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PLEASANTON, Calif. – DeltaTRAK®, a leading innovator of cold chain, environmental monitoring and food safety management solutions, announced the introduction of its DeltaTRAK TempDot Plus time-temperature indicator labels. The low-cost irreversible labels are designed to provide positive indication that the label has been activated and is in the “ON” condition. If a temperature breach occurs the product provides detailed visual information indicating the excursion length. The new labels feature unique graphics and provide the user with a green “ON” button following the IEC 5009 standard. The highly accurate labels also provide individual label serial numbers for traceability.
“The TempDot labels’ design allows them to remain completely inert prior to use so that preconditioning is not required, allowing them to be shipped or stored under most conditions and significantly reducing cost of ownership,” said Frederick Wu, president and CEO of DeltaTRAK. “Additional benefits over existing chemical labels include the easy-to-read activation and progress windows which confirm when the label is on, and the imprinted serial numbers assure traceability.”
DeltaTRAK TempDot Plus labels monitor the cumulative amount of time the label is exposed to temperature above its threshold. When a temperature excursion occurs the blue dye, which is generally recognized as safe, melts and progresses through a window with clearly indicated time markers. When temperature returns below the label’s threshold the dye solidifies and stops moving. This irreversible process allows the label to measure cumulative temperature abuse time above threshold temperature. TempDot Plus labels provide traceable temperature information on all forms of temperature sensitive products helping our customers meet the requirements of state and federal regulations such as the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA), Produce Traceability Initiative (PTI) and the FDA Fish and Fishery Products Hazards and Controls Guidance. The labels are available in multiple temperature ranges with specific thresholds and run out times for food, pharmaceutical and biologics applications.About DeltaTRAK®
DeltaTRAK® is a leading innovator of cold chain management, environmental monitoring and food safety solutions for the food, pharmaceutical, life sciences and chemical industries. The company’s cold chain management and food safety solutions include a wide range of temperature, humidity, and pH monitoring and recording devices, such as data loggers, wireless systems, and a variety of professional thermometers. DeltaTRAK also manufactures facility and mobile environment monitoring solutions that provide real-time data access to centralized web/cloud based data. Headquartered in Pleasanton, California, DeltaTRAK has an R&D facility in San Diego, California, a manufacturing and distribution facility in Modesto, California, and an electronic assembly plant in Shenzhen, China. Contact DeltaTRAK by phone at 1-800-962-6776 or by email at marketing@deltatrak.com. Additional information can be found at www.deltatrak.com.
Source: DeltaTRAK
It is difficult to find anyone in the trucking industry more aware of the checkered past of truck brokers than Jimmy DeMatteis. For this reason, and simply because it is the right thing to do, Jimmy goes out of his way to make sure those people behind the wheel of the big rigs get a fair shake.
As president of Des Moines Truck Brokers, Inc. (DMTB) he knows the reputation of the company’s 43 year history is on the line with each load. It all began in 1951 with his dad, James A. DeMatteis (Jim Sr.) hauling produce. By 1960 he was a small fleet owner and three years later became a broker of exempt commodities.
Jim DeMatteis Sr. with LJ Mack circa 1960
Jim Sr. started DMTB in 1969 and remained a one-man operation until 1984 when James R. DeMatteis (Jimmy) came aboard.
“We have always been advocates for small carriers and their success,” Jimmy says. To back up his claim, just go the company’s website at: www.dmtb.com where it states, “Our reputation for paying carriers is second to none”. DMTB has a policy to pay all carriers within one day of receiving the carrier’s freight bill.
Jimmy has served on the board of the Transportation Intermediaries Association (TIA) for the past 6 years “because I believe in our industry and I want to see us do it right.”
Jimmy also serves on the Executive Committee of The Alliance for Safe, Efficient Competitive Truck Transportation (ASECTT) whose main focus is addressing “all the fallacies and flaws in CSA-2010.” He notes the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) decided it was “going to ram this program down the throat of every motor carrier.” As a result ASECTT filed a lawsuit. It resulted in the FMCSA having to reevaluate the way it rated carriers through alerts in its safety management systems. The ratings system has resulted in safe carriers being rated as unsafe. “We want FMCSA to do their job. Their job is to determine the safety fitness of the motor carrier community. Instead they have chosen to deputize the motor carrier, shipper, and broker communities to do their work”
“We want the FMCSA to state they are the party responsible for a carrier’s safety fitness, not the shipper, not the broker,” he states. “Shippers are putting things in contracts based on CSA scores that black list many good small trucking companies. Carriers get put out of business because shippers or brokers won’t work with them as they are deemed unsafe by these scores or alerts.”
The problem comes from the FMCSA basing its program on percentages. “No matter how many bad carriers you get rid of, you are always going to have 35 percent that are going to have alerts. This is very damaging to small carriers. It works well for large carriers and gives them a distinct advantage,” Jimmy states.
