Dispatching Cylinders and Welding Supplies from Pole to Pole

Central Welding Supply recently dispatched a customer order for our longest delivery route on record. Equipment and supplies for a big marine project were dispatched from Auburn, WA and Smokey Point, WA to Palmer Station in Antarctica.

John Powers, Outside Sales from Auburn, WA, quarterbacked the project to fulfill the customer’s order that included 18+ racks of cylinders, truckloads of filler metals, machines, and other hardgoods.

The order was fulfilled between products stocked in Auburn and inventory pulled by team at our Tacoma distribution center, and central warehouse in Smokey Point, WA. The actual distance for the delivery falls somewhere near 9,000 miles.

In addition to fulfilling the order and arranging transport, John Powers managed compliance with International “rules of the road,” such as bundling products on special internationally-approved pallets.

With our service to Alaska from our location in Wasilla, Central Welding Supply’s customers couldn’t be any farther apart. And, distance can’t stop us from delivering products as far as the customer needs them to go.

Dale Wilton, Central Welding Supply’s CEO, reports, “So, at SOME point in the next month or so we’ll have cylinders near both poles… the South Pole near Palmer Station in Antarctica, and the North Pole with customers in Wasilla, AK, and farther North in Fairbanks, AK.”

“The marine project at Palmer Station is scheduled to happen during the Antarctic Summer,” said Wilton. (The Antarctic Summer runs from October to February, when the sun is almost always above the horizon.)

Congratulations and thanks to John Powers, Bob Hankel, the Auburn team, Tacoma Distribution, the Smokey Point team… and our team in Wasilla, AK that serves customers at the opposite pole.

Dale’s final thoughts speaks for us all. “For lack of a better way to say this, well, it’s just pretty cool. Not sure how many companies in our industry (or ANY industry) support customers and projects at both the North and South poles of Planet Earth. (WE DO.)”