Uniserve responded to an emergency call to support a Scottish medical manufacturer at a moment’s notice. They had ran out and couldn’t get essential parts for the production of ventilators and had virtually given up on being able to deliver desperately needed lifesaving equipment to hospitals throughout the UK.

Uniserve came to the rescue, and within 72 hours had the parts delivered to Scotland, installed in the ventilators and heading to the frontline.

The journey of the 3 VIP cartons begun in China. Uniserve were straight on to the Chinese factory and organised a collection that same morning, as the vital parts came off the production line.
Packed into three large cartons, the valuable cargo was taken straight to our Shanghai air freight consolidation depot.

The goods were rushed through customs and security and manifest for the next charter aircraft flight as priority.

The cartons were consolidated on a huge aircraft pallet along with lots of other PPE and given added protection and wrapped up in a cargo net. The pallet was then loaded along with dozens of other pallets of medical equipment containing some 300,000 items of PPE on to a dedicated charter aircraft which flew from Shanghai to London Stansted at 10.30am.

The aircraft touched down in the UK around 8am the next day, some 13 hours later and all the pallets were offloaded, transferred to our warehouse and broken down so we could get the 3 VIP cartons customs cleared and on their way to Scotland.

John Bates, a long serving Uniserve driver was given the responsibility to get the cartons delivered as soon as possible and he was more than willing, even knowing he had to cover over 700 miles with super critical cargo.

John departed the airport warehouse at 11:05am, facing more than a 6 hour drive ahead to the delivery point. He arrived at the medical manufacturer at 17:15pm. The 3 VIP cartons were unpacked and the essential parts were fitted straight away and dispatched to hospitals that very evening.

As for John, whilst the delivery was completed as quickly as possible and delivered safely, he still had to return back to Essex to his home and finished his day at 00:20am.

Uniserve has only recently been appointed to manage the DHSC and NHS Supply Chain through these difficult times, it is our can do attitude and our sense of responsibility, duty and pride that makes every consignment we deliver important, not just these 3 VIP cartons.

As hospitals across the UK continue to run short of PPE, we have made it our personal mission to get equipment to the frontline staff so they can beat the virus and save lives.

We dedicate the rest of this article to the personal accounts of the two John’s, our UK traffic supervisor and John the driver, who along with the rest of the global team made this happen.

John Warin
Traffic Supervisor for Uniserves’ Transport division:
“When John was told what was required of him, there was no hesitation. John’s dedication to the PPE cause and to the Uniserve transport team is first class, as is our commitment as a business to supporting the NHS in any way we can. This was a fantastic demonstration of how and why Uniserve don’t back down and always have a can do attitude to delivering customer requirements at a moment’s notice.“

John Bates
Class 1 Driver for Uniserves’ Transport division:
“It was meant to be a normal working day and I was doing my duty of marshalling drivers at our depot when John Warin, my transport supervisor came over to me and said “I’ve got a special job for you.” Get up to Stansted Airport and collect 3 VIP cartons and take them straight up to Scotland to a warehouse in Kelso. When I knew it was for the NHS I was so proud of myself that I was able to help. After watching the news and seeing what doctors and nurses are doing it makes you feel very proud. I hope to be able to do a lot more in the future to help the NHS during these very worrying time”

If you require any specific updates’ please do not hesitate to contact the Uniserve team by calling 01375 851 346 or by emailing us at help@ugroup.co.uk.

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