Personal touch triumphs over technology, seasoned air freight executive contends

Technology, computerized tracking, and tracing, the continuing demise of high-season, slack season shipping largely driven by the steady surge of e-commerce have dramatically altered the worlds of air cargo and freight forwarding and depersonalized global logistics, contends Angel Rodriguez, a 30-year-veteran of the supply chain’s most time-sensitive transportation sector.

Rodriguez, who has held senior leadership positions with Panalpina, DB Schenker, and DSV before their recent mergers, plus most recently Flexport, is currently president of ASF Air and resides in Southern. California, where he will be setting up an office for the air freight division of ASF Global Logistics. Presently based in Charleston, South Carolina, parent ASF Global is a 25-year-old global forwarder known for bringing ‘people-first’ processes, policies and ‘human standards’ to solving logistical challenges worldwide.

The merger of mindsets at ASF Air and ASF Global is an ideal fit, asserts Rodriguez. “We both believe that, first and foremost, this is a people business,” he told the American Journal of Transportation in an exclusive interview. “At the end of the day, boxes, shipments, and pallets are important to be moved but too often in the industry, we get tied up with metrics, numbers, and trying to make it onto someone’s board and they forget they are dealing with people. This is a relationship business where you get exposed to different customers, cultures, and challenges and you need the flexibility and agility to shift

Indeed, it is not simply a transactions and transportation business, stresses Rodriguez who has worked for some 12 freight forwarders and logistics firms of all sizes on the East, West, and Southeastern US coasts during his career.

“We take the time to know, for example, why it is important to get the customer’s air shipment out the door at 4 pm on a Wednesday so he can be at his daughter’s ballet recital at 5 pm. Therefore, we’ll take care of that pickup at 3 pm on the dot without fail to the airport and confirm it is loaded on the plane by 6 pm. It is personal and we took the time to understand why. The reality is that people—our customers—trust us as an extension of their transportation department and act as such. My biggest success is making my customers look good in front of their bosses and in front of their customers.” And technology alone is not the answer, he adds.

The backbone of his philosophy is his network of “colleagues, friends and acquaintances,” that, Rodriguez says, he has worked with at other logistics firms 20 to 30 years ago. “I still stay in touch with them throughout the world as many have moved on the customer side or vendor side, giving them new perspectives in the business as well as creating new opportunities to work together yet again. There is so much to learn in this industry, far too much for any individual to know it all in a single lifetime. “

With an emphasis on “personalized human interaction” in logistics, ASF Global and ASF Air focus on “multiple service levels and multiple solutions,” tailoring them to the shipper’s needs and requirements, the veteran air cargo executive contends. “We do this because all customers need options, and one solution does not fit all. It’s a little like delivering personal service and attention to guests in a five-star boutique hotel as opposed to a two-star hotel.”

Rodriguez got his first taste of “customer service and solving their logistical problems” when he was in college in Miami and working part-time for Builder’s Square (later acquired by the giant retailer, The Home Depot). “Being in Miami, the store opened an international department for exporting generators and building materials into the Caribbean Islands that were continually hit by hurricanes and tropical storms. I learned a lot of export terminology and export documentation—the hard way, not the proper way—and decided to take classes on international exporting at the University of Miami—and then joined DB Schenker where I opened an air gateway which we called the Miami Gateway.”

Essentially, at DB Schenker, he corralled air cargo export shipments throughout the US and funneled them through Miami to Latin America to create critical ss and leverage the volume. “We additionally combined this European cargo, destined for Latin America, by bringing it to Miami as well,” Rodriguez says.

But Rodriguez was young and with his “love for” air freight’s role in logistics, he saw greater opportunities beyond an export gateway to Latin America. So, he moved to New England with a new organization that pushed him beyond his comfort zone by dealing directly with much larger enterprise clients. “That is where I learned that whether it is loose freight or a pallet or a box,” says the veteran air cargo executive. “You must have flexibility in designing a logistical solution that delivers value to the customer and does not just deliver a shipment.”