Based inNorwalk,IA, DMTB recently moved into new facilities shared with a sister company, Capital City Fruit, with whom it has a 43-year relationship.
Jimmy emphasizes small trucking operations are the backbone of the trucking industry.
“I want to think we at DMTB get it. We treat others with respect, we pay fast and take time to talk to our drivers,” he says. Des Moines Truck Brokers has a policy if a driver walks into its office with bills of lading and the staff has not met that trucker before, everyone stands up, and introduces themselves and shakes his or her hand.
“We in the logistics industry all do important work, but at the end of the day, the person doing the most important work, is that guy or gal out there behind the wheel,” Jimmy states.
For more information about Des Moines Truck Brokers, Inc. go to www.dmtb.com or call 800-247-2514
At least for some shippers in the Red River Valley, it was looking a little dim in September due to drought. However, October rains have increased yields — and loading opportunities have improved for those who haul red potatoes out of the region, located on the borders of North Dakota and Minnesota.
The last of the spuds are now being dug. It’s looking like valley potato shipments for the 2012-13 season will be quite close to the five-year average. Currently, only about 250 truckloads a week or being shipped, but loadings are still increasing as the focus moves from harvest, and storage to shipping.
From central Wisconsin, russet potato loads are averaging around 500 truckloads per week…..Peak shipments of cranberries for the Thanksgiving holidays are now underway from central Wisconsin.
Nebraska continues light loadings of potatoes. In the southwestern part of the state potatoes are being shipped from the Imperial, Neb area. The other most active part of the state is around O’Neill in the northeastern part of the Nebraska.
In the Lower Rio Grande Valley of South Texas, grapefruit and orange shipments have been slowly ramping up. Because California’s season ended early, there’s been good demand for Texas citrus, although loadings have been limited and there’s not much citrus yet to be found in the retail stores.
If you are loading grapefruit or oranges in South Texas, it should be a little more simple than 20 years ago when there were at least two dozen citrus companies. That number has shank to only four, primarily due to mergers and acquisitions. This should be reducing the number pick ups required for some hauls.
Central Wisconsin potatoes – grossing about $3400 to Houston.
Red River Valley red potatoes – about $4300 to Orlando.
The USA needs around 111,000 more drivers to move the nation’s freight, according to Doug Stobiber, vice president of produce transportation for L&M Transportation Services of Raleigh, NC. He was speaking at the produce industry’s largest gathering recently, the annual convention of the Production Marketing Association (PMA), held in Anaheim, CA
While Stoiber notes better pay and higher freight rates for drivers is important, he placed just as much emphasis on truckers being repected.
He points out there is a shortage of qualified drivers and it is only going to get worse, primarily because fewer younger drivers are entering the industry, combined with greater numbers of older truckers retiring. While the average age of the commerical driver is 48 years old, the ones under 30 years of age amount to less than 10 percent.
Current law requires commerical driver’s operating interstate be at least 21 years old. President Obama is in favor of permitting states to lower the age limit to 18 years old. While supporters of this proposal are looking at ways to increase the number of drivers with CDLs (commerical drivers license), opponents point out the high accident rate among teenage automobile drivers, saying they are too young and immature to drive a big rig.
Starting this year, the nation’s largest generation (baby boomers) are reaching 65 years of age. They are retiring at a rate of 10,000 each day.
Stoiber made some economic comparisions between hauling dry freight, compared to fresh produce. There are liabilities as a produce trucker. Those remain until the papers are signed and the receiver accepts the load. The use of a refrigeration unit on a trailer adds an additional $1,500 in costs to a coast-to-coast haul. Overall, there are fewer risks with dry freight. Even with all the economic factors involved in produce hauling, Stoiber emphasizes the need for the produce industry giving drivers more respect. This will go along way in attracting more drivers to haul produce.
“Truckers have been viewed as obstacles to doing business instead of partners in the supply chain,” Stoiber said.
He encouraged the audience to pay higher freight rates and to think in terms of price per consumer unit instead of $1,000 per load. It comes down to more than just a good freight rate. Loyalty and respect are very important to truckers, he said.
Stoiber also addressed issues brought forward by a group encourging better practices in dealing with produce truckers. The North American Produce Transportation Working Group (NAPTWA) earlier this year released guidelines for making fresh produce hauling more attractive. Tips range from decreasing detention time when loading and unloading, to allowing drivers to watch loading.
The best practices are regularly reviewed and updated as federal regulations and other factors change the way truckers are allowed to operate, said Stoiber, who is a member of NAPTWA. The best practices are free on the working group’s website at www.naptwg.org.
Few things in the trucking industry are frowned upon more than lease-purchase plans. Go to work for a trucking company, lease a truck from that carrier with the idea of one day owning it. Failure for the deal to work out is blamed on everything from low driver pay to high interest rates and the carrier not providing the driver with enough miles The truck eventually goes back to the carrier, when the driver can’t make the payments. Then the process is just repeated.
