Author Archive
Ventura, CA- based Cargo Data Corp. has introduced its Quality USB temperature recorder.
The small, digital device is designed to monitor perishable shipments, according to a news release.
Quality USB features a LCD screen that shows temperature data without the need to connect to a computer.
Featuring Cargo Data’s free KoldLink software, the new recorder permits allows users to view, print, archive and e-mail data directly from the program, as well as upload to the Cargo Data website. This removes the need for paper strip chart recorders, according to the release.
Users with the recorder ID number can view, download and print temperature charts from the secure website.
“Quality USB is small enough to place inside a carton and is provided in a food safe moisture-protective pouch to keep it clean and dry. This makes Quality USB the perfect recorder for iced, wet, and corrosive shipments,” Roger Niebolt, sales manager, said in the release.
Postmedia News is reporting a catastrophic freeze has wiped out about 80 per
cent of Ontario’s apple crop and has the province’s fruit industry looking at losses already estimated at more than $100 million.
“This is the worst disaster fruit growers have ever, ever experienced,” orchard owner Keith Wright said May 4.
“We’ve been here for generations and I’ve never heard of this happening before across the province. This is unheard of where all fruit growing areas in basically the Great Lakes area, in Michigan, Pennsylvania, New York State, Ontario, are all basically wiped out. It’s unheard of,” the Harrow, Ont.-area grower said.
If apple shipments from the Great Lakes region falls by 80 percent there is bound to be more demand and brisk loadings of Washington state apples once the new season kicks off in July and August.
About 125 truckloads of Michigan apples are being shipped a week from storages and are grossing about $3200 to Dallas.
The hours of service rule changes are not major, but they are confusing. A 
greater focus is needed on prevention of stolen produce loads, and there are discussions of alternatives to using trucks to haul produce, but the alternatives are not that impressive in most cases. These are just a few of the topics addressed at the United Fresh Produce Convention, held May 1-3 at the Dallas (Texas) Conventi0n Center. The session was titled Examining Today’s Transportation Challenges and Alternatives. (To read more about this session see the report published on May 3rd)
Dan Vache’, vice president of the United Fresh Produce Association describes hours of service as a top concern of the produce indutry.
Gary E. York, general manager, C.H. Robinson Co. Worldwide Inc. describes the hours of service rules as “complicated”, specifically noting that twice a week driver’s are not allowed to drive between 1 a.m. and 5 a.m.
“If more drivers were able to operate 1 a.m. to 5 a.m. it would mean less drivers on the road during high traffic hours,” York adds.
A member of the audience points out the hours of service regulations were altered for safety reasons, “but in some cases the changes make it less safe.”
Another audience member asks the panel about compliance of rules and regulations for truckers. York replies that technology is helping to improve compliance and will do more so in the future.
On the topic of stolen loads, Vache’ relates there are no good answers, “but we have to police ourselves.” For example, if a truck shows up with a load of nuts, the receiver or buyer needs to know from where it came.
There also is a lot of contraband crossing the U.S. border from the Southern hemisphere and being distributed throughout the USA and Canada. Vache’ notes the U.S. and Canadian governments are working together to reduce this problem.
With the seasonally high volume of produce, less available refrigeration equipment and rising rates, the topic of alternatives to truck transportation are addressed. Panel members indicate there are certain commodities and routes for transporting produce other than truck, but it is limited.
Alex Crow, national trucking manager, Hellman Perishable Logistics, says, “I don’t think we can replace trucks on certain routes, but we can do some things like with Washington state to Chicago on certain items (like apples, onions and potatoes).
York indicates railroad service has improved, pointing out a rail delivery from Washington state to Chicago can occur within 12 hours of what a single truck driver can deliver. Rails are now delivering loads to the East Coast in six days.
However, York adds that a problem with rail service is the lack of intermodal equipment. There also is the challenge of rails being able to compete with trucks when it comes to backhauls, or return loads. Rails remain an option, are slowly increasing their volume, but York doesn’t see any significant improvements in the next three to five years.
An audience member comments there are transportation problems in moving potatoes out of Idaho. The challenge is getting the equipment to Idaho to make the hauls.
Concerning the CSA safety enforcement systems for trucks that used to be known as SafeStat, Vache’ says in the future the scores will have more meaning as the government is better able to track carriers.
