Case Study Template

The Challenge

Harbourline Building Supplies imports tiling and cladding through the Port of Melbourne, and its twelve-week summer peak accounts for close to half of annual volume. Vessel arrivals were bunching, wharf storage was charging by the day, and three separate providers were being coordinated for cartage, unpack and delivery.

Tight wharf windows and nowhere to store

Containers had to be collected inside free-time to avoid detention and demurrage, but the client yard could hold only a fraction of the stock. Deliveries then had to hit narrow site windows, where a late truck can idle an entire crew.

The Solution

Norman Carriers took the freight end to end. Our wharf cartage team booked container pickups against vessel arrival data, ran them straight to our Tullamarine facility for unpack and palletising, and held the stock until each site called it forward.

One provider, one set of paperwork

Our paperless carrier system captured proof of delivery at every drop, and the live customer portal gave the client real-time stock counts and truck status without a phone call. Fleet GPS tracking let us re-sequence runs on the day when a site moved its window.

The Outcome

Across the twelve weeks, 180 containers cleared the wharf inside free-time with no detention charges, and 98% of site deliveries arrived within the booked window. Consolidating three providers into one also reduced the client administration to a single weekly invoice and one point of contact.