Author Archive

An Update on Fall National Produce Shipping Areas

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There will be a half dozen fresh potato shippers up and running in the Red River Valley of North Dakota and Minnesota by the end of this week.  That is a few more than typically run in mid-September, but with an early wrap-up in Big Lake, MN, demand is quickly shifting to the Red River Valley. Cooler temperatures this week should speed the harvest even more. 

In North Carolina, the earliest shipping of cured sweet potatoes got underway September 17 from the new crop.  However, some shippers will be shipping the old sweet potato crop through September….North Carolina leads the nation in sweet potato volume, which comes off of 64,000 acres from various parts of the state.

Sweet onions from Peru are arriving at various USA ports.  Arrival of asparagus from Peru also are occurring, and should peak between now and into October.

Washington state is now shipping its second largest apple crop on record, estimated to be nearly 109 million boxes.

In California, pomegrante shipments are underway.  It joins a host of more common produce items ranging from table grapes and stone fruit in the San Joaquin Valley, to veggies from the Salinas area…..The Santa Maria district is shipping a wide variety of berries and vegetables, although not in the volume found around Salinas.  Freight rates fromt he Santa Maria district have risen slightly, while most other areas of the state are showing much change in rates, indicating adequate truck supplies.

Salinas Valley produce – grossing about $7200 to New York City.

Washington state fruit – about $4000 to Dallas.

Eastern North Carolina sweet potatoes – about $2250 to Chicago.

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Randy Boushey: Rates Lagging from Years Ago

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“When I started trucking 30 years ago, I was making similar wages to what these guys are making today,” states Randy Boushey, who used to truck a lot and still owns three older Freightliners he uses when in a pinch.

Randy still has his CDL, still trucks on occasion, but focuses more on being president of A & L Potato Co., a 71-year-old company that packs and ships potatoes out of East Grand Forks, MN.

He recalls making “big money” by comparison to what drivers are receiving today. 

“I wish I’d put some of it away.  What’s the farmer’s prayer?” he asks himself.  “Please God let me make lots of money this year, and I promise I won’t piss it away this time.”

Randy still has fond memories of the days when he spent more driving a big rig.  In fact, he claims he would put another newer models on the road if getting and keeping good, qualified drivers wasn’t such a challenge.

He ships a lot of red potatoes out of the Red River of North Dakota and Minnesota.

Randy has seen scenario from both sides of the fence; as a produce trucker and as a produce shipper.  He realizes how important trucking is to the equation.

“Customers don’t want to hear excuses because they didn’t receive their potatoes because you couldn’t get a truck,” Randy says.  “Getting trucks to come into the valley has been a challenge early in the potato season, because there hasn’t been a lot of outbound loads here.”

Randy points out a number of changes in transportation are occurring in the Red River Valley.  For example, Britton Transport of Grand Forks, ND recently acquired Scott’s Inc., a truck brokerage.  Pardee Transportation of Brooks, MN has bought out Prairie Line, a small fleet based in Fargo, ND.  Plus, there was another trucking that recently filed bankruptcy.

“It is not going to get any easier.  As good as our freight rates are on our commodities leaving here, that is only half of the puzzle.  We’ve got to be able to load the trucks back into here.  With $4-plus per gallon diesel fuel, it is imperative there is a decent rate for the truck,” Randy concludes.

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Northwest Providing Loads of Potatoes, Apples, Pears

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Washington state has new crops of potatoes, pears and apples now being shipped to point across North America.

In the Skagit Valley, located just north of Seattle, red, yellow, white and even a few purple potatoes are now providing loads.  Much of the activity centers around the town of Mount Vernon.  This isn’t the heavest volume produce area in the state, but it has a reputation for having consistent quality.  That reduces chances of claims and rejections for the trucker.

Washington’s main potato shipping area is in the Columbia Basin in the southern part of the state, that also extends into the Umatilla Basin of Oregon.  This region is averaging nearly 900 truckload equivalents of potato shipments a week.  The Columbia Basin also is shipping dry onions.

The Yakima and Wenatchee valleys are now shipping the new crop of pears.  Oregon shipments will be up slightly from a year ago with 10.6 million 44-pound equivalent boxes forecast.  Washington state may be down slightly from last year with about 19.1 million 44-pound boxes.  Although the Northwest is expected to have six percent fewer pear loads this season, it still exceeds the five-year average for shipments by about two percent.

Between Washington state and Oregon, the two states account for about 75 percent of the nation’s pear volume.

As has been reported in several recent stories on HaulProduce.com, a huge apple crop is still being forecast, with loadings expected to be brisk this season as Washington state works to fill voids in Michigan and New York state, who are shipping less apples due to weather related problems.

Columbia Basin potatoes and onions – grossing about $5600 to New York City.

Washington apple and pears – about $3700 to Chicago.

 

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Plenty of Idaho Potato Loads are Seen

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Produce haulers found plenty of potatoes for hauling out of Idaho last year (season) and this time around there will be even more, if predictions hold true.

