Bennett’s Houston Terminal Delivers On Safety & Efficiency For Pentagon Freight Services

Bennett partners with Pentagon Freight Services to safely transport oil skids overseas via an Antonov.

In the oil and gas industry, when oil separator fabricators are delayed or oil refineries experience power outages, they often contract someone to help transport these materials by air to ensure a timely delivery. In this particular case, a client of Pentagon Freight Services; a global provider of freight forwarding and logistics services in the oil and gas industry, hired Bennett’s Houston Terminal to quickly and safely haul and load multiple pieces of oil separator skids onto an Antonov aircraft to be shipped overseas.

Assembling the Right Team: Pentagon Freight Services & Bennett

Jobs like these don’t come along often. In fact, they’re far from “normal.” Due to the long-standing relationship fostered by Bennett’s inside salesman, Keith Wunsche, Pentagon was already familiar with the quality of service needed for large, complicated transports such as this one. Each driver is TSA certified and possesses H-4 or SL rankings. Bennett’s highly qualified drivers were perfect for this job because they already possessed the qualifications required for the transport.

The first part of the job required us to load up five trucks containing several pieces of the oil separator skids over the course of two days. These pieces came in an array of sizes, with the largest being 30 ft. x 16 ft. x 12 ft. 6 in. The heaviest skid weighed in at 62,000 lbs. making this a pretty massive move. Once the pieces were successfully loaded on to the trucks, we made our way to the Pentagon yard for final preparations. After the pieces were finally prepared and secured, the same pieces were loaded up on to the same five trucks and delivered to a flight service company at Bush Intercontinental Airport in Humble, Texas the next day.

Loading the Antonov & Planning the Routes

We then loaded each piece onto the Antonov, a Ukranian cargo aircraft, to be shipped overseas. As stated above, these pieces would typically be transported via ocean services. However, this particular shipment was expedited due to the immediate needs of the customer. Had these pieces been delivered via ocean, they wouldn’t have arrived for 30-45 days. By transporting the pieces via the Antonov, the pieces were safely on the ground within the next couple of days.

Coordination was key to successfully complete this haul. From tight time constraints to even tighter logistical limitations, it was imperative for everyone to work together as a team to pull this project off. In addition to the high qualifications requirements, drivers were also held to strict time deadlines to arrive at Bush Intercontinental Airport. Additionally, both civilian and police escorts were used due to the width of the pieces. “It was a very tight squeeze getting these pieces onto the cargo plane,” said Chad Gerfers, General Manager of Operations at our Houston Terminal.

All routing and permitting was done by our Houston permit manager, Mike Clepper. Clepper worked to get the drivers some of the best routes available and ensured all permits were processed and returned as quickly as possible. Gerfers admits that the time constraints and requirements of the job were tough, but Bennett’s excellent project team was able to get it done. Overall, “it was a fun, well-coordinated job,” said Chad Gerfers, General Manager of Operations at Bennett’s Houston Terminal.

Michael Ruediger, Project Director with Pentagon Freight Services also commented on teaming up with Bennett for this job saying, “Thanks for the good service. We will do it again next month!”

Learn more about Bennett’s Heavy Haul services here.