“It’s going to force carriers to be more selective in the drivers they hire,” Vache’s states. “It is going to revolutionize the industry. It will result in liability becoming a bigger issue for carriers. Technology will result in more efficiency to the industry, but more liability.”
I bought this pair of melons grown in Guatemala at a local U.S. supermarket for 
$1.98 a piece. They were good, but not great. I placed a little salt on each to compensate for the lack of sweetness. The Guatemalan cantaloupe has gotten better as the season has progressed, not unusal for a lot of fruit, not matter where it is grown.
Now get this. In Japan, the Yubari King melon is what Kobe is to beef. Yubari is a Japanese city famous for cantaloupe that is a cross between two varieties. A Japanese auction has gotten as much $26,000 for a pair of these melons! However, the “regular” Yubari melons more typically garner “only” $50 to $100 a pair!
Think I’ll stick with my Guatemalan melons, even if I do have to add a little salt.
While Georgia greens, cabbage, squash and Vidalia sweet onions shipments 
have been underway, more items are joining the “party.” Over the last half of May loadings will begin for cucumbers, bell peppers, watermelons and blueberries from southern areas of the state. Volume on “blues” will be lighter than usual at the start due a freeze earlier this year. Most of the vegetable shippers have operations scattered between the Georgia/Florida state line stretching northward up to the Americus and Cordele areas….Vidalia onions, and some other vegetable shipments are in the Southeastern part of Georgia.
Just south of Macon, GA is the Ft. Valley area, famous for its Georgia peaches. Loadings for the stone fruit should get started in a light way within the next week or so, with good volume coming about a week later. About 2.5 million boxes of peaches should be shipped this season, down a little from the bumper loadings of a year ago.
South Georgia vegetables – grossing about $2800 to New York City.
Southeastern Vidalia onions – about $2600 to Chicago.
Looking ahead in Washington state, unless weather changes everything, 
record cherry shipments are being predicted. Coming out the Yakima and Wenachee valleys, cherry shipments kick off the second week of June and will continue into mid July. Meanwhile, if you’re in the region, steady shipments of late season apples and pears continue.
In Nogales, AZ, the U.S. Custom and Border Protection has expanded lanes for trucks importing Mexican produce to eight lanes. Mexican grapes are now crossing the border and an estimated 8 to 9 million cartons are expected to be shipped to points throughout the U.S. and Canada.
Looking down the road a bit, vine ripe tomatoes out of Southeastern Arkansas could start shipping one to two weeks early this year. Light volume is expected by late May, with good volume coming within a week or so. Shipments are expected to continue into mid-July.
Blueberry loads are now available from Southern Georgia, joining other items ranging from greens to squash, cucumbers and peppers. Southern Georgia’s Vidalia onions are now in peak movement to markets, particularly in the eastern half of the country.
In California, grapes and melons are coming out the desert, while Southern California continues to ship berries, avocados, citrus and some veggies. Look for building volume on vegetables from the Salinas Valley….May should be an interest month as we monitor building produce volume, availablilty of refrigerated equipment, and its effect on freight rates…..As always, truckers’ abilities to find westbound freight to pick up fruits and vegetables in California and the Northwest will be a challenge.
Tod Taylor has been trucking off and on for over 25 years, but it’s the onlyprofession he’s known for the past seven years. He has 
pretty much done and seen it all during his career and is thankful the equipment has improved immensely.
He still has vivid memories of his first job trucking in January 1986 when he was driving for a company with a 1982 cabover. “They left me in New York City for three weeks, mainly to pick up and drop trailers. I vowed I’d never go back there,” he recalls.
He hasn’t strayed much from those feelings today. A company driver for Professional Services Transportation Inc. (PSI) of Huntsville, MO, Tod says he refuses to drive inside of Interstate 287 in New York. He, as well as PSI pretty much also avoids trucking in California because of the rules, regulations and gridlock.
“You can’t make any time in California or New York. You are dealing with too many things that eat the clock up,” he states.
While hauling meat is the primary focus for PSI, the company also transports its share of fresh produce. In fact, he finds some similarities between the two categories of loads.
Tod had just hauled a load of meat from Milwaukee and made two drops inAtlanta. Now he was parked at an Atlanta truck stop and in 14 hours (3 a.m.) was scheduled to make his first of three more drops. Sounds a little like some produce hauls, in which he also aired some opinions.
