Dear god logistics is fucking stressful.
Just spent the last two hours in a panic, because my customer booked a courier carrying commercial merchandise into Midway Airport (this type of transport referred to as a "hand carry"). We've never had one of these situations come through this airport before, so I call customs just to make sure everything is ok with them. Turns out they are utterly unequipped to process the import of goods. Zero access to the systems necessary.
This courier is already on board the flight. My customer didn't inform me they were doing this until shortly before it took off. Irreversible. They're emergency transporting parts to an automotive production line to prevent it from shutting down, and the monetary damages if a delay does shut down the line can get into the hundreds of thousands of dollars per hour. People lose their shit like you wouldn't believe when this happens, and finding fault with everyone else's courses of action is the first thing everyone tries to do. Even when you deserve zero blame, you have to spend tons of time and energy defending yourself and proving it 100%. It's not pleasant. (one hand carry got escalated so drastically one time, the CEO of a major airline got involved)
My single shining ray of hope is I'm passed straight to a Supervisor, and he seems stern but understanding. I ask if it's possible for the officers at O'Hare to review the entry and release it for them. He says he'll discuss this with O'Hare. Many customs officers would just say no and get pissed off if you pursue the subject any further.
After 2 hours of agonizing wait, they finally call me back and agree to allow it as a one-time exception. Now that I've spent the core of my Friday night a nervous wreck.
I've had like 80 fucking hand carries in the past 3 months.
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Topic: Things that made you sad today thread. (Read 9750550 times)