Sound Logistics
I have always maintained that the success of a tour sound company lies in the
ability to do many gigs back to back and in its ability to do logistics
extremely well. For me, logistics begins with minimalistic paperwork but
effective marking and standardizing of equipment racks & kit list.
So how does this all really work?
It begins from a decision to start getting organized rather than blaming
others for faults we need to fix. It begins right from the time the order
is confirmed. We usually start advance planning the kit list, make sure there
are no double bookings. In such a scenario we either buy or sub-rent the gear
that’s not available. Another major task is figuring out how long it takes to
get to the venue with a buffer time of 3 hours for a city gig, 12 hours for a
regional one and 24 hours for an outstation show. This only applies to the gear.
The crew arriving also follows a near similar schedule and the engineers buffer
time is only to make contingencies for flight delays.
Strike-In at the venue is much faster than loading out at the warehouse and
the warehouse prep & Load-Out according to me is the most crucial aspect of
the event from the perspective of an event company. I can assure you if this
is done well and on time, it will ensure a good gig. One has to make a habit
out of doing this for a lifetime, and there is no two ways about it.
Trucks & drivers: They are the lifeline of logistics, without doubt.
Haven’t we had our fair share of nightmares & heart-burn with them? Mind you,
they have very difficult lives with poor infrastructure and bad road
conditions. It is a very challenging task and we have to recognize their
difficulties even before we start hurling accusations.
Today’s transporters have vehicles and there is no shortage of them. Try and
get vehicles of the right payload or well built containers and you shall
realize that they are few and far between. Especially, the floor deck of all
the vehicles are in appalling conditions. Picture this; the same guy who
transports wheat grains also transports your expensive audio equipment.
Our touring duty cycle has increased so much last year that we had issues on our
own vehicles, thefts, accidents, hospitalizations & vehicle tyre bursts due to
overheating & always had to pay fines due to going over the vehicle payload.
This got us to think a lot about our fleet management & we then started putting
systems & processes in place there too. Beginning with GPS trackers on all
vehicles. This in itself improved our vehicles tracking & helped our back end
staff with stringent monitoring of our transport vehicles. We applied new rules
of how many hours in a stretch a driver can drive the trucks. And a maintenance
protocol for all vehicles.
Transport via air: At the air cargo terminals, we have learnt that rules
keep changing all the time and sending the gear early is always the best
solution to avoid delays & heartburn. We have had incidents of airlines sending
the gear to the wrong city or off-loading the cargo due to medical equipment
being sent on priority (sometimes it’s the case of what they want you to
believe, rather than what you need to know). Air cargo is so expensive that
if you are disorganized then your profits will be eaten up in flights.
Sometimes there is also an element of human error and operational mistakes like
not loading the gear in the truck. It’s hard to deal with such
situations.
Crew Logistics: Crew travel too can get tricky, I see the biggest cost
over-run here because we are always booking airlines at the last minute not
because we haven’t allocated the crew but bleed due to the fact that the
client’s advances or confirmations came in very late. We sometimes don’t
even book tickets till we have received the funds because cancellations are
common & this is perilous when you have to book over 8 tickets for a set of
crew travelling flights that are over 2 hours. But I find air far much better
than train even for the crew if you have booked early enough. This gives them
better opportunity to do more work and be more productive on site, reduces
fatigue and in commercial terms, the per diem for extra days.
Accommodation is always the simplest thing but we always make bad decisions
just to save a few bucks. Our first call to action is to stay closest to
the venue. A lower priced, decent accommodation closer to the venue is better
than a better place further away. And if the hotel is walking distance then
that’s the best place to be in. According to me for the crew, the choice of
the place has to be clean bed & bath & if they serve up a good breakfast, the
crew is in sorted for start of the day.
Now thanks to aggregators like Ola & Uber, even local transport is a breeze &
also a huge cost saving as against having to hire a vehicle for the entire day
or probably two on bigger gigs. No brainer here.
Overall, any of our major projects the logistics comes up to nearly 35% of our
total billing & you will understand why this concerns me the most. The moral
of the story is not compromising on health & safety is subconsciously the motive
of this foreword. Cost saving is the secondary aspect here, but important
too!