Nelly Yunta, formerly vice president of U.S. imports, customs brokerage and consulting for Customized Brokers, the customs brokerage division of Crowley Maritime Corp., headquartered in Miami, has been promoted to the role of vice president of sales, marketing and customer care for Crowley’s liner and logistics business groups. Her new appointment became effective Jan. 1.

“I will remain very active and oversee the functions at Customized Brokers,” said Ms. Yunta. “But my responsibilities have expanded. As a result of this promotion, I will be relocating to Jacksonville, Nelly YuntaFL, from Miami. I am very excited about this change.”

Jacksonville-based Crowley Maritime, founded in San Francisco in 1892, is a privately held family-and-employee-owned company that provides diversified transportation and logistics services in domestic and international markets by means of six operating lines of business: Latin America Liner Services, Logistics Services, Puerto Rico/Caribbean Liner Services, Petroleum Services, Marine Services and Technical Services.

Within these operating lines of business are liner container shipping, logistics, contract towing and transportation; ship assist and escort; energy support; salvage and emergency response; vessel management; vessel construction and naval architecture; government services, and petroleum and chemical transportation, distribution and sales.

Ms. Yunta noted that Customized Brokers did experience a brief decrease in volumes from Chile this season due to some extreme weather conditions.

“Conditions have since improved greatly, and we are seeing a steady increase again,” she said Dec. 18. “We are confident that by the end of the season we will have handled the same volume we projected at the start of the season. The slight decrease did not affect the overall volume but it did stagger it momentarily. Overall, the industry and products we’re handling have remained the same and have been steady.”

Customized Brokers caters heavily to the clearance of fruits and vegetables coming into the United States, but it is able to clear other imported items.

Ms. Yunta stressed that time is essential when dealing with fresh products, which is why having the right systems and processes in place helps ensure that everything is done in a timely and efficient manner.

“Every minute wasted puts the cargo at risk of reducing its freshness,” she added. “When you have a proper system in order, you can do things in a timely and efficient manner and ensure that your customer is happy.”

Customized Brokers always works to stay on top of the necessary permits and paperwork well ahead of time to ensure that the cargo it is clearing doesn’t sit around and is released as soon as possible.

“Being aware of these regulations and making sure all permits and paperwork are in order is definitely one of the ways we make sure we have a smooth and efficient way of expediting the release of all the cargo we clear,” said Ms. Yunta.

Maintaining strong relationships with U.S. government agencies is also very important to the company, “because we know it will only help all of us be more efficient, and in the end provide the customer with reliable services,” she said. “Thanks to our collaboration with government agencies, we are able to inform our customers in a timely manner about new regulations that will affect them. And we are able to address issues affecting our customers and the trade and find solutions together. This form of open communication and collaboration is imperative to improving and continuing to streamline the processes in our industry.”

Customized Brokers wants to help ease the process of moving cargo for its customers, and therefore in addition to brokerage services the company can also assist in arranging shipments and trucking services, negotiate rates, provide quotes, arrange fumigation services and any other requests they may have. And it will soon have an even greater service to offer.

Customized Brokers joined Crowley Marine Corp. in sharing offices in the same building early this year. The new building was planned to include a cold-storage facility.

“Our new cold-storage facility in Miami is still underway,” said Ms. Yunta. “Construction is scheduled to be completed in January, and by then we hope to provide this great service to our customers to ensure the freshness of their cargo is preserved.”