A freight forwarder lives and dies mostly by airline schedules but to get the logistical flexibility that Rodriguez claims is imperative, he joined what was once known as Panalpina (now DSV) in Southern California which had its freighter charter network agreement with the massive global aircraft leasing company, Atlas Air Worldwide. Atlas Air was particularly strong in Latin America, the market Rodriguez is quite familiar with. “When you are talking about the human aspects of logistics, you build and maintain relationships,” he says. “At the end of the day, it is about making customers look good. Again, it’s not just about moving boxes.”

Rodriguez, who has worked for several large global forwarders, insists it is not just the giant multinational shippers who need personal attention and money-and-time-saving solutions. “It is the small-to-medium-sized, mom-and-pop businesses that need that handholding today and they don’t always get that attention when they reach out to the big, assembly line freight forwarders,” he maintains.

However, ASF Air has deep experience and expertise in developing logistics programs for the automotive industry. While Rodgriguez is reluctant, for competitive reasons, to spell out a step-by-step program for an automaker client, he emphasizes that most automotive manufacturers and tier one and two suppliers need“just-in-time” transportation solutions.

“Most of our clients are either tier one or tier two suppliers,” he explains. “For example, brands like BMW or Chevrolet have what’s known as tier 1 and tier 2 suppliers and there we work closely with those suppliers but sometimes directly with the brand itself. Or we develop the program with the tier 1 or 2 supplier which are (branded parts and components) and usually under the same just-in-time delivery guidelines and constraints.”

These shipments are hardly short hauls, Rodriguez says. Usually, tier two parts are delicate finished electronic materials that go behind the dashboard or elsewhere in the heavily computerized vehicle and arrive in the US from “high tech demand” countries in South Asia such as Thailand and Malaysia, and South China including Guangzhou and also sourcing origins such as Mexico or Europe.

International just-in-time air freight is getting tougher and tougher these days, says the ASF Air executive. A typical door-to-door cargo flight from say, Asia to the east coast of the US, takes 96 hours in peak season. But add in the surge of e-commerce on those flights and it “slows things down.”

To keep things moving, ASF Air’s freight facilities are staffed throughout the weekends. “Too often forwarders and airlines are difficult to get in touch with after 5 pm on Friday,” Rodriguez maintains. “I’m not saying it is impossible but, in our case, we have created a personal (corporate) brand that lets our customers know they can call us at any time, any day of the week and we will be there to focus on their smallest or biggest problem or solution.” By having the “human touch” available around the clock, he adds, it brings the ASF Air’s brand to life and “customers have, little by little, entrusted us with their much larger on-going scheduled air shipments and, in some cases, their unplanned air freight.”

Rodriguez and his colleagues invest considerable personal time and communication to identify any “manufacturing production line down” in the supply chain. “That’s when we immediately step in and do what is known as on-board carry (OBC) which is for smaller packages that are hand carried or given the white glove service. No matter whether it is a machine part or a full container, we provide an escorted door-to-door delivery that the customer can rely on. And we do it because our customer’s reputation, the carrier’s reputation, and our own reputation are at stake.”

During his three-decade-long air cargo career, Rodriguez claims “it takes an entire army to get these (logistical solutions) done. And that takes relationships because this is a relationship business where you know who to reach out to and say ‘Hey, I know you guys are closing in 10 minutes but can you give me just another 10 minutes and handle my truck tonight so it doesn’t cost me another night before we can unload.’”

Personal relationships are important, but they are not just a freight forwarder’s magic touch for working kinks out of an international supply chain. The ASF president says there was supposed to be a ‘slack season’ after Chinese New Year this year and continuing through the summer with a slight slack. But the heavy demand from Asia to the US and on to Europe this has generated fresh (cargo) growth.”

To bolster his belief, Rodriguez cites the strong market demand that Apple recently experienced in the summer when it introduced its new Asian-made Apple iPhone 16 and a new generation of Apple watches among other products. “It has been 17 years since Apple has been pumping out phones and then would go in and eat up air cargo capacity,” he says. “It isn’t just seasonal. There is no heavy season and no low season today. It seems this is a year around today.”

“It isn’t just seasonal. There is no heavy season and no low season. It is year-round now.”