The nation’s biggest shipper of potatoes expects to have a volume for the 2012-13 shipping season that is 8 percent more than a year ago.  Nationally, 5 percent more spuds are forecast to be shipped.

Idaho has a whopping 345,000 acres of potatoes planted.  It’s true that the early variety norkotah russets harvest has been underway about a month.  However, the tale of how many loads will be available this season comes with the main variety from Idaho, the russet burbanks.  Still, with 25,000 more acres of spuds in the grown this year, Idaho most likely will have a huge amount of shipments.

Of course, not all of these loads will be by truck.  Potatoes are a prime candiate for rail shipments every year – and the railroads do haul a significant amount, particularly out of Idaho.

Nationwide,  total planted acreage is estimated at 1.15 million. The figure includes plantings from all four season, with fall plantings being about 1 million acres alone.

The actual potato volume for the fall season will have a better handle come November 9th when The USDA will issue a new crop estimate. 

A primary threat to a reduction in loading opportunities is if an early, hard frost or snow hits the Idaho farming areas.  This could damage potato crops.  Thus, farmers will be harvesting quickly as possible through October to beat cold weather.

Idaho potatoes – grossing about $4300 to Atlanta; $5500 to New York.

 

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Re-evaluating Our Lives — or Become Like California

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As one of the longer hottest summers on record comes to a close we can reflect on the changes that have taken place in the lives of Americans in just a few short months.

The debt crisis, a prolonged recession, a volatile stock and housing market, the failure of Keynesian economics, social unrest in the Middle East, higher diesel and gasoline prices, inflated food prices, European economic failures, tornados and hurricanes, and the prolonged heat wave creates an environment of stress throughout our country that Americans haven’t experienced since The Great Depression of the 1930’s.

It may be that the stresses in the lives of Americans are indeed even worse today than it was over 80 years ago. During the 1930’s people were more self-reliant. We were a nation of individuals who were not too many generations removed from the self-reliant pioneers who settled this country.

Over the last 200 years Americans have lost the ability to take care of themselves. We have become a nation of lemmings who depend on someone else for nearly everything in our lives.

Gone are the days when we grew our own food, built our own houses, stitched our own cloths, and provided for our own future. Today we have so many people who look toward the government, or “Federal Family” as the spin doctors are now calling the government, for everything in their lives.

We have become walking zombies. What is interesting is the difference in the attitude of the people who live in different states. Our nation was designed as a union of individual states. The idea being that people who live in the states can govern their own lives with local and state governments, and that the federal government is to be limited and nonintrusive in our individual lives.

However, over the past 200 years the federal government has been growing and growing. We are at a crossroads as a nation. Do we continue with this bloated federal government and the increased financial burden it places on the people, or do we start to shrink the federal government back to a manageable level?

That will be the question facing us in the coming elections in November.  Our nation has survived and prospered over the past 200 years to become the greatest nation that has ever existed. Our brand of freedom and capitalism has fed more people, created more prosperity, spread more democracy and freedom, and increased mankind’s knowledge of medical science and technology than any nation in history.

Now we face a danger, not from a foreign threat, but from a threat of human complacency from within. Do we allow ourselves to become the beings of George Orwell’s book Nineteen Eighty-Four, or do we stand on our own two feet as our founding fathers did?

Our society has developed a disturbing pattern of behavior in our people. Nobody is willing to take responsibility for their lives or their actions. We are constantly blaming the conditions of our lives on anyone or anything but the results of our own actions. This even goes all the way to the Oval Office. Obama has blamed his failures on everything from the last president to earthquakes and tsunamis in Japan.

We didn’t elect him to play the blame game, we elected him to fix the leak. “Joe the plumber” could have done a better job. Unfortunately we have complete states with this type of mentality. I hate to keep picking on California, but they are the best example of the worst of us.

California, a state of lemmings, has 12% of the nation’s population and 32% of the nation’s welfare. And they wonder why they are in debt $24 billion dollars and getting worse every day. Now what’s wrong with this picture?

All of us need to stop and re-evaluate our lives as individuals. Are we to become a has-been nation of lemmings, or a revived nation of individuals standing on our own two feet. It is now time for the nation to decide.

I, for one, think we are about to see a great revival in this country. A revival that will embrace our brand of capitalism and crush the socialist marxist leanings of many of our lemming citizens. But I have been wrong before.

It is tempting to let big brother and the nanny state do the things for us that we should be doing for ourselves. Laziness is a very human temptation. So stand in front of a mirror, fully clothed of course, and take a good look at who is looking back at you. Is that person taking on the shape of a lemming? If so, go out and wash and wax your car.

That’s exactly what my wife is going to do this fall. And she may even wax my truck, as she promised after her team lost the Super Bowl earlier this year.

— Larry Oscar

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Grapes are Among Best California Fall Produce Loads

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California fall produce shipments are in full mode, although this certainly does not mean the volume is there you normally find during the late spring and summer.

