Are you also so curious about the journey of our products?

How do our products get from the plantations to our customer? We'll tell you more about that in this blog. We were in touch with Bill Wheaton, the president of Premier Logistics. This company handles everything around the air transportation of our products from Florida.

1. Can you tell us more about the company?
Premier Logistics is an international freight forwarder based in Orlando, Florida. We were founded on February 10, 1992. Over the years we have offered various services such as import customs brokerage, dry cargo shipping, bonded warehousing, Orlando International Airport Foreign Trade Zone management, climate controlled warehousing, local delivery services and various other support services. But our main priority has always been and will always be the transportation of decorative greenery. In fact, in recent years we have scaled back all our other activities to focus on our unique passion, which is the international shipping of decorative greens from Florida.

We have built very close relationships with all the suppliers of cut greens in central Florida. We have spent time on the farms assisting in the cutting and packing of ferns so that we can experience and fully understand all the effort required to produce a single box of ferns. These experiences have allowed us to really emphasize to the airlines and their vendors the importance of maintaining the cold chain during the journey from the plantation to your door.

2. What does your company stand for?

Our company stands for honesty, integrity and professionalism.

I believe that all employees should be excited to get to work and we are trying to make the workplace a more family-oriented environment where our employees really enjoy spending time rather than just a job.

Most of our current employees have been with us for more than 20 years, and my goal is to make sure they continue to work here until retirement.

Socially, we support several charities such as the American Cancer Foundation, Save our Lakes, American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, The Humane Society and New Beginnings women's outreach

3. What happens to our products the first moment you are involved? 

Each week we receive notification from the WBE group suppliers about the order for the coming week. The supplier lets us know how many boxes they plan to ship, as well as the dimensions of each box. In addition, the supplier also lets us know what day their order can be picked up.

We then aggregate all orders from the suppliers on one or more air freight invoices and determine how much air space we need. We decide which airline is best suited for this shipment. We then send this party a booking request in which we reserve the appropriate amount of space. Once we receive confirmation of the booking request, we produce a "pick-up" document. We notify the supplier of the flight itinerary, pickup day and airline invoice number. They use this information to produce shipping labels for each individual box. During the week, suppliers can add to and change their orders.

Once all orders are completed, usually a day or two before departure, we give our driver copies of the latest pickup orders so he can schedule his pickups and deliveries.

Our driver, Santo, has been driving for us since the day we started in 1992. He often picks up the ferns in the middle of the night. He is highly respected by literally everyone in this industry and has keys to all of our suppliers' cold storage units so he can always pick up.

Santo, with our 53-inch refrigerated trailer, picks up orders from suppliers. He counts the boxes to make sure it matches his paperwork. He then examines each pallet and notes the temperatures. Once all the necessary pieces are registered, he heads to the appropriate airport for delivery.

Once he has arrived at the airport and is back at the dock doors, he will give his papers to the airline staff to verify the booking and proceed with unloading. Each pallet is removed from the truck, weighed, x-rayed and then immediately placed in the airline's cold storage area until they are ready to build up the airplane plates of the aircraft. Our driver remains at the cargo warehouse until everything is processed to ensure the product is never left outside and exposed to heat or sunlight.

Once we receive the actual weight of the product, we prepare the final Airway-Bill and enter all information into the United States export database. The Airway-Bill, the supplier's commercial invoice and the phytosanitary certificate issued by the U.S. Department of Agriculture are then sent to the WBE Group and their Clearing Agent to notify all parties of the shipment's expected arrival details.

4. How long have you been working with the WBE Group?

We have been working together since the day we started in 1992, in fact our very first ever shipment was to WBE! I can remember it like it was yesterday !!!

5. What do you think are the benefits of the WBE Group?

Having worked with the WBE Group for nearly 30 years, I can tell you the benefits from my perspective are numerous. The WBE Group is loyal to suppliers and vendors like myself. This loyalty encourages vendors to ship their very best products and energizes our organization to find the most efficient and cost-effective means of transportation available. Volume, the WBE Group has always been a leader in the amount of products shipped from Florida, this further encourages the suppliers and vendors like ourselves to do their very best to ship the very best and find the very best transportation to reward this dedication.

The right people in the right places, the WBE group works like a well-oiled machine, no matter what department in the company you need an answer from, you can be confident that you are dealing with a professional who has the answers you need. I have visited WBE several times over the years and have always been impressed by the happy and positive atmosphere throughout the organization, every company is only as good as its employees, they are the greatest asset of any company... ... Of course, the WBE group has the right people, the right places. Leadership, all great companies need a strong leader and I don't think I have ever met anyone more driven and passionate about the Cutting Green trade than Peter Baak, he is a person who really loves what he does and his energy affects the whole organization .

6. What is your role within the company?

My official position at Premier Logistics is President, but my role within the company is to do what needs to be done, such as processing shipments, bookkeeping and driving a truck to help pick up products when needed.

7. What does your day look like?

A typical day for me would be to check emails first thing in the morning when I wake up to see if there are any issues that arose overnight and to prepare for the potential issues once I get to the office at 8 a.m. each morning. Upon arriving at the office, I respond to all emails that were flagged overnight and sit with our ops staff to discuss all bookings, their current status. We are always looking for more efficient and cost effective transportation and I will contact the various airlines to discuss their schedules and current rates to see if there may be better opportunities than we currently have. Compliance with TSA requirements and assisting TSA inspectors in reviewing our shipment documents that they have randomly selected for compliance review. When everything is running smoothly operationally, much of my day is spent on the usual day-to-day task of running a business such as insurance, human resources, accounting, equipment maintenance and taking care of any problem that may arise on the day.