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Mexican mixed vegetables such as cucumbers and squash continue into the latter part of the season crossing the border at Nogales, AZ.

Over 600 truckloads per week of Mexican tomatoes, both vine ripes and greenhouse grown, are also crossing the border, and volume is increasing.  Less than 200 truckloads of Mexican watermelons are coming through Nogales each week, but volume also is on the rise.

With the large hispanic population in the USA, a lot of mangoes from Mexico are being shipped to destinations across the USA.  The following figures include Mexico exports not only to the USA, but other desitinations, but you can be this country is one of the largest markets, if not the largest receiver of this tropical fruit.

For the week ending March 30th, Mexico shipped approximately 1.4 million boxes for a total of 7.6 million boxes representing 8% more than the previous week.
•Compared to the same week last year, Mexico shipped approximately 1.4 million boxes for a total of 7.4 million boxes in 2012.
•Projections for the next two weeks are 1.6 million and 2.1 million boxes respectively.

Although we are a month or so away from table grape loadings, the Mexican crop is shaping up as big,  with good quality, although cold and wet weather south of the border has slowed the vineyards by a week to 10 days later than it usually is.  Volume grape shipments are not expected until around  May 22-24, which will be too late for delivery to most buyers for distribution to stores  for the  Memorial Day weekend.  The holiday is Monday May 28th.

In South Texas, a wide variety of Mexican products are crossing the border ranging from tomatoes to potatoes, pineapples, onions, etc.  There are about 750 truckloads of Mexican avocados crossing at McAllen each week.

On this side of the border, shipments of Texas citrus, as well as sweet onions are continuing.   Just south of San Antonio, cabbage is being shipped out of the Winter Garden District.

South Texas produce – grossing about $3000 to Chicago.

Nogales, AZ produce – about $4000 to Atlanta.

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For those of you hauling Chilean table grapes from distribution centers located near several USA ports, a somewhat dicey situation will probably become a littler dicer.

The problem is late season Chilean grape quality is already becoming suspect.  Not only are importers acknowledging this, but I’ve witness it in my purchases at my local supermarket.

There a  strike at a major Chilean port  and it will likely delay the arrival of late-season grapes in the U.S. beyond the deadline for shipping fruit of a certain quality.

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(This is an editorial from the California Construction Trucking Association.  Although the group represents truckers such as dump truck haulers and others, these rules will also adversely affect produce truckers and most other types of haulers.)

Based on the December 19^th decision from the U.S. Circuit Court in our case “CDTOA(CCTA) v. CARB” (22 months after we filed our original suit), we now have to include the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) as a defendant if we choose to appeal our case. EPA approved the California Air Resources Board (CARB) state implementation plan (SIP) during our suit and it apparently changes the dynamics of the case – that’s at least what the judge said.

We’ve discussed various legal strategies with our attorneys and, on January 10, 2013, told them to proceed and file the Notice of Appeal with the 9^th Circuit Court in our legal action against the CARB heavy-duty on-road truck and bus regulation. The Notice of Appeal was officially filed on January 16.

Our case is the only active legal challenge to the truck and bus rule, which threatens the future of all small and medium-sized motor carriers and bus company owners in the state – and the rule will be adopted by other states if our case is unsuccessful.  If we are successful in this litigation, it will open the door to challenges of all the other California diesel regulations, so the stakes are too high to be ignored.

This is why we can’t just forget all the reasons behind our litigation and let CARB and EPA keep taking our equipment based on junk “science” claims. The statement below succinctly explains what we are facing and why we should not let this happen. We have continually exposed the fraud and corruption within the academic and public agency health community and their “science” that is the justification behind this government taking of our once-valuable equipment; it defines our struggle:

“The Clean Air Act charges the EPA with setting air pollution health standards and subsequent enforcement of those standards. But this means that federal and state regulators decide when their own jobs are finished as those standards are met. Not surprisingly, no matter how clean the air, the EPA and CARB continues to find ‘unacceptable risks.’  The EPA and state regulators’ powers and budgets, as well as most environmental groups like the NRDC, depend on a continued public perception that there is a serious problem to solve with our air and environment. These same regulators are the major funders of the health effects research intended to demonstrate the need for more regulation. They provide millions of dollars (public funds) each year to environmental groups and unfortunately, corrupt academic researchers who then use the money to augment public fear of every imaginable pollutant (real or not) and then seek increases in regulators’ powers – especially through our court system. These conflicts of interest largely explain the ubiquitous exaggeration of air pollution levels and risks, even as air quality and related public health has dramatically improved.”

