This article is from in the December 2007 issue of DOTmed Business News. A list of registered users that provide sales & service can be found at the end.

In retailing, everyone knows its location, location, and location.

But in shipping, whether by land, sea or air, it's communication, communication, and communication.
Or as Russell Waterhouse of the American Companies, a full service freight forwarder based in Texas puts it, "details, details, and details."

However one chooses to characterize the art of shipping sensitive and expensive medical equipment, especially such big ticket items as MRIs, CT Scanners or Mobile MRIs, it is complex, labor intensive and fraught with potential pitfalls. Often what starts as a smallish, almost innocuous hiccup ends in a witch's brew of trouble. So it's obviously best to be as proactive and detail obsessive as possible when transportation's the issue on the table.

"Communication is absolutely essential so that all the parties know exactly what's expected," says Todd Partridge, a principal with the Iowa based logistics firm, the CTS Companies. How valuable is the shipment, any special packing and handling requirements, what is the physical situation at origin and destination, need a forklift, which company's handling the rigging, any impediments to loading and unloading? That's just a scant few of the countless number of questions that must be addressed at the outset. More important, all the answers should be spelled out and double-checked long before the de-installation, packing and crating process begins.




"Establishing clear cut guidelines, getting them all in writing and then following the instructions" makes the process of shipping much more customer friendly, Partridge says. Still as everyone who talked to DOTmed Business News readily admits, given the nature of transportation and the variety of "force majeure" factors that are inherent to it, there will always be an element of uncertainty.

"A trucker's job is simple, transportation from point A to point B with no damage," says JFK Trucking, Hudson, OH, principal Joseph Kilfoyle. "But you can't control road conditions or if a tire blows."

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