UWL is one of the major shipping and logistics providers offering trans-Pacific cold storage shipping for American and Asian clientele. Besides its cutting edge on-board refrigeration for perishable freight, the firm also provides warehouse storage and in-house customs brokerage. One of UWL’s trailblazing services is the Sun Chief Express service from Seattle to Asia, a total “rethinking of the traditional carrier model.” The service emerged at a time when freight rates along the strategic Asia-North America shipping route were rising exponentially due to Covid-19 slowdown. 

To get a clearer insider view, Selina Wamucii talked to Jane Colazzo, Senior Vice President, Strategic Development at UWL, Inc. 

Sun Chief Express’ Beginnings

Jane Colazzo begins by detailing what impelled UWL to found its Trans-pacific solution.

“During the Covid pandemic, capacity restraints and port slowdowns drastically slowed down transpacific voyages between Asia and the United States,” relates Colazzo. 

“Sun Chief Express was thought up as a complete rethinking of the traditional carrier model to circumvent these major bottlenecks and bring industry-leading transit times to the market. UWL, a non-vessel operating common carrier (NVOCC), partnered with an industry leading carrier, Swire Shipping, to bring a new, expedited transit option to shippers on both sides of the Pacific. The result is a service premised on speed, guarantees, and reliability, bringing quicker voyages and peace of mind to the transpacific agricultural shipping community. As a premium solution, Sun Chief Express stands out for its promise of guaranteed equipment and sailings, specifically the service never blank-sails.”

Talking of premium service to far-flung destinations, what is UWL’s main shipping country in Asia-and why choose it?

“The service initially called only Ho Chi Minh and Seattle directly, expanding to Haiphong and Busan more recently,” explains Colazzo.

She adds: “as agriculture is largely an export commodity for the United States market, the westbound transits to Korea and Vietnam have brought some of the fastest transits to these destinations, ensuring freshness and shorter contract cycles for US shippers seeking market growth in both established and developing Asian markets.”

Fresh Produce Services

This brings to mind the main fresh produce that UWL transports from North America to Asia and vice versa.

“From the Pacific Northwest to Asia, we mainly ship fresh apples, cherries, and pears. We also transport lots of frozen items like French Fries, beef, pork, and seafood. We also now offer services from Alaska linking frozen fish shippers to the export service in Seattle. From Asia to the US, we move special fruits like dragon fruit, but most of the refrigerated and frozen shipments go from the US to Asia.” 

Feeder Vessel Partnerships

This naturally leads to the kind of cold storage technology UWL provides for the ocean freight of its clientele:

“We have a reefer fleet of 550 containers and counting,” says Colazzo “and we are currently working on obtaining brand new, state-of-the-art, refrigerated equipment as we continue to build out the program on the Sun Chief Express service.”

Could you describe some of your unique best-in-class customer services such as custom brokerage?

“At UWL,” the Senior Vice President, Strategic Development expands, “we pride ourselves on first-in-class customer service, employing a team of seasoned professionals in both Sales and Operations for the Sun Chief Express. We’ve developed a robust and seamless onboarding program that allows new shippers to be quickly up and running on the service. 

“We’re also launching a propriety customer visibility platform, called WorldScope, that will bring industry-leading shipment tracking solutions to our customers. As a full-service provider, we also host an in-house customs brokerage team to expedite customs formalities for our forwarding customers.”

Talking of forwarding customers, UWL is also expanding feeder services to other regional destinations (for agricultural freight):

“On the Sun Chief Express, agriculture shippers can also benefit from our feeder vessel partnerships connecting our primary port of call in Vietnam to Phnom Penh, Singapore, Laem Chabang, Sihanoukville, Port Klang, and Jakarta. As a full-service NVOCC, UWL is also engaged in global shipping beyond the scope of the Sun Chief Express service, but the focus remains on Southeast Asia and the Indian subcontinent.” 

Finishes Jane Colazzo on UWL’s geographic reach beyond the prolific Sun Chief Express.