We firmly believe, as this statement accurately explains, there will never be an end to claims of “unacceptable” health effects, environmental risks and unsubstantiated claims of premature deaths, even if diesel engines are 100% clean. The “science” behind all of this has been propagated in secret; some by a CARB employee who lied about his academic credentials, the underlying report data was never allowed to be examined by objective third-party reviewers and is now mostly propaganda perpetuating a huge deception – a deception that now threatens the existence of many small business owners, many of which are minorities within the transportation industry.

Given the perpetual motion of this scientific scare machine, the regulatory justification for more regulations will move from diesel and PM2.5 to natural gas and its unique emissions, to CO₂ and global warming as environmental activists in and out of government struggle to perpetuate their cause. More absurd health claims will become their justification to further regulate, holding the trucker, bus owner and small business equipment owner as the sole party responsible for equipment upgrades even though they complied with U.S. EPA standards at time of sale.

The proponents of these regulations often justify their over-regulation by citing the availability of special public funding to subsidize equipment replacement, but there are two things wrong with this claim. First, there may be millions in the funding basket, but the replacement costs will run into the tens of billions, just in California. Second, virtually all of the money given for subsidies so far has actually gone to large-scale operators who naturally turn over their trucks on a regular three-to-five year cycle and thus will never be faced with the forced elimination of their vehicles like vocational and small businesses owners are. These small business owners ironically were the primary “recyclers” of these commercial vehicles sold or traded by the same large carriers.

We believe that as soon as 2018, EPA and CARB will be establishing new regulations, which will cause those involved with commercial transportation to again have to replace their “new” diesel trucks and buses with natural gas powered vehicles. Interestingly, natural gas has its own problems with “different” and allegedly “more dangerous” vapor emissions versus diesel. Also, depending upon the source of the natural gas and the liquefaction efficiency rate, natural gas can reduce CO₂ emissions by about 20 percent, but methane can be a by-product of its use and might be 20-times more potent than CO₂ as a greenhouse gas. As LNG in fuel tanks warms, methane is released to the environment through a pressure relief valve. In fact, depending upon ambient temperatures, a parked LNG truck could vent most of its fuel over a 7-10 day period. The venting of methane from trucks parked over a short period could result in a net increase in greenhouse gas emissions compared to diesel fuel. Compressed natural gas (CNG) is not practical in a weight sensitive and efficient business environment.

From what we have seen dating back as far as 1998, new studies from the UC Schools of Public Health and those academics within that depend on grants will come pouring out, claiming that natural gas combustion vapors (even filtered), methane and CO₂ are also deadly and will call for new technology replacements within 10 years or less. Assuming technology is available, there will likely be requirements for hydrogen/electric hybrids and then the “battery recycling crisis” will be upon us due to “heavy metal pollution.” There will be no end to this – ever.

CCTA members are all for clean air; we all breathe, have kids and grandkids and wish for them a safe environment. In fact, CCTA is, arguably one of the most proactive transportation associations in California working with CARB. We have pushed extensively for logical regulations and reasonable enforcement. On December 8, 2008, during the regulatory hearings to adopt these on-road diesel engine regulations, we provided a thoughtful and well-reasoned eight page report containing 15 unique suggestions that CARB should have considered in implementing these regulations (http://www.arb.ca.gov/lispub/comm/bccomdisp.php?listname=truckbus08&comment_num=921&virt_num=435). Sadly and telling, not one was even considered – proving the agency’s total lack of reasonableness and commitment to actually working with small businesses in our industry.

We agree with those who believe CARB’s regulatory over-reach has allowed them to “take” our vehicles through fines and regulatory requirements. The Fifth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution prohibits, “private property” (including personal property like a vehicle) from being taken for public use without just compensation. We believe the loss of use through forced replacement is identical to taking “for public use.” The loss of value of this equipment can be measured in terms of hundreds of millions of dollars due to these regulations. One would be hard pressed to say this has no effect on a motor carriers costs, services and routes.

By enforcing rules and regulations instituted against vehicles operated in the state, after being approved as compliant with all existing environmental regulatory standards when they were built and sold, also constitutes an ex post facto law, which is a law that retroactively changes the legal consequences (or status) of actions committed or relationships that existed prior to the enactment of the law. The federal government, including the EPA, is prohibited from passing ex post facto laws by Clause 3, Article I, Section 9 of the U.S. Constitution and the states are prohibited from the same by Clause 1, Article I, Section 10. We believe that the CARB diesel engine regulations are also a violation of the sovereign rights of other states and even businesses based in foreign countries that may operate within this state.