One of the best hauls continues to be table grapes out of the San Joaquin Valley.  It is providing big volume and is one the finest quality crops in recent memory.  That  shouldstranslate into a reduction of claims and rejected loads.  Grapes are averaging about 2,000 truck loads per week.  Good volume also continues from the San Joaqun Valley with peaches, plums and nectarines although shipments are now in a seasonal decline.

If there is one segment of the produce industry capable of over producing on a scale of the potato industry, it is the growers of tomatoes.  Vine ripe tomatoes abound in California with shipments coming out of Ventura County, the San Diego area, as well as Mexican product originating from Baja California.  However, the biggest tomato volume is with mature greens grown in the San Joaquin Valley as well as areas located between the valley and the San Francisco Bay area (such as Tracy).

In the Salinas Valley, vegetable loads remain pretty consistent, led by head lettuce, then celery, plus broccoli and cauliflower.  Plenty of other vegetables help fill partial loads as well….Although strawberry shipments are lower from the Watsonsville District, they are still accounting for over 600 truck loads per week.

Salinas Valley strawberries and vegetables – grossing about $7000 to New York City.

San Joaquin Valley grapes – about $4800 to Chicago.

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Asian Pears: Tasty, Nutritious and Pricey

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Consumers tend to absolutely love Asian pears.  It is a very attractive looking fruit and somewhat resembles a golden delicious apple.   The hosui variety harvest in California ends in  mid-September, but thanks to storage is available in supermarkets through April or May.

Availability in stores will be at peak levels until around New Year’s.  Asian pears tend to be a little pricy, but folks that love ’em will pay extra.   This piece of fruit shown in the photo cost $1.21.

Around mid October consumers will also begin to see Asian pears  from Japan arriving in stores.

NUTRITITIONAL FACTS

An Asian pear contains approximately 51 total calories. Carbohydrates account for 47 calories, fat contributes 2 calories and protein provides the remaining 2 calories. An Asian pear provides 3 percent of the daily value (DV) for total calories based on a diet of 2,000 calories per day.

The fruit has 13g of total carbohydrates. Simple sugars provide 9g of this total and dietary fiber accounts for the remaining 4g. An Asian pear has 4 percent of the DV for total carbohydrates and 18 percent of the DV for dietary fiber. An Asian pear doesn’t have any complex carbohydrates.

It contains 0.3g of fat, or less than 1 percent of the DV for fat. It doesn’t have any unsaturated fats, trans fats or cholesterol. An Asian pear also contains 0.6g of protein, which is slightly more than 1 percent of the DV for protein.

An Asian pear contains 8 percent of the DV for vitamin C, 7 percent of the DV for vitamin K and 2 percent of the DV for folate. It also has 4 percent of the DV for potassium, 4 percent of the DV for manganese, 3 percent of the DV for copper and 2 percent of the DV for magnesium. An Asian pear provides 1 percent or less of the DV for all other vitamins and minerals.

References

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Tracking Devices Can Reduce Claims

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The food and pharmaceutical industries are rapidly moving towards returnable transport items (RTIs) and reusable plastic containers (RPCs) for shipping goods through the supply chain.  Why?  They’re lighter, more durable and now can be made intelligent.  By adding temperature monitoring capabilities directly into the RTIs and RPCs, growers, manufacturers, shippers and retailers can both track and monitor the quality of their products as they move through the cold chain to improve quality and operational efficiency while lowering costs.

Press Release:  Intelleflex

(Editor’s Note:  This also can provide protection from claims for owner operators and transporters)

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Total Quality Logistics creates Drivers Dreams Program

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Total Quality Logistics, Cincinnati, is launching Drivers Dreams, similar to a “make-a-wish” program for truck drivers.

tql logoDrivers can go to http://www.DriversDreams.com and submit “dreams,” such as a vacation or furthering their education, according to a news release.

TQL employees will choose the 10 most compelling submissions and put them on the website during the National Truck Driver Appreciation Week, Sept. 16-22.

Drivers cast votes on the submissions and the one with the most votes will receive $10,000, according to the release.

TQL plans to donate one dollar to the St. Christopher Truckers Development and Relief Fund for every submission. The company will donate up to $25,000

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Freightliner is Seeking the Best Owner Operators

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Freightliner Trucks is now accepting applications from professional truck drivers to participate as a “Team Run Smart” Pro Driver. Each “Team Run Smart” Pro will be provided with a Freightliner Cascadia Class 8 Tractor to use for two years! Team Run Smart Pros are considered the best owner-operators in the business and are industry experts who carry the utmost credibility with their peers. If you are selected, you will be asked to provide expert advice based on your experience on the road and in the business of trucking. Click here for the full list of criteria and responsibilities and watch the video below to see why you should apply to be a Team Run Smart Pro! ttps://www.teamrunsmart.com/pro

Team Run Smart – Become a Pro

www.teamrunsmart.com

Your truck IS your business. Learn how you can lower your operational costs and maximize your uptime – the keys to increasing your revenue.

 

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