Shaun Smith of Sanford, FL has been with KLLM Transport Services, Jackson, MS since last January. The 12-year trucking veteran has entered into a lease-purchase plan with the large carrier and says it is working out fine. He is making good money, logging a lot of miles and is making a living for his wife and four kids, who ages range from two to 14 years old.
The 34-year-old driver says he is averaging 3,000 miles a week, or about 150,000 miles a year. He drives a 2008 Freightliner with a Detroit DD15, pulling a 53-foot trailer with a Carrier Ultama XTO X Series reefer unit.
Shaun enjoys trucking because he gets to see a lot of the country, plus make a decent living while doing so. His primary complaint is with heavy traffic, especially in large cities such as New York and in California.
He started trucking after finishing high school, got married, and then went into water well drilling in Mississippi. He then moved to Florida, working in a warehouse for a fast food company. But trucking remains his first love.
“KLLM is a good company. I’ve got one more year before this truck is paid for,” Shaun says. “I got it on a lease-purchase plan. If you have the money to buy a truck right off the lot, then that’s a good way to do it. Under a lease-purchase plant you had better have a good carrier.”
Shaun had just delivered a load of soda pop from California to Oklahoma. He was waiting to pick up a load of muffins in Tulsa for delivery to Concord, NC.
He also hauls a lot of produce loads.
“I have no problem with hauling fresh fruits and vegetables. You have to keep a close eye on the temperature. But I like hauling it as well as anything,” he says.
As far as being the road so much, Shaun observes, “You have to have a strong mind and be able to be away from your family. It can be hard. But it is a good career.”
TempTrip combines flexible performance and an affordable price in a reusable device the size of a credit card. It is a new one-touch te
mperature sensing tag with a five-year battery.
The Broomfield, CO-based company introduced the new UHF tag at the Produce Marketing Association’s (PMA) Fresh Summit, last month in Anaheim, Calif.
The ultra-thin tag has a button that can be pressed to start and/or mark temperature data at multiple points during a product’s cold chain journey. If the temperature is out of range a red light blinks. A green light displays if programmed parameters have been maintained, the news release states.
The new tags are effective from about -20 to 120 degrees Fahrenheit. Thousands of time and temperature points can be logged to help manage food safety. They can be attached to packages, cases, or pallets.
The product has microprocessors allowing for a variety of calculations including remaining shelf life, mean kinetic temperature and multi-parameter alarms. Custom product configurations are written to each tag and are easily updated in the field.
Strong fresh produce sales are predicted for the autumn holiday season, 
according to a recent forecast by a retail analyst, based in Chicago. (This should also bode well for produce haulers because more product should be available.)
The report from the Nielsen Perishables Group says momentum is good following a solid summer selling season.
35 of 44 fresh produce categories posted volume gains in the summer of 2012, in large part because there were no significant losses of crops or food safety issues, according to the report.
The Nielsen Perishables reported both volume and sales of fresh produce were up 4 percent compared with the same period a year ago, for the 13 weeks ending August 25th.
Retailers offer smaller discounts on fresh produce items, which the Nielson report believes led to the volume of fresh fruits and vegetables purchases on promotions declining last summer.
Cherries were among the most successful produce items becasue of a huge 2012 crop driving a 20% growth in sales, the report notes.
There was nearly a 30 percdent price drop in avocados, driving sales up an anstounding remarkable 46percent. Value-added vegetables were also strong performers, with new products boosting sales, according to the report.
Nielsen projects continued strength in the fresh produce department for fall retail produce sales.
For produce alone, Nielsen forecasts holiday dollar and volume sales to grow 5 percdent and 4 percent respectively. Consumers may be troubled by economic uncertainty revolving around November elections.
“If consumers revert to their focus on price, expect to see steeper discounts designed to draw in shoppers during the vital holiday season,” according to the report.
Shipments of some Thanksgiving produce favorites could be light this year.
For example , in the Glades/Lake Okeechobee region of Florida the was excessive rains during plantings from mid-September to mid-October. This may significantly reduce loads of green beans for the holidays, perhaps has much as 50 percent. Also be on the look out for wind damage to some vegetable items such as green beans, due to winds from Hurricane Sandy.
Other growing regions in south Florida will likely face similar reduced shipments.
Sweet potatoes
Sweet potato sales have increased to the point where normal times of the years, sales are close to those around the holidays.
Mississippi sweet potato shipments are expected to be lighter for Thanksgiving because of weather factors.
Cranberries
In Massachusetts and Wisconsin cranberries loads may down 10 percent. These two states account for the vast majority of fresh cranberry shipments. Make sure companies paying for the freight are aware the berries are smaller than normal this season.