Another problem is that instead of the engine and truck manufacturers (billion dollar businesses) being held responsible for their diesel engines, the person (mostly small business owners) in this equation who can least afford it, are solely responsible for this retroactive compliance regulation. When the health claims behind all of these regulations are based on secret junk science and are clearly a lie, as is the case today, this government taking of our equipment needs to be stopped.

Unfortunately, our counsel suggests that cases associated with “taking” heard by the courts involving government regulations are extremely difficult to win even though there is a clear and well-reasoned argument. Therefore, we believe we have a stronger case, based on existing federal laws including the Federal Aviation Administration Authorization Act of 1994 (FAAAA) and the Commerce Clause (U. S. Constitution Article I, Section 8, Clause 3) and related Supreme Court decisions. We intend to use these existing federal laws to push our challenges forward.

This may be the last opportunity for our industry to ever challenge the EPA/CARB diesel engine regulations in a meaningful way as time, money and regulatory “winner and loser” politics whittle away at our industry’s capacity to fight it. For these and other reasons, it is our intent to proceed with legal actions as suggested by counsel.

We hope this message resonates with the construction and commercial transportation industries within California, the rest of the U.S., Canada and Mexico and those with the will and vision, will play a supporting role in this historic effort.

 Lee Brown
Executive Director
California Construction Trucking Association

(Note: The California Dump Truck Owners Association name was changed to the California Construction Trucking Association on January 1, 2012)

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(This is a press release from the California Construction Trucking Association.  Although the group represents truckers such as dump truck haulers and others, these rules will also adversely affect produce truckers and most other types of haulers.)

Upland, CA.  – The California Construction Trucking Association (CCTA) has filed a Notice of Appeal to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in its nearly two-year-long legal case against the California Air Resources Board’s (CARB) heavy-duty, on-road truck and bus regulation (CDTOA v. CARB, Case No. 2:11-CV-00384-MCE-GGH).

The CARB diesel engine regulation will ultimately force the replacement of most diesel powered commercial motor vehicles that do not meet 2010 EPA emissions standards in order to operate in the State of California. Despite claims used to justify this regulation by regulators and environmental groups that public grant funding is readily available to assist truckers in complying – this is not true. Small-business truckers are bearing the brunt of the multi-billion dollar expense to unnecessarily replace trucks originally built and certified to EPA emissions standards.

The CCTA originally filed its litigation to CARB’s diesel engine regulation in March 2011 stating the state regulation is pre-empted by the Federal Aviation Administration Authorization Act (FAAAA) which prohibits states from enacting any law, rule, or regulation affecting the price, routes, or services of motor carriers. The NRDC intervened by presenting a Gordian Knot legal theory that CARB’s regulation was not actually a state regulation but effectively a federal regulation when the EPA hurriedly approved the California State Implementation Plan (SIP) in 2012 containing the challenged truck and bus regulation – a year after litigation began.

In December 2012, the U.S. District Court issued a decision that the EPA was an “indispensable party” to the litigation resulting from EPA approval of the SIP and that the court no longer retained jurisdiction. No decision was made on the merits of CCTA’s original legal argument. The CCTA will appeal this decision.

Additionally, the CCTA will file a Petition for Review with the Ninth Circuit challenging EPA’s approval of the SIP since the Clean Air Act prohibits EPA from approving a SIP in conflict with other federal law. CCTA believes the approval is in conflict with the FAAAA and commerce clause of the U.S. Constitution.

Separately, the CCTA is being represented by the Pacific Legal Foundation in another action challenging the process used by the EPA in approving CARB’s off-road diesel engine rules.

Read an open letter the trucking industry titled “Why We Should Continue to Fight.”

http://calcontrk.org/industry/carb/1027-cdtoa-vs-arb

About the CCTA

The California Construction Trucking Association (formerly known as the California Dump Truck Owners Association) is a 501 (c) (6) trade association founded in 1941 and headquartered in Upland, California. CCTA membership consists of over 1,100 member motor carriers ranging in size from one-truck owner-operators to fleets with over 350 trucks. CCTA members operate in multiple modes of trucking from vocational trucking to property carrying in both intrastate and interstate commerce.

Contact:

Joe Rajkovacz

Director of Governmental Affairs &

Communications

California Construction Trucking Association &

Western Trucking Alliance

+1 909 982 9898

joe@calcontrk.org

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Storage supplies of onions  from the Northwest are as low as they have been in many years.  Whether we are talking Idaho, Oregon or Washington state, storage onions and shipments are well below the levels from four years ago.  In fact, there are 10 million pounds fewer onions than in 2009.

