March 13^th 2020

Dear Valued Customer,

The World Health Organization (WHO) declared COVID-19 a pandemic as the global number of infections surpassed over 126,000 on March 12.  Cases of the coronavirus illness have now spread to over 110 countries and territories around the world.

With global efforts focused on containing the virus and slowing down community spread, countries are adapting a series of measures from travel restrictions to social distancing – including employees working from home.

In our last update of March 5^th, we reported on the status of Trade Link’s operations in key regions of China & South Korea and how we are working closely with our customers (and overseas teams) to monitor and manage the disruptive impacts of the crisis on global supply chains.

In this update we set-out example measures Trade Link is taking across our global network to ensure business and service continuity for our customers as we navigate our way through an unprecedented crisis.  These include:

Ways of working across Trade Link global teams

We are:

• Ensuring all employees and agent teams are equipped to work from home in the event of office closures.  We are offering our teams the flexibility to work from home, enabled by our shared IT-systems, processes and collaborative technology.
• Postponing all non-essential travel, customer visits and partner events.
• Keeping meetings, when possible, virtual – in line with World Health Organization (WHO) social distancing guidelines.
• Establishing ‘Crisis Team Communication’ procedures and practices to include:
  • Daily conference calls with our teams in Asia and Europe. These will evolve to other territories as necessary.
  • Developing business continuity and resource plans across our warehousing, cross-dock and distribution networks.
  • Using shipment tracker reporting on customer orders and closely monitoring carrier (air/ocean/road/rail) schedules and capacity changes.
  • Liaising locally with customer and supplier operations in key territories.
• Sanitising workplaces on a more frequent basis and communicating guidelines around safety/precaution.

Customer communication & continuity planning

We are:

• Continuing to provide updates as the situation unfolds via our website, social media channels, email and telephone.
• Liaising with those customers heavily reliant on Chinese manufacturing and managing operational and financial supply chain impacts.
• Working closely with customers and teams on supply chain risk monitoring, including scenario planning, inventory buffers and carrier capacity management.
• Working with suppliers and partners to ensure they have supplies of personal protective equipment to maintain production and processing of shipments.
• Looking at alternative carrier and modes of transportation including air charters.
• Collaborating will all parties to leverage freight capacity and alternative/new supply sources.
•  Planning supply chain models for contingency geographies and suppliers in case alternative sources of supply are required.

Leveraging Industry relationships and intel

We are:

• Working closely with government agencies, customs authorities and industry networks to monitor regional supply chain risks and assess operational and financial implications.
• Consulting with industry players and partners to pool our market intelligence in developing contingency plans.
• Closely monitoring all media and global reports to gather facts and insights on the current Covid-19 situation to support customer planning and decision making.

We want to assure you that Trade Link remains committed to our customers at this time.  We are monitoring issues on near real-time basis and working with our global teams towards rapid response and contingency planning.

We will stay with you in delivering relevant updates and supporting our customers in risk assessment and global supply chain continuity planning.

We will continue to provide updates as the situation unfolds.  If you have any questions, please contact your Trade Link account manager, or send an email to: load@tradelinkinternational.ca

Thank you for your continued support and understanding,

Your Trade Link Team.