In the brief history of our nation we have experienced a few crossroads, and we are at one of them today. Many of us have abandoned the principals that made this country the most powerful and prosperous nation the world has ever seen.
Moving forward we can either continue to abandon our founding principals, and therefore continue a downhill path of economic destruction, or we can reclaim the values that allowed us to rise to the top. We are beomg bombarded with political rhetoric from all sides. We will be faced with the choice of who will lead us, and in what direction we want to be led. For each American that will mean we must examine our core values and determine if our own self interest is more important than saving the country.
And we must evaluate if it is even worth the effort. Over the past several years this column has pointed out the problems in our society and how we have lost our core values. We have let our educational system fail us, and we now have a very low and poorly educated workforce who cannot compete in a global economy.
We have not been responsible for our diet and exercise. The result is over one third of all Americans are obese, and this has increased our health care costs. We have let ourselves become envious and we now covet the success of others, and we have turned the American dream of wealth and prosperity into something “evil.”
We have lost the uniquely American value of self-reliance, and replaced it with a nanny state of social dependence. We have fallen into the trap of letting the rest of the world demand that we solve their problems rather than demanding that they stand on their own two feet.
We have failed to live within our means, and now debt is crushing our economy. The list goes on and on. Now we are indeed at a crossroads. Do we reverse course, or do we continue an inevitable slide into a third world “has been” nation?
These issues must be considered when we choose our next leader. Let’s assume that we want to return to prosperity, and to the values that brought us to a point of greatness. What should we look for in our next President?
For starters, we need a leader who can bring back and inspire American individualism to stand on your own two feet as a person, not a dependant on society. Individualism is the trait of character that instills self-reliance and personal responsibility. That will insure that Americans stay in school, work hard, and get a good education.
We need a leader that emphasizes solutions to problems rather than wallows in empathy and self pity. Empathy has never solved a single problem in anyone’s life, but solutions to problems have. And we need a leader that praises success, and encourages individuals to seek wealth and happiness. The fact is wealthy people contribute to our nation’s financial stability while poor people are an economic and social burden on the nation.
We need a leader that understands that living within your means is not “radical,” “extreme,” or a “Draconian” idea. We need a leader that can have the self discipline to let the rest of the world grow and sort out their own problems rather than getting involved in their business.
Other countries must learn to stand on their own two feet as we have. A good case in point is China. In the 1940’s China had a revolution and they purged their country of foreign influence. They went through some very bad times. They killed and murdered their own people. They suffered famine and hardship. And they had a very difficult time establishing their identity as a nation, but they have been evolving over the past 60-plus years from a communist nation to a capitalist nation.
Karl Marx had it backwards. And if China continues their path toward capitalism, they will overtake our economy within the next five to 10 years. No system is perfect. All systems of government will have people who won’t make it. The question is what system provides the best prosperity for the most people. And that solution for government is obvious. It is capitalism.
China has learned that, and they will continue their evolution towards capitalist prosperity. Solutions for our problems and the future of our success will not come easy. Nothing in life worth having ever comes easy. That is why welfare and handouts never improve people’s lives. They only prolong the inevitable.
We should not look for the easy way out. Let each of us examine our own values and look in the mirror. If this country is worth saving, then we must choose wisely. If not, then maybe we should have a plan “B” and be ready to leave the country. After all, most of our ancestors immigrated here to escape some nation that was heading downhill. They did it, and if need be, we can do it. — Larry Oscar
Larry Oscar is a graduate from the University of Tulsa and holds a degree in electrical engineering. He is retired and lives with his wife on a lake in Oklahoma where he brews his own beer, sails, and is a member of numerous clubs and organizations.
Here’s a look at available fresh produce loads in the Western half of the USA where volume is primarily steady, or increasing.
In South Texas, avocados from Mexico are providing over 600 truckload equivalents per week and the volume will be increasing in the weeks ahead….South Texas grapefruit loadings are very light, but have started, and will hit good volume around mid- November….In West Texas in the Hereford area, as well as in nearby Eastern New Mexico, there is light volume with potatoes.
Looking at the San Luis Valley of south-central Colorado, about 500 truckloads of russett potatoes are being shipped weekly.
Idaho has another huge crop of russet potatoes. While the railroads move a significant amount of the state’s spuds, the majority of the volume still is shipped by truck. Nearly 1,700 truckload equivalents of potatoes are providing loads on a weekly basis.
California’s San Joaquin Valley is shipping everything from grapes to carrots and tomatoes, among other items. Over 2,000 truckloads of grapes are being shipped weekly from vineyards spread between the Bakersfield area to Merced. Decent volume with tomatoes also are available, but a seasonal decline will continue in coming weeks.
In Washington state, apples from the Yakima and Wenatchee valleys may be providing the single largest amounts of fruit volume in the country. A huge apple crop is averaging about 2,500 truckload equipments on a weekly basis.