“If the produce people would get their act together, it wouldn’t be bad (hauling fresh fruits and vegetables). You wait three days to pick up two skids. You wait for those skids because the product has to be harvested. Trucking just don’t pay enough to do that. When I get lucky and finally get loaded, then they don’t want to pay you anything to haul it,” he reflects.
Tod believes a minumum of two dollars per mile is needed to haul produce out of California and many other places, “but most guys aren’t getting that. They want you to drive 3,100 miles for $2,800. You can’t do that, especially when you are there three to four days waiting for a load. It’s not worth it.”
At age 50, Tod has never owned his own truck, although he has considered it from time to time. However, he has always decided against being an owner operator “because I don’t need all of the extra headaches.”
Tod drives a beautiful 2012 Kenworth T-660, which had only 37,000 miles on it. He loves the truck that is powered by a Paacar 455 h.p. engine, 15-speed automatic transmission, and pulls a 53-foot Great Dane holding a Carrier refrigeration unit. The truck is a light oak leaf color with an 84-inch studio sleeper. The cab has a lot of modern features including a GPS system built into the dash.
He concludes, “Trucking has come along way from that ’82 cabover freight shaker I used to drive.”
If you want to know how produce trucking issues are viewed by some folks in 
the produce industry, you should have been at the annual convention of the United Fresh Produce Association, held in Dallas. Specifically, the session was held on May 1st by wholesalers/distributors and titled Examing Today’s Transportation Challenges and Alternatives.
The 60-minute meeting was held in the same Dallas Convention Center that will host the Great American Trucking Show August 23-25.
Among the issues dealt with were the driver’s shortage, detention, and hours of service. (Within the next few days I’ll provide more coverage on the session ranging hours of service to stolen loads and dicussions of alternatives to trucks for moving produce).
On the program was moderator, Ron Carkoski, head of Four Seasons Produce, Inc.; Alex Crow, national trucking manager, Hellman Perishable Logistics; Ken Nable, president of Kington and Associates Marketing, LLC; Dan Vache’, vice president, supply chain management, United; and Gary York, general manager, C.H. Robinson Worldwide, Inc.
Concerning the availablity of drivers, Crow noted there was only a “moderate” shortage of drivers — amounting to about 200,000. “We need to treat drivers as professionals. We are feeling the shortage,” Crow related. His logistics company had even hired professional “head hunters” to find more drivers. “We (as an industry) expect drivers to be professional, but often don’t treat them like professionals.”
Crow believes the driver shortage results from issues such as not paying them enough, to excessive waiting times for loading and unloading. “With the multi pick ups and multi drops we have to let the customers (receivers) know they need to pay (extra) for that.”
York at C.H. Robinson concurs. He points out driver salaries trail other occupations and many would be truckers chose higher paying jobs in construction and elsewhere.
“In 2004 we saw 1.6 million housing starts. Today there are about 600,000. Housing starts next year are projected to be about one million, and “drivers tend to go where the work is. As the economy improves, the driver shortage will increase, and transportation will cost more in driver wages.”
Vache’ of United, who has an extensive background with in-tranist temperature recording devices (such as Ryan Instruments and SensiTech), adds, “Drivers are tired, not just of being treated like second class citizens, but third and fourth class citizens. They are away from home a lot and they have families to support. What can we do to make it more attractive for drivers to enter trucking?”
York urges shippers and receivers to work on efficiency in reducing wait times at the docks. There also needs to be faster turn around times between loads. He notes while detention charges certainly are not “mainstream” in the produce industry, detention charges are being applied more than in the past.
A benefit for drivers will be advances in technolgy, York believes, which can be used to expedite action on loads involving claims. Technology can help “lay the blame” in a claims dispute and thus reduce the amount of claims arising.
Regarding efforts to increase gross vehicle weights for Class 8 trucks from 80,000 to 97,000 pounds, no one expressed much hope Congress will deal anytime soon with this issue.
Vache’ says increasing truck weight limits will be safer because of the industry continues to improve its safety record, equipment is better, etc. Heavier loads will also reduce the number trucks on congested highway.
York calls the idea of bigger trucks “appealing.”
