Employee Spotlight: Jennifer Elstone Shares Her Story

by logisticsplus | Nov 10, 2022 | News

Logistics Plus Global Director of Sales (Group Marine & Motorsport Logistics) Jennifer Elstone shares her background, experience, and hobbies. The story below is Jennifer’s words. Photos of Jennifer, her hobbies, and her past projects can be seen at the bottom of the story.

I began my logistics career at 16, working for a container haulage company in my hometown, Southampton (where the Titanic set sail from). Within three months, I was responsible for running a fleet of 100 trucks for Southampton/Thamesport & Felixstowe Port for carrier line haul (NYK/MOL).

Finding the logistics world interesting and working closely with the container carriers via the haulage position I was in, I moved to MOL, where I was responsible for sales administration for Mitsui’s import and export trades in South/West Africa, the Far East, and Cross Trade.

Eventually, in addition to management of trade pricing, I was involved in the rollout of the global CRM pricing system for the MOL Group, which involved CRM setup, pricing, routing, schedule input into the CRM system, global management of contact input with the 3^rd party supplier based in India.

From there, I wanted to branch out further, so I moved to a container logistics company called Pentalver. I was responsible for procurement as part of the AP Moeller group, which included commercial assistance to Pentalver, Maersk, Safmarine & Damco. As Damco were a forwarder in their own right, this got me interested in freight forwarding. The Pentalver Group had a container conversions department, where I became involved in conversion projects such as office and living buildings with the capability to be moved overseas easily.

This is where Peters & May came in. They had two departments under their umbrella. 1 – shipping boats 2 – global logistics, which is where I initially began. This was a multimodal sales role for general forwarding services to support the established marine departments.

Seeing that the group could ship other cargo unrelated to the marine industry, I wanted to expand the capability into different brands and industries. I opened P&M Automotive, which eventually shipped the James Bond Collection and projects for Top Gear.

During my 8-year position at P&M, I was promoted into different roles four times, so I was eventually handling freight forwarding, general freight, and actual craft, boats, cars, and helicopters on behalf of the group. I also managed multimodal contracts for the United Nations and humanitarian aid.

P&M group then obtained a patent for a piece of equipment called flat rail. This essentially was a spreader bar with twist locks you attach to the corner castings of a flat rack. The ends collapsed, which allowed cargo 40-50ft long to travel as OOG on container vessels. I was tasked as BDM for this and to launch it in the USA, where I relocated to Miami, Florida, five years ago. Seeing that this technology could be used for more than just boats, I also relocated from Miami to Houston to target project cargo.

In this role, I was responsible for global equipment repositioning, equipment leasing, obtaining approval to use the equipment in terminals globally, obtaining permission for carriers to accept us of equipment on their services, and negotiating ocean freight pricing. This was very successful, and also where I met Gregoire Duchet. CMA was one of the first carriers to use and accept this equipment!

Following this, my story gets a bit sad as I became ill. This caused my job at P&M Group to cease, and I went into a year of recovery. Three surgeries later, I am pleased to say that I am healthy and ready to tackle the freight-forwarding world again!! I’m very grateful to be able to do so with Logistics Plus.

Knowing that life can be too short in my spare time, I am a thrill seeker. I seek out activities associated with being an adrenalin junkie. I’ve climbed mountains for charities and so many other things. One of my life philosophies from all my past experiences and health issues last year is never to quit, and the only way is up!

I’m very excited to join the LP family and hope we can all “take it higher” together in many ways and directions.

I will split my time between Germany and USA to support particular markets seasonally. Some of my primary focus areas will be marine, motorsport, and aviation markets; however, I can assist with shipping any global commodity if required. My operations and sales background in trucking, ocean freight, container logistics, freight forwarding, and equipment leasing means I am open to any new challenges.

Thank you, Jennifer, for sharing your story! Logistics Plus is lucky to have you.

Jennifer Elstone
Email: jennifer.elstone@logisticsplus.com
Linkedin: Connect with Jennifer here

Logistics Plus China Opens Second Office in Shanghai

by logisticsplus | Nov 10, 2022 | News

Logistics Plus China (LP China) is proud to announce the opening of a second office in Shanghai, near Hongqiao airport. This new office officially opened on November 8th, and it will offer the same global logistics and supply chain services as our other Shanghai office. The original Shanghai office located in the Bund Area will continue to operate as normal.

The LP China team is excited about their growth, and they are looking forward to continuing their adventure with the addition of this new office. The new office is spacious, modern, and located in the newly constructed Lanyun Cultural Center, which is a five-minute walk from the National Exhibition and Convention Center that currently hosts the China International Import Expo.

Secondary Shanghai Office:
899 PanLong road, 19F, 1902-1903 office
Lanyun Cultural Center, South Building
Qingpu District, Shanghai 201702 China

For any requests involving Shanghai, please email china@logisticsplus.com. We thank you for all current business and future opportunities, and we look forward to assisting you.

Employees Complete Dale Carnegie Skills For Success Program

by logisticsplus | Nov 3, 2022 | News

A new group of Logistics Plus employees completed the Dale Carnegie Skills for Success program at our global headquarters in Erie, PA. For the fourth time, Logistics Plus provided this foundational leadership program to 20 employees who volunteered to strengthen their people, communication, management, and leadership skills, build confidence, and manage stress more effectively. The course took place for three and a half hours every Wednesday for eight weeks. The program will continue to be made available to additional Logistics Plus employees in the future.

The Dale Carnegie Skills for Success course has five main objectives:

1. Build greater self-confidence
2. Strengthen people skills
3. Enhance communication skills
4. Develop leadership skills
5. Reduce stress and improve our attitude

The Dale Carnegie program is used worldwide to help companies improve leadership skills and invest in their employees. Jim Berlin, Founder and CEO of Logistics Plus, has taken the course twice and wanted to allow his employees to experience it.  Jim said, “In my mind, this course gives you the ‘tricks of the trade’ on becoming a better human being, getting along with others, and getting things done. I’d highly recommend it to everyone.”

Suzie Emo, an International Imports Specialist, was one of the employees who participated in the class.  Suzie said, “The Dale Carnegie program provided me with unique and exciting practices to help me develop my professional confidence. It helped me set a direction for myself that I am proud to be heading in. This class brings a different result for everyone, but I know it is always a positive one. I am so thankful for this opportunity, and strongly encourage anyone considering this course to take the leap.” Upon completion of the class, Suzi won the ‘Highest Achiever’ award.

After the program, our employees expressed gratitude towards Jim Berlin (CEO), Yuriy Ostapyak (COO), and the Dale Carnegie team for providing them with this learning opportunity. The life lessons and leadership skills gained throughout this experience will never be forgotten.