PLEASANTON, Calif. – DeltaTRAK®, a leading innovator of cold chain, environmental monitoring and food safety management solutions, announced the introduction of its DeltaTRAK TempDot Plus time-temperature indicator labels. The low-cost irreversible labels are designed to provide positive indication that the label has been activated and is in the “ON” condition. If a temperature breach occurs the product provides detailed visual information indicating the excursion length. The new labels feature unique graphics and provide the user with a green “ON” button following the IEC 5009 standard. The highly accurate labels also provide individual label serial numbers for traceability.
“The TempDot labels’ design allows them to remain completely inert prior to use so that preconditioning is not required, allowing them to be shipped or stored under most conditions and significantly reducing cost of ownership,” said Frederick Wu, president and CEO of DeltaTRAK. “Additional benefits over existing chemical labels include the easy-to-read activation and progress windows which confirm when the label is on, and the imprinted serial numbers assure traceability.”
DeltaTRAK TempDot Plus labels monitor the cumulative amount of time the label is exposed to temperature above its threshold. When a temperature excursion occurs the blue dye, which is generally recognized as safe, melts and progresses through a window with clearly indicated time markers. When temperature returns below the label’s threshold the dye solidifies and stops moving. This irreversible process allows the label to measure cumulative temperature abuse time above threshold temperature. TempDot Plus labels provide traceable temperature information on all forms of temperature sensitive products helping our customers meet the requirements of state and federal regulations such as the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA), Produce Traceability Initiative (PTI) and the FDA Fish and Fishery Products Hazards and Controls Guidance. The labels are available in multiple temperature ranges with specific thresholds and run out times for food, pharmaceutical and biologics applications.About DeltaTRAK®
DeltaTRAK® is a leading innovator of cold chain management, environmental monitoring and food safety solutions for the food, pharmaceutical, life sciences and chemical industries. The company’s cold chain management and food safety solutions include a wide range of temperature, humidity, and pH monitoring and recording devices, such as data loggers, wireless systems, and a variety of professional thermometers. DeltaTRAK also manufactures facility and mobile environment monitoring solutions that provide real-time data access to centralized web/cloud based data. Headquartered in Pleasanton, California, DeltaTRAK has an R&D facility in San Diego, California, a manufacturing and distribution facility in Modesto, California, and an electronic assembly plant in Shenzhen, China. Contact DeltaTRAK by phone at 1-800-962-6776 or by email at marketing@deltatrak.com. Additional information can be found at www.deltatrak.com.
Source: DeltaTRAK
It is difficult to find anyone in the trucking industry more aware of the checkered past of truck brokers than Jimmy DeMatteis. For this reason, and simply because it is the right thing to do, Jimmy goes out of his way to make sure those people behind the wheel of the big rigs get a fair shake.
As president of Des Moines Truck Brokers, Inc. (DMTB) he knows the reputation of the company’s 43 year history is on the line with each load. It all began in 1951 with his dad, James A. DeMatteis (Jim Sr.) hauling produce. By 1960 he was a small fleet owner and three years later became a broker of exempt commodities.
Jim DeMatteis Sr. with LJ Mack circa 1960
Jim Sr. started DMTB in 1969 and remained a one-man operation until 1984 when James R. DeMatteis (Jimmy) came aboard.
“We have always been advocates for small carriers and their success,” Jimmy says. To back up his claim, just go the company’s website at: www.dmtb.com where it states, “Our reputation for paying carriers is second to none”. DMTB has a policy to pay all carriers within one day of receiving the carrier’s freight bill.
Jimmy has served on the board of the Transportation Intermediaries Association (TIA) for the past 6 years “because I believe in our industry and I want to see us do it right.”
Jimmy also serves on the Executive Committee of The Alliance for Safe, Efficient Competitive Truck Transportation (ASECTT) whose main focus is addressing “all the fallacies and flaws in CSA-2010.” He notes the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) decided it was “going to ram this program down the throat of every motor carrier.” As a result ASECTT filed a lawsuit. It resulted in the FMCSA having to reevaluate the way it rated carriers through alerts in its safety management systems. The ratings system has resulted in safe carriers being rated as unsafe. “We want FMCSA to do their job. Their job is to determine the safety fitness of the motor carrier community. Instead they have chosen to deputize the motor carrier, shipper, and broker communities to do their work”
“We want the FMCSA to state they are the party responsible for a carrier’s safety fitness, not the shipper, not the broker,” he states. “Shippers are putting things in contracts based on CSA scores that black list many good small trucking companies. Carriers get put out of business because shippers or brokers won’t work with them as they are deemed unsafe by these scores or alerts.”
The problem comes from the FMCSA basing its program on percentages. “No matter how many bad carriers you get rid of, you are always going to have 35 percent that are going to have alerts. This is very damaging to small carriers. It works well for large carriers and gives them a distinct advantage,” Jimmy states.