Nable adds that heavier trucks will reduce the “footprint.” In other words, it would be good for the environment.
While the panel emphasizes the pros of increasing weight limits, the downside from a driver’s point of view were largely ignored. For example, increased weight limits will result in more wear and tear on trucking equipment, consume more diesel fuel, and result in higher costs of operation for the trucker. Will the produce industry willingly increase rates accordingly? Most truckers I have talked to believe they will be expected to haul the heavier loads without additional compensation. The prospects of the produce industry increasing freight rates for hauling heavier loads was not addressed by the panel.
I’ve recently returned from a produce show in Dallas and although freight rates on 
California produce loads have recently been steady, or in some cases declining a little, most people I’ve talked to (shippers, wholesalers, truck brokers, trucking companies) only see this as the calm before the storm. In coming weeks as volume builds throughout many California shipping districts, they are expecting rates to show significant increases. $9000 produce rates from the West Coast to the East Coast are expected to be common. Some would not be surprised if rates hit $10,000.
Here’s the outlook for loading opportunities on the huge volume of summer fruit that annually is shipped from California.
Strawberries – Mostly available right now out of Southern California and to a lesser degree from Santa Maria. Yet California ships 88 percent of the nation’s strawberries and it really cranks up in a few weeks when Watsonville starts shipping in volume.
Blueberries – These berries are now being loaded out of the Arvin district and as the season progresses will move northward in the San Joaquin Valley to Delano and Kingsburg. California expects to ship 15 to 20 million pounds of “blues” this year.
Melons – watermelon and honeydew from the Bakersfield area kicks off in mid-June, followed by cantaloupes around July 1st.
Stone Fruit – It was in 2008 around 60-million 25-pound cartons of peaches, plums and nectarines were shipped, but last year loadings were down to an estimated 47 million cartons. Don’t expect anymore this year. California has been shipping too much stone fruit that doesn’t taste very good, and are replacing some orchards with improved varieties….Cherries are a different story. Californians know how to grow good tasting cherries! This year the state should be loading decent volumes of cherries by the third week of May. Shipments should be in the 8 to 10-million box range; 12-million boxes in the unlikely event perfect weather continues.
Table Grapes – The Coachella Valley is currently shipping grapes and will continue through June. Shipments will then transition to the Arvin/Bakersfield district, where the huge volume will begin and gradually moves northward through the San Joaquin Valley. California may have record shipments this year, and top 100-million boxes for the first time.
Apples – California isn’t really known for apple shipments as it is dwarfed by Washington state. However, it does have 16,000 acres of orchards and available loads should be similar to last year. Shipments of the gala variety begins in late July and runs through mid-September. This variety will be followed by granny smiths in August and and fujis in September and cripps pink in October.
Oranges – The 75-million-plus cartons of navels are pretty much history for this year, while smaller loadings of valencias are now being shipped. About 28 million, 40-pound boxes of valencias should be shipped.
My home state of Oklahoma just opened the first of eight new weigh stations April 27th and was very proud of the fact it nailed its 
first overweight big rig within an hour of its opening. State officials would only say the truck was significantly over the 80,000-pound gross vehicle weight limit at the new $11 million port of entry, located just south of the Kansas-Oklahoma state line on I-35. Oklahoma officials also are very excited that the next new weigh station will be opening soon on I-40, in Western Oklahoma just east of the Texas state line. This weigh station will “only” cost $8.7 million.
The Oklahoma Department of Transportation and other Okie bureaucrats are very excited and can’t wait to get the all eight new port of entries in operation and start racking in the dough. Afterall, it’s going to take a lot of fines to cover those millions and millions of dollars to build these weigh stations. These new facilities also will be equipped with a lot high tech equipment ranging from weigh-in-motion that weighs big rigs at highway speeds (at least on I-35); license plate readers; automatic checks of truck registration and safety rating, among many other features.
Oklahoma officials cite the need for replacing 50-year-old existing weigh stations to protect the state’s investment in highways, bridges and city streets, as well as making the roads safer for motorists.
These are fine, good and honorable goals. Let’s just make sure these are the true goals, and that they are not tempted to start issuing fines, and putting truckers out-of-service for less than honorable reasons. We all know, safety inspectors can be very picky and cause a lot of problems for drivers, even for minor infractions. I’m not saying this will happen, but when there’s bills to be paid to help justify these new ports of entry, one never knows.
