By the dawn of one dreary autumn day, teammates from Leader Mutual Freight (LMF) have worked over 30 hours in rotation on packing one high-priority shipment. Sweltering in their personal protective garments, members of our Chengdu bureau respected China’s nationwide quarantine and Covid-fighting requirements by working in a “closed-loop” arrangement for a full month.

By fall 2022, the coronavirus epidemic swept through the Sichuan provincial capital Chengdu. By that November, one of our packaging partners had to abruptly suspend all services at its factory after Covid-positive cases were identified by swab teams. The problem was the Chengdu bureau was relying on that particular factory for fabricating customized packaging for two outsize cargo deliveries — one measuring over 9 meters in height, the other measuring 3 meters wide. The wrappings are made from many different materials and the manufacturing process cannot be easily replicated by other factories.

The manufacturing plant at this point was deemed a high-risk quarantine zone. The entire area was sealed off and operations were ordered shut. Everything came to a halt because workers, products, and trucks could not enter the forbidden zone. Factory employees were serving group quarantine in hotel buildings, while some members of LMF’s Chengdu team were confined to their homes.

The situation meant that we were unable to deploy more technicians to provide guidance during the wrapping of outsize cargo. The factory was unable to provide enough workers to wrap the yet-to-be-delivered goods as well. The close-circuit requirements stipulated by the Sichuan government only allowed for three employees per packing company to enter the factory grounds, with the additional stipulation that clients have to also join the quarantine bubble by sharing food and living quarters at the factory.

But our assignment was of such a large and complex scale that it required at least 6 to 8 technicians per project. With no additional supervisors or p