Based inNorwalk,IA, DMTB recently moved into new facilities shared with a sister company, Capital City Fruit, with whom it has a 43-year relationship.
Jimmy emphasizes small trucking operations are the backbone of the trucking industry.
“I want to think we at DMTB get it. We treat others with respect, we pay fast and take time to talk to our drivers,” he says. Des Moines Truck Brokers has a policy if a driver walks into its office with bills of lading and the staff has not met that trucker before, everyone stands up, and introduces themselves and shakes his or her hand.
“We in the logistics industry all do important work, but at the end of the day, the person doing the most important work, is that guy or gal out there behind the wheel,” Jimmy states.
For more information about Des Moines Truck Brokers, Inc. go to www.dmtb.com or call 800-247-2514
At least for some shippers in the Red River Valley, it was looking a little dim in September due to drought. However, October rains have increased yields — and loading opportunities have improved for those who haul red potatoes out of the region, located on the borders of North Dakota and Minnesota.
The last of the spuds are now being dug. It’s looking like valley potato shipments for the 2012-13 season will be quite close to the five-year average. Currently, only about 250 truckloads a week or being shipped, but loadings are still increasing as the focus moves from harvest, and storage to shipping.
From central Wisconsin, russet potato loads are averaging around 500 truckloads per week…..Peak shipments of cranberries for the Thanksgiving holidays are now underway from central Wisconsin.
Nebraska continues light loadings of potatoes. In the southwestern part of the state potatoes are being shipped from the Imperial, Neb area. The other most active part of the state is around O’Neill in the northeastern part of the Nebraska.
In the Lower Rio Grande Valley of South Texas, grapefruit and orange shipments have been slowly ramping up. Because California’s season ended early, there’s been good demand for Texas citrus, although loadings have been limited and there’s not much citrus yet to be found in the retail stores.
If you are loading grapefruit or oranges in South Texas, it should be a little more simple than 20 years ago when there were at least two dozen citrus companies. That number has shank to only four, primarily due to mergers and acquisitions. This should be reducing the number pick ups required for some hauls.
Central Wisconsin potatoes – grossing about $3400 to Houston.
Red River Valley red potatoes – about $4300 to Orlando.
The USA needs around 111,000 more drivers to move the nation’s freight, according to Doug Stobiber, vice president of produce transportation for L&M Transportation Services of Raleigh, NC. He was speaking at the produce industry’s largest gathering recently, the annual convention of the Production Marketing Association (PMA), held in Anaheim, CA
While Stoiber notes better pay and higher freight rates for drivers is important, he placed just as much emphasis on truckers being repected.
He points out there is a shortage of qualified drivers and it is only going to get worse, primarily because fewer younger drivers are entering the industry, combined with greater numbers of older truckers retiring. While the average age of the commerical driver is 48 years old, the ones under 30 years of age amount to less than 10 percent.
Current law requires commerical driver’s operating interstate be at least 21 years old. President Obama is in favor of permitting states to lower the age limit to 18 years old. While supporters of this proposal are looking at ways to increase the number of drivers with CDLs (commerical drivers license), opponents point out the high accident rate among teenage automobile drivers, saying they are too young and immature to drive a big rig.
Starting this year, the nation’s largest generation (baby boomers) are reaching 65 years of age. They are retiring at a rate of 10,000 each day.
Stoiber made some economic comparisions between hauling dry freight, compared to fresh produce. There are liabilities as a produce trucker. Those remain until the papers are signed and the receiver accepts the load. The use of a refrigeration unit on a trailer adds an additional $1,500 in costs to a coast-to-coast haul. Overall, there are fewer risks with dry freight. Even with all the economic factors involved in produce hauling, Stoiber emphasizes the need for the produce industry giving drivers more respect. This will go along way in attracting more drivers to haul produce.
“Truckers have been viewed as obstacles to doing business instead of partners in the supply chain,” Stoiber said.
He encouraged the audience to pay higher freight rates and to think in terms of price per consumer unit instead of $1,000 per load. It comes down to more than just a good freight rate. Loyalty and respect are very important to truckers, he said.
Stoiber also addressed issues brought forward by a group encourging better practices in dealing with produce truckers. The North American Produce Transportation Working Group (NAPTWA) earlier this year released guidelines for making fresh produce hauling more attractive. Tips range from decreasing detention time when loading and unloading, to allowing drivers to watch loading.
The best practices are regularly reviewed and updated as federal regulations and other factors change the way truckers are allowed to operate, said Stoiber, who is a member of NAPTWA. The best practices are free on the working group’s website at www.naptwg.org.
Few things in the trucking industry are frowned upon more than lease-purchase plans. Go to work for a trucking company, lease a truck from that carrier with the idea of one day owning it. Failure for the deal to work out is blamed on everything from low driver pay to high interest rates and the carrier not providing the driver with enough miles The truck eventually goes back to the carrier, when the driver can’t make the payments. Then the process is just repeated.
