A new Guinness Book record for the fastest loading of cars onto aircraft has been set by TNT staffwho successfully loaded 30 smart cars in a Boeing 747 in just over 35 minutes.
The record was set at TNT’s Liège air hub on 23 October 2008 when a team of seven peoplemanaged to fit 30 smart fortwo vehicles in a TNT B747 in 35 minutes and 34 seconds. In all, theteam had only three hours to load the cars in the Boeing 747 for the record attempt, unload themagain and then normally load the plane with goods leaving for Shanghai.
To celebrate the 10th anniversary of the smart car, TopGear Italia, the Italian edition ofthe UK magazine and BBC programme, wondered how many such cars could be fitted in the belly of aBoeing B747, one of the world’s largest airplanes. The 30 smart fortwo were provided byMercedes-Benz Italia SpA and Mercedes-Benz Belgium Luxembourg SA.
Christine Heine, head of ground operations at TNT Liège Hub, who coordinated the operation,said: “One of the critical aspects was to find a suitable time window to try the record, fittingwith the arrivals and departures of all the other aircraft scheduled 24 hours on 24, 365 days ayear. The take-off time for each TNT aircraft is really imperative, considered its heavy impact onthe synchronized network that delivers hundreds of thousands of express parcels anytime, anywhere.”
