Maersk presents C.A.L.M. framework for peak season ground freight management

Peak season is predictable. The panic doesn't have to be. That's the message behind our latest webinar, The C.A.L.M. Framework: Building Resilience for Peak Season, where Bhavani Rawla, Regional Head of Maersk Ground Freight, North America, and Sussan Perez Rojas, Head of CX Transformation, shared a practical approach for specialized LTL and heavy-bulky freight. The approach is to build the operating plan and determine the response for changing conditions before the pressure arrives. When volume rises and recovery time shrinks, the operations that stay in control are the ones that already know what happens next. Zero panic doesn't mean zero disruption. It means being ready for it.

Key takeaways

Topics include:

• Capacity: defining core, flex and buffer capacity, and who makes the call.
• Alignment: making sure every team works from the same version of what happens next.
• Local execution: pressure-testing the plan at the station, on the route and at the door.
• Monitoring: connecting visibility to action so exceptions don't become escalations.
• The Zero-Panic Readiness Check: scoring how ready your operation is today.

"Available capacity" is not the same as capacity for the lane, station, day, equipment, delivery market or service your freight needs. A peak-ready plan builds the response across three zones—core, flex and buffer. It also answers three questions before peak. Where does the plan change? What changes with it? Who makes the call?

A forecast shift or an appointment change never stays local; it triggers a chain reaction downstream. Pick one likely change, such as an appointment moving by four hours, and ask five questions of your teams and your ground freight provider. What changes? Who acts? How do we execute? Who communicates? When does it escalate?

A plan can look workable at network level, but peak pressure is felt locally. Pressure-test people, equipment, place, information and authority at every critical location, and ask local teams what looks fine on paper but could be difficult to execute on the ground.

A shipment can still be moving and already moving away from the plan. Connect visibility to action by defining the milestones that matter, what counts as expected, what counts as a deviation, what triggers action, who owns the response and how recovery begins and closes.

Bhavani Rawla,

Regional Head of Maersk Ground Freight,

North America

Bhavani Rawla is a seasoned logistics and supply chain leader with over 25 years of experience across international and domestic markets, spanning both emerging economies and mature regions. He has a strong track record of designing and delivering complex, end-to-end supply chain solutions for large corporations and global freight forwarders. He specializes in building high-performing teams that develop customer-centric logistics solutions by leveraging a combination of owned assets and a robust partner ecosystem, including both dedicated and non-dedicated networks. An entrepreneur at heart, Bhavani successfully founded and led a logistics and supply chain business for five years. He has also held senior executive leadership roles at KPMG, where he led initiatives in the Logistics and Transportation sector. In early 2016, Bhavani joined Maersk's Strategy and Transformation office, driving growth for Logistics & Services in India. In 2019, he transitioned to North America as Head of Mergers & Acquisitions. He currently leads Maersk's Ground Freight network, overseeing both asset-based operations and partner-driven capabilities.

Sussan Perez Rojas,

Head of CX Transformation,

North America

Sussan Perez Rojas is a customer experience and logistics leader with over 25 years of global experience across Venezuela, Panama, South Africa, Denmark, and the United States. She has a strong track record of transforming complex, multi-country customer experience organizations into high-performing, data-driven functions that deliver measurable results at scale. She specializes in building customer-facing teams that turn operational complexity into predictable, trusted experiences — leading organizations of up to 150+ professionals across 20+ countries and delivering a near 4x improvement in customer satisfaction along with significant reductions in cost-to-serve. Sussan currently serves as Head of Customer Experience Transformation, leading the CX strategy behind Maersk's Ground Freight network in North America.

You don't need to predict every disruption, but you do need to know what your operation will do when one arrives. Start by testing one likely change across the teams it affects and fixes every unclear owner, missing handoff or conflicting instruction you find. Then check where the pressure is most likely to land for specialized LTL. It tends to concentrate around the nodes and handoffs, while heavy-bulky delivery concentrates at the doorstep. The framework stays the same- where you apply the pressure test changes.

To see where you stand today, use the Zero-Panic Readiness Check: twelve statements across Capacity, Alignment, Local Execution and Monitoring, scored green, yellow, red or gray based on how your operation works today, not how you intend it to work. Protect what is green, tighten what is yellow, move red decisions earlier, and investigate every gray. Your lowest-scoring discipline shows where pressure is most likely to find you first.

Get the e-book: The Peak Season 'Zero Panic' Blueprint

Want the full guide? The Peak Season 'Zero Panic' Blueprint is a practical operating guide for finding the weak points in your specialized ground freight operation before peak finds them for you. It includes the C.A.L.M. framework, the zero-panic move for each discipline and the full Zero-Panic Readiness Check. Complete the form to download your copy.