Ventura, CA- based Cargo Data Corp. has introduced its Quality USB temperature recorder.
The small, digital device is designed to monitor perishable shipments, according to a news release.
Quality USB features a LCD screen that shows temperature data without the need to connect to a computer.
Featuring Cargo Data’s free KoldLink software, the new recorder permits allows users to view, print, archive and e-mail data directly from the program, as well as upload to the Cargo Data website. This removes the need for paper strip chart recorders, according to the release.
Users with the recorder ID number can view, download and print temperature charts from the secure website.
“Quality USB is small enough to place inside a carton and is provided in a food safe moisture-protective pouch to keep it clean and dry. This makes Quality USB the perfect recorder for iced, wet, and corrosive shipments,” Roger Niebolt, sales manager, said in the release.
Postmedia News is reporting a catastrophic freeze has wiped out about 80 per
cent of Ontario’s apple crop and has the province’s fruit industry looking at losses already estimated at more than $100 million.
“This is the worst disaster fruit growers have ever, ever experienced,” orchard owner Keith Wright said May 4.
“We’ve been here for generations and I’ve never heard of this happening before across the province. This is unheard of where all fruit growing areas in basically the Great Lakes area, in Michigan, Pennsylvania, New York State, Ontario, are all basically wiped out. It’s unheard of,” the Harrow, Ont.-area grower said.
If apple shipments from the Great Lakes region falls by 80 percent there is bound to be more demand and brisk loadings of Washington state apples once the new season kicks off in July and August.
About 125 truckloads of Michigan apples are being shipped a week from storages and are grossing about $3200 to Dallas.
The hours of service rule changes are not major, but they are confusing. A greater focus is needed on prevention of stolen produce loads, and there are discussions of alternatives to using trucks to haul produce, but the alternatives are not that impressive in most cases. These are just a few of the topics addressed at the United Fresh Produce Convention, held May 1-3 at the Dallas (Texas) Conventi0n Center. The session was titled Examining Today’s Transportation Challenges and Alternatives. (To read more about this session see the report published on May 3rd)
Dan Vache’, vice president of the United Fresh Produce Association describes hours of service as a top concern of the produce indutry.
Gary E. York, general manager, C.H. Robinson Co. Worldwide Inc. describes the hours of service rules as “complicated”, specifically noting that twice a week driver’s are not allowed to drive between 1 a.m. and 5 a.m.
“If more drivers were able to operate 1 a.m. to 5 a.m. it would mean less drivers on the road during high traffic hours,” York adds.
A member of the audience points out the hours of service regulations were altered for safety reasons, “but in some cases the changes make it less safe.”
Another audience member asks the panel about compliance of rules and regulations for truckers. York replies that technology is helping to improve compliance and will do more so in the future.
On the topic of stolen loads, Vache’ relates there are no good answers, “but we have to police ourselves.” For example, if a truck shows up with a load of nuts, the receiver or buyer needs to know from where it came.
There also is a lot of contraband crossing the U.S. border from the Southern hemisphere and being distributed throughout the USA and Canada. Vache’ notes the U.S. and Canadian governments are working together to reduce this problem.
With the seasonally high volume of produce, less available refrigeration equipment and rising rates, the topic of alternatives to truck transportation are addressed. Panel members indicate there are certain commodities and routes for transporting produce other than truck, but it is limited.
Alex Crow, national trucking manager, Hellman Perishable Logistics, says, “I don’t think we can replace trucks on certain routes, but we can do some things like with Washington state to Chicago on certain items (like apples, onions and potatoes).
York indicates railroad service has improved, pointing out a rail delivery from Washington state to Chicago can occur within 12 hours of what a single truck driver can deliver. Rails are now delivering loads to the East Coast in six days.
However, York adds that a problem with rail service is the lack of intermodal equipment. There also is the challenge of rails being able to compete with trucks when it comes to backhauls, or return loads. Rails remain an option, are slowly increasing their volume, but York doesn’t see any significant improvements in the next three to five years.
An audience member comments there are transportation problems in moving potatoes out of Idaho. The challenge is getting the equipment to Idaho to make the hauls.