If  you are in the Northwest, apples and pears, especially from Washington state, are in much better supply, plus usually pay a better freight rate better than onions.  Idaho has more potatoes than it knows what to do with, so they are moving a lot spuds.

California

Asparagus shipments are originating primarily from the Delta region of the San Joaquin Valley, although volume has really declined in the past 10 years or so.

In the year 2000, San Joaquin County alone shipped over 63 million pounds of asparagus from 23,600 acres harvested.   By 2011,  county plantings had fallen to 6,400 acres.  The year, available loads are expected to be similar to last year, about 36 million pounds on 11,000 to 12,000 acres statewide.

The Mexican holiday Cinco de Mayo is May 5th and record avocado shipments of avocados are being predicted leading up to this event.  California loadings will be going full bore during April as the state  expects to ship about  87.3 million pounds of avocados – just for Cinco de Mayo!  In total, about 515 million pounds of avocados should be transported in 2013.  This would be one of biggest crops on record. 

Texas

Lower Rio Grande Valley sweet onion shipments are normally peaking right now, but 2013 is shaping up for Texas to be more like 2007, as there will be less volume this season.

I was on the Atlanta State Farmers Market last week and talked with a trucker who was being unloaded.  He had onions on a flatbed trailer.  He’d just arrived from South Texas.  However, onion loads will be off sharply this year from Texas and Mexico.  In south Texas you probably will have better luck getting Mexican produce items ranging from veggies to tropical fruits, as well as Lower Rio Grade Valley citrus.

South Texas produce – grossing about $2700 to Atlanta.

Southern California avocados, berries, citrus – about $6800 to New York City.

Idaho potatoes – about $2800 to Chicago.

Yakima Valley apples and pears – about $4300 to Dallas

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A new global survey of retailers from the Nielsen Perishables Group titled Why Retailers are Keeping it Fresh concludes that diversification of retail channels where fresh food is purchased and a slowly contracting fresh market share for supermarkets is a big trend in teh USA.

The report includes online and in-person surveys of 87,000 people in 58 countries.  Pver  half of those surveyed blamed higher prices for cutting their fresh food purchases.

The report also predicts by 2017 USA retail fresh dollar market share for supercenters/hypermarkets will climb to 15 percent, and increase of one percent fromlast year.  The share of fresh sales at U.S. warehouse clubs will rise to 12 percent by 2016, up two percent from 2012.   However,  the share of fresh sales at USA supermarkets will decline from 66 percent last year to 64 percent by 2016.

Consumers in America shop for fresh foods about 1.4 times per week, compared with the average of 2.5 times per week for all global consumers.

In Asia, the report notes fresh foods — bakery, deli, meat, produce and seafood — account for as much as 60 percent of consumer expenses on food, grocery and personal care items. European consumers spend an average of 53 percent on fresh foods as a share of total food and grocery purchases.  By contrast, American purchses of  fresh foods account for just 30percent of consumer expenditures on food, grocery and personal care items. Fresh produce accounted for 32 percent  for fresh category sales in the USA, second only to the meat department’s 39 percent share.

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South Florida has been shipping red potatoes and to a lesser extent, gold and white potatoes since the middle of February, with central Florida starting a week or two later. 

South Florida potato shipments should be peaking within the next couple of weeks and continue until around the middle of May.  North Florida spud loads will become available in late April.

Like most Florida items this year, watermelons got underway early with a mid-March shipping start.  Central Florida watermelons will be get started in mid to late April.  Both south and central Florida melon loadings should continue into the second or third week of May.  Meanwhile, watermelon shipments in northern Florida should get going around mid May and continue through June.

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I had a great visit to Georgia May 25-29 visiting with truckers at various truck stops along Interstate 75, as well as on the Atlanta State Farmers Market.   Over the next several weeks I’ll be posting some photos and interviews with owner operators and drivers from the Georgia trip.

Additionally I met with a number of shippers of vegetables, watermelons and peaches in central Georgia.

The first part of the week was the coldest I’d ever seen over years in March when in Georiga.  There were a couple of heavy frosts and damage to produce will really depend upon a lot of things.  For example, I talked with one water melon shipper who received no frost damage, but another shipper located only 20 miles to the north lost his watermelon plants that had only been in the ground a week or so……A bean shipper told me he had some leaf burn on plants…..Peach shippers should know in a week or two if the crop will be affected by the cold……One blueberry shipper said there will be losses for the fruit, which starts in a few weeks.  However, it was too early to assess damage…..Overall, I think your Georgia spring and summer loading opportunities won’t be reduced by all that much.

I visited Southeastern Georgia several weeks ago and have followed up that visit with calls to get a better ideal of how Vidalia onion shipments are shaping up.  Vidalia has got a lot rain in recent weeks, but decent shipments are still expected.

