A report today by The Information‘s Wayne Ma has shared the steps that Apple has taken to avoid product shipping delays during the COVID-19 pandemic. Ma says the Cupertino firm is taking “unorthodox and costly steps,” including the increased use of container ships, private jet charters.
The report claims that Apple began shipping some AirPods by sea for the first time last year:
For example, last year Apple began shipping some AirPods by sea for the first time. In the third quarter of last year, the company greatly increased ocean freight for older model iPhones, whose delivery is less time sensitive, to free up air cargo space for the new iPhone 12, according to an analysis of vessel manifest data and the person with direct knowledge of Apple’s logistics operations.
Shipping products by sea in place of by air causes its own particular set of shipping issues. The report claims that a large container ship headed from China to California tipped over in November, dumping approximately 1,800 containers into the ocean. At least one of those containers held Beats headphones.
The Cupertino firm also reportedly chartered 200+ private jets to ship devices during 2020, which was a single-year record for the company, says the report.
Apple frequently turned to pricier private jet charters to ship its products out of Asia because its delivery partners had run out of capacity in the cargo holds of passenger planes. Last year, Apple chartered more than 200 planes for these shipments, setting a single-year record for the company, according to the person with direct knowledge of its logistics operations. To put that in perspective, ahead of the launch of the iPhone 7 in 2016, Apple chartered just three planes for the devices after it used up passenger plane capacity, a different person involved in its shipments said.
Apple has accelerated a plan to use its U.S. and Canada retail stores as “small distribution centers,” allowing shippers like FedEx and UPS to pick up products from a local retail store and deliver them to nearby customers.
The report says a source inside Apple says most deliveries of Apple products took only a few days longer than usual to be delivered in 2020.
(Via MacRumors)