Concerning the CSA safety enforcement systems for trucks that used to be known as SafeStat, Vache’ says in the future the scores will have more meaning as the government is better able to track carriers.
“It’s going to force carriers to be more selective in the drivers they hire,” Vache’s states. “It is going to revolutionize the industry. It will result in liability becoming a bigger issue for carriers. Technology will result in more efficiency to the industry, but more liability.”
I bought this pair of melons grown in Guatemala at a local U.S. supermarket for $1.98 a piece. They were good, but not great. I placed a little salt on each to compensate for the lack of sweetness. The Guatemalan cantaloupe has gotten better as the season has progressed, not unusal for a lot of fruit, not matter where it is grown.
Now get this. In Japan, the Yubari King melon is what Kobe is to beef. Yubari is a Japanese city famous for cantaloupe that is a cross between two varieties. A Japanese auction has gotten as much $26,000 for a pair of these melons! However, the “regular” Yubari melons more typically garner “only” $50 to $100 a pair!
Think I’ll stick with my Guatemalan melons, even if I do have to add a little salt.
While Georgia greens, cabbage, squash and Vidalia sweet onions shipments have been underway, more items are joining the “party.” Over the last half of May loadings will begin for cucumbers, bell peppers, watermelons and blueberries from southern areas of the state. Volume on “blues” will be lighter than usual at the start due a freeze earlier this year. Most of the vegetable shippers have operations scattered between the Georgia/Florida state line stretching northward up to the Americus and Cordele areas….Vidalia onions, and some other vegetable shipments are in the Southeastern part of Georgia.
Just south of Macon, GA is the Ft. Valley area, famous for its Georgia peaches. Loadings for the stone fruit should get started in a light way within the next week or so, with good volume coming about a week later. About 2.5 million boxes of peaches should be shipped this season, down a little from the bumper loadings of a year ago.
South Georgia vegetables – grossing about $2800 to New York City.
Southeastern Vidalia onions – about $2600 to Chicago.
Looking ahead in Washington state, unless weather changes everything, record cherry shipments are being predicted. Coming out the Yakima and Wenachee valleys, cherry shipments kick off the second week of June and will continue into mid July. Meanwhile, if you’re in the region, steady shipments of late season apples and pears continue.
In Nogales, AZ, the U.S. Custom and Border Protection has expanded lanes for trucks importing Mexican produce to eight lanes. Mexican grapes are now crossing the border and an estimated 8 to 9 million cartons are expected to be shipped to points throughout the U.S. and Canada.
Looking down the road a bit, vine ripe tomatoes out of Southeastern Arkansas could start shipping one to two weeks early this year. Light volume is expected by late May, with good volume coming within a week or so. Shipments are expected to continue into mid-July.
Blueberry loads are now available from Southern Georgia, joining other items ranging from greens to squash, cucumbers and peppers. Southern Georgia’s Vidalia onions are now in peak movement to markets, particularly in the eastern half of the country.
In California, grapes and melons are coming out the desert, while Southern California continues to ship berries, avocados, citrus and some veggies. Look for building volume on vegetables from the Salinas Valley….May should be an interest month as we monitor building produce volume, availablilty of refrigerated equipment, and its effect on freight rates…..As always, truckers’ abilities to find westbound freight to pick up fruits and vegetables in California and the Northwest will be a challenge.
Tod Taylor has been trucking off and on for over 25 years, but it’s the onlyprofession he’s known for the past seven years. He has pretty much done and seen it all during his career and is thankful the equipment has improved immensely.
He still has vivid memories of his first job trucking in January 1986 when he was driving for a company with a 1982 cabover. “They left me in New York City for three weeks, mainly to pick up and drop trailers. I vowed I’d never go back there,” he recalls.
He hasn’t strayed much from those feelings today. A company driver for Professional Services Transportation Inc. (PSI) of Huntsville, MO, Tod says he refuses to drive inside of Interstate 287 in New York. He, as well as PSI pretty much also avoids trucking in California because of the rules, regulations and gridlock.
“You can’t make any time in California or New York. You are dealing with too many things that eat the clock up,” he states.
While hauling meat is the primary focus for PSI, the company also transports its share of fresh produce. In fact, he finds some similarities between the two categories of loads.