Shaun Smith of Sanford, FL has been with KLLM Transport Services, Jackson, MS since last January. The 12-year trucking veteran has entered into a lease-purchase plan with the large carrier and says it is working out fine. He is making good money, logging a lot of miles and is making a living for his wife and four kids, who ages range from two to 14 years old.
The 34-year-old driver says he is averaging 3,000 miles a week, or about 150,000 miles a year. He drives a 2008 Freightliner with a Detroit DD15, pulling a 53-foot trailer with a Carrier Ultama XTO X Series reefer unit.
Shaun enjoys trucking because he gets to see a lot of the country, plus make a decent living while doing so. His primary complaint is with heavy traffic, especially in large cities such as New York and in California.
He started trucking after finishing high school, got married, and then went into water well drilling in Mississippi. He then moved to Florida, working in a warehouse for a fast food company. But trucking remains his first love.
“KLLM is a good company. I’ve got one more year before this truck is paid for,” Shaun says. “I got it on a lease-purchase plan. If you have the money to buy a truck right off the lot, then that’s a good way to do it. Under a lease-purchase plant you had better have a good carrier.”
Shaun had just delivered a load of soda pop from California to Oklahoma. He was waiting to pick up a load of muffins in Tulsa for delivery to Concord, NC.
He also hauls a lot of produce loads.
“I have no problem with hauling fresh fruits and vegetables. You have to keep a close eye on the temperature. But I like hauling it as well as anything,” he says.
As far as being the road so much, Shaun observes, “You have to have a strong mind and be able to be away from your family. It can be hard. But it is a good career.”
TempTrip combines flexible performance and an affordable price in a reusable device the size of a credit card. It is a new one-touch temperature sensing tag with a five-year battery.
The Broomfield, CO-based company introduced the new UHF tag at the Produce Marketing Association’s (PMA) Fresh Summit, last month in Anaheim, Calif.
The ultra-thin tag has a button that can be pressed to start and/or mark temperature data at multiple points during a product’s cold chain journey. If the temperature is out of range a red light blinks. A green light displays if programmed parameters have been maintained, the news release states.
The new tags are effective from about -20 to 120 degrees Fahrenheit. Thousands of time and temperature points can be logged to help manage food safety. They can be attached to packages, cases, or pallets.
The product has microprocessors allowing for a variety of calculations including remaining shelf life, mean kinetic temperature and multi-parameter alarms. Custom product configurations are written to each tag and are easily updated in the field.
Strong fresh produce sales are predicted for the autumn holiday season, according to a recent forecast by a retail analyst, based in Chicago. (This should also bode well for produce haulers because more product should be available.)
The report from the Nielsen Perishables Group says momentum is good following a solid summer selling season.
35 of 44 fresh produce categories posted volume gains in the summer of 2012, in large part because there were no significant losses of crops or food safety issues, according to the report.
The Nielsen Perishables reported both volume and sales of fresh produce were up 4 percent compared with the same period a year ago, for the 13 weeks ending August 25th.
Retailers offer smaller discounts on fresh produce items, which the Nielson report believes led to the volume of fresh fruits and vegetables purchases on promotions declining last summer.
Cherries were among the most successful produce items becasue of a huge 2012 crop driving a 20% growth in sales, the report notes.
There was nearly a 30 percdent price drop in avocados, driving sales up an anstounding remarkable 46percent. Value-added vegetables were also strong performers, with new products boosting sales, according to the report.
Nielsen projects continued strength in the fresh produce department for fall retail produce sales.
For produce alone, Nielsen forecasts holiday dollar and volume sales to grow 5 percdent and 4 percent respectively. Consumers may be troubled by economic uncertainty revolving around November elections.
“If consumers revert to their focus on price, expect to see steeper discounts designed to draw in shoppers during the vital holiday season,” according to the report.
Shipments of some Thanksgiving produce favorites could be light this year.
For example , in the Glades/Lake Okeechobee region of Florida the was excessive rains during plantings from mid-September to mid-October. This may significantly reduce loads of green beans for the holidays, perhaps has much as 50 percent. Also be on the look out for wind damage to some vegetable items such as green beans, due to winds from Hurricane Sandy.
Other growing regions in south Florida will likely face similar reduced shipments.
Sweet potatoes
Sweet potato sales have increased to the point where normal times of the years, sales are close to those around the holidays.
Mississippi sweet potato shipments are expected to be lighter for Thanksgiving because of weather factors.
Cranberries
In Massachusetts and Wisconsin cranberries loads may down 10 percent. These two states account for the vast majority of fresh cranberry shipments. Make sure companies paying for the freight are aware the berries are smaller than normal this season.
