In assuming her new position, Ms. Martinez stated, "Backstage Cargo can ship cargo of any size, weight and shape from an entire film set to a TV script to the next city or the next continent."
The appointment of Maggie Martinez as vice president adds strength to the operations of Backstage Cargo that has been a player in the entertainment industry for a number of years. Maggie is heavily experienced in this highly specialized sector of the transportation business. She has both an airline (EVA Air) and entertainment (Moving Pictures Anyway) background and numbers dozens of film, television and concert personnel as valued contacts throughout the world of entertainment. "It is a very personal business," said Maggie. The new vice president has been instrumental in transporting entire sets and equipment for such major films as "Transformers" and "Anaconda."
"Satisfying routine requests are routine in our industry," stated Maggie. "Production coordinators expect you to answer the telephone at 3 AM to handle an emergency shipment without delay. A production company shooting a film in Budapest needs a special lens immediately. A rock 'n roll group can't go on stage in Tokyo because of a missing key light. Backstage Cargo must satisfy these requests without any lost time. We are a 24 hour, seven day a week business," Maggie emphasized.
About half of Backstage Cargo's traffic is domestic, half overseas. Almost all the shipments are transported by air because of tight deadlines. "Delaying production of a film shooting overseas can result in going over budget of hundreds of thousands, even millions of dollars. We can't allow that to happen," said the Backstage Cargo vice president.
Backstage Cargo can call on the knowledge and expertise of its parent, Consolidators International (CII), a freight forwarder moving cargo of all kinds to every part of the world for the past sixteen years. Maggie will be operating from CII's Los Angeles headquarters, the heart of the entertainment business.
