Arthur didn’t chase deals; he built solutions.

He was a sales director at a major ocean carrier assigned to NVOs and forwarders. But years back he picked up our BCO account because, as he put it, “good freight deserves great support.” That was a lucky day for us!

From day one, Arthur acted like part of our team, protecting our service, defending our costs, and coaching us to plan smarter so we could deliver to our own customers with fewer surprises.

Arthur’s customer mantra was simple: always say yes; never say no. If he can’t do it the customer’s way he always had good alternatives. That came up in a hundred different ways. He never arrived at a meeting with just a rate sheet. He walked in with options: alternative ports, sailing pairs, seasonality plays, chassis pools, rail routings, buffer stocks, and a what-if plan for every bottleneck.

He brought the right people too and equipment, trade, ops, sometimes a senior VP or the president. In annual talks, nobody came more prepared. We left those sessions with solutions, not slogans.

He was everywhere. “AB,” we called him It could have been for “Another Bag” because he always had extra luggage packed but also those are his initials.

He’d appear in Sri Lanka to audit cutoffs, in Penang to walk a CFS, in Shenzhen to meet a vendor, in Brussels to brief our EU planners, and in New Jersey to sit with our CSRs. He listened on the port pier, not just the conference room. When a terminal jammed, he called the gate boss before we finished the sentence. When equipment went tight, he moved boxes like chess pieces, splitting bookings, flexing vessel strings, and swapping origins to protect our OTIF.

And he helped even when the logo wasn’t his. We’ve all had “lost” containers that belonged to other shipping lines and vanished in a shutdown yard. Arthur would hunt them anyway—phoning someone who knew someone who could nudge a stacker, clear a hold, or find a chassis. He didn’t score points; he scored outcomes. He understood that saving our promise to our customer was the reason we shipped with him next season.  

Internally, he was a teacher. His company sent him around the world to train service teams: never hide the ball, set expectations early, escalate with facts, and always bring an alternative. If the answer can’t be yes, say what you can do—change the cut, pivot the ramp, pre-clear high-risk SKUs, pull a hot box, or re-sequence tenders. He turned “customer service” into customer strategy.

The result? Loyalty that renews itself. Year after year, we grew volumes with Arthur’s line—not because it was the cheapest every week, but because it was the most dependable when it counted. Our finance team saw the math in fewer expedites, avoided demurrage, steadier dwell, and credible ETAs. Our sales team saw fewer Friday fire drills. Our planners saw a partner who protected production windows, not just bookings.

Super sales reps aren’t the loudest. They’re the people who prevent problems, invent options, and defend your promise when the market turns. Arthur is that rare pro who treats every lane like a relationship and every disruption like a chance to prove the brand.

I’m a loyal customer because he made us better. He taught his teams to do the same. And in a world of shrinking headcounts and bigger stakes, that’s what wins the next season—and the one after that.

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