Loadings in any volume won’t be happening until after mid April.  We’ll have to wait and see until the harvest gets going, whether there’s going to be any disease problems from rains, such as downy mildew.

Vidalia typically ships fresh onions until early June, and then continues shipments out of storage into late August or early September.  However, sweet onions can be pretty “ify” coming out of storage and tend not to store as well as other onions.

There are nearly 12,600 acres of Vidalia onions planted this year, which is only one percent less than than 2012. — Bill Martin

Greens from central and south Georgia – grossing about $2400 to New York City.

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Life is less complicated for Dave Krebs as he runs pretty much the same routes each week for Great Lakes Cheese of Hiram, OH.  HaulProduce recently caughtup with after he has delivered a load of cheese to Atanta from Ohio.  His weekly route typically takes him from Ohio to Georgia, South Carolina, Virginia, Pennyslvania, Maryland, and as far north as Buffalo, NY.  It all involving picking up and delivering cheexe.

Dave, 55, has been trucking since he was 18 years old, where he started out driving a dump truck.  He’s been running his current route for the past year.  Prior to this he was delivering milk to Costco stores.

“I love having a regular route,” says the resident of Garretsville, OH.    “You know what you will be doing for the week and where you will be.”  He also works directly with shippers to obtain his own loads.

Dave owns a 2010 359 Peterbilt with an ISX 550 h.p. Cummins diesel.  I features an 18 speed transmission, has a 285-inch wheelbase, pulling a 48-foot Utility  trailer with a thermoKing unit.

While the owner operator is glad to be trucking for the same businesses each week, he readily admits being a driver isn’t necessarily his first love.  Dave enjoys buying and selling things – something like a “horse” trader.

“This is a job.  It’s like going on the pawn shop TV series.  I’ll sell anything, including this truck,” he notes.

What does he like least about trucking?  All the paperwork, the rules and the regulations.

Specifically, Dave mentions the CSA regulations of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, which rates the safety of motor carriers.  The FMCSA bases its safet program on percentages.  This mean  that 35 percent of carriers are  going have safety “alerts,” since only 65 percent of carriers can be deemed safe at any on time.

He calls this rating system, “terrible.”

As for the hours of service rules, Dave say the rules do not bother him, “because what I do, the 34-hour restart does not affect me.  I have time for plenty of rest in between my stops.”

While he sees some improvement in the economy, he notes freight rates are still too low and should be higher.  When the economy took a nosedive in 2008, Dave sold four flatbed trailers he had been using to haul steel.

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Rickie Perteet will never forget back in 2002 when he was outside mowing his yard and his neighbor said to him, “I’m sorry about your job.”

The veteran trucker didn’t have a clue what his neighbor was talking about.  Then the fellow said, “You better go inside and see CNN.”

That’s how Rickie, who had been driving 13 years for Consolidated Freightways, found out he was not only unemployed, but the large carrier was no longer in business.  The nation’s third largest trucking company had filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.  It was Labor Day, September 3, 2002.   The Vancouver, WA based carrier had 15,500 employees at the time.  It had been in business since 1929.

A resident of Portland, TN, Rickie has now been a company driver for 28 years and hauls produce for Freeman Logisitics.

I caught up with Rickie several weeks ago on the Atlanta State Farmers Market where he had just delivered a load of tomatoes from Nashville, TN.  The product was being hauled to FreshPoint Atlanta Inc., a wholesale and foodservice operation.

The company driver has a regular run where he pick ups a load of produce in Nashville on Sunday night for delivery to Atlanta Monday morning.  He typically makes two to three round trips per week.

Prior to joing Freeman Logisitics Rickie had made a couple trips to the West Coast hauling chickens westbound and produce back, but says he prefers the trucking he is doing now – and spending more time at home.

He drives a 2003 Peterbilt with a 475 hp Cat diesel and a 13-speed transmission on a 286-inch wheelbase.  It pulls at 53-foot Great Dane with a ThermoKing reefer unit.

Rickie, 55,  says he learned trucking from his dad.  He also has a couple of uncles and an aunt that own a few trucks.

Over the years the aspect of trucking he liked least was being away from home and his kids so much, missing ball games, etc.  His children are now 18 and 21 years old and he gets to spend more time with them due to his regular haul, even though the kids no longer live at home.

One fact that saddens him about trucking are the drivers coming into the business.  There is a lot of inexperienced drivers on the road who lack professionalism.

“The other day I saw a driver on the highway with a book on the dash and he was reading it while going down the road,” he says.

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