles marine terminal, containers are deconsolidated and cargo transported to final destination in one to four days by Ann Arbor, Mich.-based Con-way Freight's domestic delivery network. Shipments that fail to meet the delivery-day commitment receive a 20 percent discount, subject to terms of the service guarantee.
   Created to take advantage of the coupling between air freight reliability and the lower cost of ocean transport, OceanGuaranteed claims to offer the industry's only day-definite, money-back-guarantee for LCL cargo.
   According to APL Logistics, which serves as the overall program manager, the service is not only attracting shippers of high-value commodities such as apparel, electronics and auto parts, but also other commodities where reliability and cost savings are paramount.
   The service debuted in 2006 with three Chinese ports of origin — Hong Kong, Shanghai and Shenzhen. Customer demand prompted expansion last January to Yokohama, Japan; Busan, Korea; Kaoshiung, Taiwan; and Singapore.
   APL, a subsidiary of Singapore-based Neptune Orient Lines, and Con-Way have also said they are exploring the possibility of adding a U.S. East Coast import gateway to the service.