In the brief history of our nation we have experienced a few crossroads, and we are at one of them today. Many of us have abandoned the principals that made this country the most powerful and prosperous nation the world has ever seen.
Moving forward we can either continue to abandon our founding principals, and therefore continue a downhill path of economic destruction, or we can reclaim the values that allowed us to rise to the top. We are beomg bombarded with political rhetoric from all sides. We will be faced with the choice of who will lead us, and in what direction we want to be led. For each American that will mean we must examine our core values and determine if our own self interest is more important than saving the country.
And we must evaluate if it is even worth the effort. Over the past several years this column has pointed out the problems in our society and how we have lost our core values. We have let our educational system fail us, and we now have a very low and poorly educated workforce who cannot compete in a global economy.
We have not been responsible for our diet and exercise. The result is over one third of all Americans are obese, and this has increased our health care costs. We have let ourselves become envious and we now covet the success of others, and we have turned the American dream of wealth and prosperity into something “evil.”
We have lost the uniquely American value of self-reliance, and replaced it with a nanny state of social dependence. We have fallen into the trap of letting the rest of the world demand that we solve their problems rather than demanding that they stand on their own two feet.
We have failed to live within our means, and now debt is crushing our economy. The list goes on and on. Now we are indeed at a crossroads. Do we reverse course, or do we continue an inevitable slide into a third world “has been” nation?
These issues must be considered when we choose our next leader. Let’s assume that we want to return to prosperity, and to the values that brought us to a point of greatness. What should we look for in our next President?
For starters, we need a leader who can bring back and inspire American individualism to stand on your own two feet as a person, not a dependant on society. Individualism is the trait of character that instills self-reliance and personal responsibility. That will insure that Americans stay in school, work hard, and get a good education.
We need a leader that emphasizes solutions to problems rather than wallows in empathy and self pity. Empathy has never solved a single problem in anyone’s life, but solutions to problems have. And we need a leader that praises success, and encourages individuals to seek wealth and happiness. The fact is wealthy people contribute to our nation’s financial stability while poor people are an economic and social burden on the nation.
We need a leader that understands that living within your means is not “radical,” “extreme,” or a “Draconian” idea. We need a leader that can have the self discipline to let the rest of the world grow and sort out their own problems rather than getting involved in their business.
Other countries must learn to stand on their own two feet as we have. A good case in point is China. In the 1940’s China had a revolution and they purged their country of foreign influence. They went through some very bad times. They killed and murdered their own people. They suffered famine and hardship. And they had a very difficult time establishing their identity as a nation, but they have been evolving over the past 60-plus years from a communist nation to a capitalist nation.
Karl Marx had it backwards. And if China continues their path toward capitalism, they will overtake our economy within the next five to 10 years. No system is perfect. All systems of government will have people who won’t make it. The question is what system provides the best prosperity for the most people. And that solution for government is obvious. It is capitalism.
China has learned that, and they will continue their evolution towards capitalist prosperity. Solutions for our problems and the future of our success will not come easy. Nothing in life worth having ever comes easy. That is why welfare and handouts never improve people’s lives. They only prolong the inevitable.
We should not look for the easy way out. Let each of us examine our own values and look in the mirror. If this country is worth saving, then we must choose wisely. If not, then maybe we should have a plan “B” and be ready to leave the country. After all, most of our ancestors immigrated here to escape some nation that was heading downhill. They did it, and if need be, we can do it. — Larry Oscar
Larry Oscar is a graduate from the University of Tulsa and holds a degree in electrical engineering. He is retired and lives with his wife on a lake in Oklahoma where he brews his own beer, sails, and is a member of numerous clubs and organizations.
Here’s a look at available fresh produce loads in the Western half of the USA where volume is primarily steady, or increasing.
In South Texas, avocados from Mexico are providing over 600 truckload equivalents per week and the volume will be increasing in the weeks ahead….South Texas grapefruit loadings are very light, but have started, and will hit good volume around mid- November….In West Texas in the Hereford area, as well as in nearby Eastern New Mexico, there is light volume with potatoes.
Looking at the San Luis Valley of south-central Colorado, about 500 truckloads of russett potatoes are being shipped weekly.
Idaho has another huge crop of russet potatoes. While the railroads move a significant amount of the state’s spuds, the majority of the volume still is shipped by truck. Nearly 1,700 truckload equivalents of potatoes are providing loads on a weekly basis.
California’s San Joaquin Valley is shipping everything from grapes to carrots and tomatoes, among other items. Over 2,000 truckloads of grapes are being shipped weekly from vineyards spread between the Bakersfield area to Merced. Decent volume with tomatoes also are available, but a seasonal decline will continue in coming weeks.
In Washington state, apples from the Yakima and Wenatchee valleys may be providing the single largest amounts of fruit volume in the country. A huge apple crop is averaging about 2,500 truckload equipments on a weekly basis.