Tod had just hauled a load of meat from Milwaukee and made two drops inAtlanta. Now he was parked at an Atlanta truck stop and in 14 hours (3 a.m.) was scheduled to make his first of three more drops. Sounds a little like some produce hauls, in which he also aired some opinions.
“If the produce people would get their act together, it wouldn’t be bad (hauling fresh fruits and vegetables). You wait three days to pick up two skids. You wait for those skids because the product has to be harvested. Trucking just don’t pay enough to do that. When I get lucky and finally get loaded, then they don’t want to pay you anything to haul it,” he reflects.
Tod believes a minumum of two dollars per mile is needed to haul produce out of California and many other places, “but most guys aren’t getting that. They want you to drive 3,100 miles for $2,800. You can’t do that, especially when you are there three to four days waiting for a load. It’s not worth it.”
At age 50, Tod has never owned his own truck, although he has considered it from time to time. However, he has always decided against being an owner operator “because I don’t need all of the extra headaches.”
Tod drives a beautiful 2012 Kenworth T-660, which had only 37,000 miles on it. He loves the truck that is powered by a Paacar 455 h.p. engine, 15-speed automatic transmission, and pulls a 53-foot Great Dane holding a Carrier refrigeration unit. The truck is a light oak leaf color with an 84-inch studio sleeper. The cab has a lot of modern features including a GPS system built into the dash.
He concludes, “Trucking has come along way from that ’82 cabover freight shaker I used to drive.”
If you want to know how produce trucking issues are viewed by some folks in the produce industry, you should have been at the annual convention of the United Fresh Produce Association, held in Dallas. Specifically, the session was held on May 1st by wholesalers/distributors and titled Examing Today’s Transportation Challenges and Alternatives.
The 60-minute meeting was held in the same Dallas Convention Center that will host the Great American Trucking Show August 23-25.
Among the issues dealt with were the driver’s shortage, detention, and hours of service. (Within the next few days I’ll provide more coverage on the session ranging hours of service to stolen loads and dicussions of alternatives to trucks for moving produce).
On the program was moderator, Ron Carkoski, head of Four Seasons Produce, Inc.; Alex Crow, national trucking manager, Hellman Perishable Logistics; Ken Nable, president of Kington and Associates Marketing, LLC; Dan Vache’, vice president, supply chain management, United; and Gary York, general manager, C.H. Robinson Worldwide, Inc.
Concerning the availablity of drivers, Crow noted there was only a “moderate” shortage of drivers — amounting to about 200,000. “We need to treat drivers as professionals. We are feeling the shortage,” Crow related. His logistics company had even hired professional “head hunters” to find more drivers. “We (as an industry) expect drivers to be professional, but often don’t treat them like professionals.”
Crow believes the driver shortage results from issues such as not paying them enough, to excessive waiting times for loading and unloading. “With the multi pick ups and multi drops we have to let the customers (receivers) know they need to pay (extra) for that.”
York at C.H. Robinson concurs. He points out driver salaries trail other occupations and many would be truckers chose higher paying jobs in construction and elsewhere.
“In 2004 we saw 1.6 million housing starts. Today there are about 600,000. Housing starts next year are projected to be about one million, and “drivers tend to go where the work is. As the economy improves, the driver shortage will increase, and transportation will cost more in driver wages.”
Vache’ of United, who has an extensive background with in-tranist temperature recording devices (such as Ryan Instruments and SensiTech), adds, “Drivers are tired, not just of being treated like second class citizens, but third and fourth class citizens. They are away from home a lot and they have families to support. What can we do to make it more attractive for drivers to enter trucking?”
York urges shippers and receivers to work on efficiency in reducing wait times at the docks. There also needs to be faster turn around times between loads. He notes while detention charges certainly are not “mainstream” in the produce industry, detention charges are being applied more than in the past.
A benefit for drivers will be advances in technolgy, York believes, which can be used to expedite action on loads involving claims. Technology can help “lay the blame” in a claims dispute and thus reduce the amount of claims arising.
Regarding efforts to increase gross vehicle weights for Class 8 trucks from 80,000 to 97,000 pounds, no one expressed much hope Congress will deal anytime soon with this issue.
Vache’ says increasing truck weight limits will be safer because of the industry continues to improve its safety record, equipment is better, etc. Heavier loads will also reduce the number trucks on congested highway.
York calls the idea of bigger trucks “appealing.”
