Clipper cargo horizons, Vol. 1, No. 4, April 1961

              HORIZONS
A Pan Am Publication About Worldwide Air Distribution • Vol. I, No. 4 • April, 1961

Jet PAAKs Save San Rico Over $10,000 a Year
Two men in two hours pack what three men once did in full day; swift flow of goods San Juan-Miami and back is big attraction
San Rico Sportswear, Hato Rey, Puerto Rico, manufactures slacks, skirts, blouses, and other ladies’ sportswear. Its finished products go to a headquarters plant in Hollywood, Fla., whence they are distributed throughout the United States.
Once San Rico packed its sportswear in cardboard cartons. Jets have changed all that.
Now the firm uses Jet PAAKs, 172-pound aluminum containers contoured to fit the belly of jets.
Each of these containers holds up to 1,500 pounds. The PAAKs are filled inside the San Rico plant, sealed, trucked intact to the San Juan airport. A short flight to Miami and they are picked up and trucked to the Hollywood, Fla. factory. In the morning, last minute pressing operations are completed, and by noon the merchandise is moving through the U. S. distribution system.
The switch from cartons to Jet PAAKs will save San Rico from $10,000 to $12,000 this year.
New Approach
The Jet PAAK, used extensively by Pan Am to speed ground handling, is a modern approach to unit and bulk loading. San Juan is pioneering a wider use of the PAAKs, and is offering the service to customers who have container
loads in two directions on a daily basis.
The PAAKs themselves are trucked to planeside on special dollies, are hoisted to proper loading level automatically, then moved across a special roller platform, and finally locked in the jet belly. The whole loading operation takes about 10 minutes.
San Rico is among the first firms to adapt the speed and flexibility of the PAAK to a factory-to-factory operation.
Alfred Sherman, who runs the Hato Rey operation, saw the potential the moment he saw a Jet PAAK being loaded. He has a 20,000 - square - foot sportswear plant, which makes from 1,500 to 2,000 garments daily. He keeps his eye peeled for savings, and packaging has been a cumbersome and costly problem for some time. In the Jet PAAK he saw a solution.
Costs Sliced
His daily shipment to Hollywood, Fla. once consumed 42 cartons, each costing 52 cents. Now that the aluminum PAAKs eliminate cartons, he saves $21.84 daily on cartons alone. On nylon tape formerly used for binding, and on labels and miscellaneous items he saves another $8.40 daily.
Manhours represent the most monumental savings. It once took three people, under supervision, a full day to pack, label and check addresses on
cartons. Now two men, under supervision, take one hour to prepare the garments, another hour to load and seal the containers. PAAKs remain sealed from factory to factory.
San Rico enjoys these four major advantages from the use of the PAAKs: 1) substantial cost savings of $10—to $12,000 a year; 2) elimination of pilferage losses; 3) elimination of possible in-transit damage; and 4) a steady flow of merchandise in two directions.
Speed to Market
Speed in reaching the marketplace is another big advantage.
“Twenty-four hours after leaving our factory,” says Alfred Sherman, “our merchandise is ready for the sales racks in Florida.”
He’s talking about a schedule in which a jet with the PAAKs leaves San Juan at 2:15 p.m. and is in Miami at 3:45 p.m., Miami time. A truck has them in Hollywood, Fla. by 4:15. Next morning the sportswear is pressed. By noon the merchandise is ready for the buyers.
“We need this kind of swift, steady overnight service in both directions, San Juan to and from Miami,” says Sherman. “It looks like we have not only the service, but gratifying savings — a big, attractive feature.”
TWO MEN under supervision take two hours to load ladies sportswear in San Rico factory in Hato Rey, P.R.
SEALED PAAK slides over special roller platform, locks in plane belly for swift San Juan-Miami run.
OLD PACKING consumed 42 cardboard cartons per day. PAAK is quicker, more effective and cheaper.
♦Trademark, Reg. U.S. Pat. Off.