People think freight is boring.

No one gets excited about sitting next to a freight forwarder at the dinner party. When I tell people what I do, I see that slightly glazed look and the polite smile as they nod and say, “Oh, how interesting”, then change the subject. But they’re wrong. Freight is anything but boring. 

24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year, a whole ecosystem of people, systems and machines are working together while you sleep, bringing your clothes, your toys, even your food, safely and swiftly to the stores in your high street.  They’re loading containers, checking paperwork and sailing thousands of miles so that you can have your new smart watch or surprise your 6-year-old with a Labubu doll for their birthday. It’s an amazing feat, and one that I think they don’t quite get enough credit for because even though the world of freight is well established and finely tuned, there’s a lot that can go wrong. 

Sometimes, it’s pirates in the Singapore Strait, or hurricanes in the Atlantic, or a blockage in the Suez Canal or a container fire caused by someone “mislabelling” their lithium batteries!  Sometimes, it’s that a whole container full of rubber duckies has tipped overboard and released 28,000 of our floaty best friends into the North Pacific Ocean! 

Yep, true story that a buddy of mine recently reminded me of. Back in 1992, the incident (known as the Friendly Floaties spill) occurred when twelve 40ft containers were washed overboard during a storm on their journey from China to the USA. One container was carrying 28,000 “floaties” in the shape of rubber duckies, bathtime beavers and friendly froggies.  The container burst open, and the friendly floaties were set free. Over the past 30 years, many were cleaned up, however, the rest have been on some grand adventures with our little rubber friends found all over the world, including Alaska, Japan and Hawaii! 

So, next time you open up a parcel or purchase yourself a new trinket, think of the freight workers, working day and night, not only sailing the seas to bring you your shiny new goods, but fighting pirates, negotiating with customs and cleaning up rubber duckies! And if you happen to spot a floaty friend on your shoreline, let me know! There hasn’t been a confirmed sighting since 2013, but I’m sure there’s still a little yellow duck out there somewhere, sailing the ocean and headed for land. 

And in the meantime, got any crazy stories for me? I’d love to hear them…