By Paul Scott Abbott, AJOTFor glassware leader Anchor Hocking and other importers of a diverse range of goods, a recently introduced Laufer Group International consolidation service is providing a timely, cost-effective, high-visibility way to get less-than-containerload shipments from East Asia to the eastern portion of the United States. The dedicated direct consolidation service – marketed by Laufer since the start of 2011 under the name “east2east” – links five strategic East Asian ports with the Port of New York and New Jersey and a comprehensive inland network covering the U.S. East. “Anchor Hocking has been using Laufer’s new consolidation program for almost three months,” said Maggie Lesniak, import manager for Lancaster, Ohio-based Anchor Hocking LLC’s Home Collection. “By consolidating at origin our LCL shipments into bigger ones or even 20-foot containers, and some 20-foot containers into ‘40s,’ to date, Anchor has been able to save over $10,000 in ocean and inland freight,” Lesniak told the American Journal of Transportation. “There is no additional cost to our overseas suppliers when consolidating cargo, so it does not affect our business with other parties,” she added. “It is a great program!” Bill English, New England region business development manager for New York-based Laufer Group International Ltd., told AJOT that one of the key attributes of the new service is that it greatly reduces the risk of delays and penalties associated with compliance with Importer Security Filing requirements of U.S. Customs and Border Protection. The new ISF rule, which took effect in January 2009 and is commonly known as 10+2 because it entails provision to CBP of 10 data elements from importers and two more data elements from carriers, has the possibility of presenting costly holdups for all importers whose goods are in a container if just one such importer fails to furnish complete data. “If everyone is not compliant, Customs pulls the box, and everyone in the box suffers a delay that could last from a day to a week,” English said. “Everyone suffers because one person is not compliant, but they do get to share the additional cost.” With the “east2east” service, this concern is dramatically minimized, said English, whose office is in the inner urban Boston suburb of Chelsea. “Because we control all the ISFs, there won’t be anything missing,” he said. Customs-related delays were significantly reduced over the past year as Laufer rolled out a similar direct consolidation service from China to the Kansas City market, according to English. In addition to the weekly East Coast and Kansas City services, Laufer also offers similar LCL services into Long Beach, Calif., on a weekly basis, and twice a month into the Pacific Northwest. “The freight moves in a streamlined fashion,” English said. Through an online visibility portal, Laufer customers see containers that include their LCL shipment being built as they follow progress from booking to final destination arrival. High-cube, 40-foot-long containers are the primary unit in the service. The wide range of commodities moved via the service includes footwear, novelty items, giftware, rugs, baseball caps, life preservers and small furniture, according to English. Containers are shipped from five Asian ports: Shanghai and Ningbo in Central China, Yantian (serving the Shenzhen market) and Hong Kong in South China, and Kaohsiung, Taiwan. In the case of the “east2east” service, containers are drayed from arrival at the Port of New York and New Jersey to a bonded warehouse in Linden, N.J., where the goods are separated according to ultimate destination. Freight heading to Boston, for example, is forwarded overnight to Boston, where it is cleared and sent out for delivery. Goods moved via the “east2east” service have headed to destinations as far west as Ohio and as far south as Alabama, Georgia and even Miami. English said the service facilitates deliveries that are between seven days and 10 days f