Nable adds that heavier trucks will reduce the “footprint.” In other words, it would be good for the environment.
While the panel emphasizes the pros of increasing weight limits, the downside from a driver’s point of view were largely ignored. For example, increased weight limits will result in more wear and tear on trucking equipment, consume more diesel fuel, and result in higher costs of operation for the trucker. Will the produce industry willingly increase rates accordingly? Most truckers I have talked to believe they will be expected to haul the heavier loads without additional compensation. The prospects of the produce industry increasing freight rates for hauling heavier loads was not addressed by the panel.
I’ve recently returned from a produce show in Dallas and although freight rates on California produce loads have recently been steady, or in some cases declining a little, most people I’ve talked to (shippers, wholesalers, truck brokers, trucking companies) only see this as the calm before the storm. In coming weeks as volume builds throughout many California shipping districts, they are expecting rates to show significant increases. $9000 produce rates from the West Coast to the East Coast are expected to be common. Some would not be surprised if rates hit $10,000.
Here’s the outlook for loading opportunities on the huge volume of summer fruit that annually is shipped from California.
Strawberries – Mostly available right now out of Southern California and to a lesser degree from Santa Maria. Yet California ships 88 percent of the nation’s strawberries and it really cranks up in a few weeks when Watsonville starts shipping in volume.
Blueberries – These berries are now being loaded out of the Arvin district and as the season progresses will move northward in the San Joaquin Valley to Delano and Kingsburg. California expects to ship 15 to 20 million pounds of “blues” this year.
Melons – watermelon and honeydew from the Bakersfield area kicks off in mid-June, followed by cantaloupes around July 1st.
Stone Fruit – It was in 2008 around 60-million 25-pound cartons of peaches, plums and nectarines were shipped, but last year loadings were down to an estimated 47 million cartons. Don’t expect anymore this year. California has been shipping too much stone fruit that doesn’t taste very good, and are replacing some orchards with improved varieties….Cherries are a different story. Californians know how to grow good tasting cherries! This year the state should be loading decent volumes of cherries by the third week of May. Shipments should be in the 8 to 10-million box range; 12-million boxes in the unlikely event perfect weather continues.
Table Grapes – The Coachella Valley is currently shipping grapes and will continue through June. Shipments will then transition to the Arvin/Bakersfield district, where the huge volume will begin and gradually moves northward through the San Joaquin Valley. California may have record shipments this year, and top 100-million boxes for the first time.
Apples – California isn’t really known for apple shipments as it is dwarfed by Washington state. However, it does have 16,000 acres of orchards and available loads should be similar to last year. Shipments of the gala variety begins in late July and runs through mid-September. This variety will be followed by granny smiths in August and and fujis in September and cripps pink in October.
Oranges – The 75-million-plus cartons of navels are pretty much history for this year, while smaller loadings of valencias are now being shipped. About 28 million, 40-pound boxes of valencias should be shipped.
My home state of Oklahoma just opened the first of eight new weigh stations April 27th and was very proud of the fact it nailed its first overweight big rig within an hour of its opening. State officials would only say the truck was significantly over the 80,000-pound gross vehicle weight limit at the new $11 million port of entry, located just south of the Kansas-Oklahoma state line on I-35. Oklahoma officials also are very excited that the next new weigh station will be opening soon on I-40, in Western Oklahoma just east of the Texas state line. This weigh station will “only” cost $8.7 million.
The Oklahoma Department of Transportation and other Okie bureaucrats are very excited and can’t wait to get the all eight new port of entries in operation and start racking in the dough. Afterall, it’s going to take a lot of fines to cover those millions and millions of dollars to build these weigh stations. These new facilities also will be equipped with a lot high tech equipment ranging from weigh-in-motion that weighs big rigs at highway speeds (at least on I-35); license plate readers; automatic checks of truck registration and safety rating, among many other features.
Oklahoma officials cite the need for replacing 50-year-old existing weigh stations to protect the state’s investment in highways, bridges and city streets, as well as making the roads safer for motorists.
These are fine, good and honorable goals. Let’s just make sure these are the true goals, and that they are not tempted to start issuing fines, and putting truckers out-of-service for less than honorable reasons. We all know, safety inspectors can be very picky and cause a lot of problems for drivers, even for minor infractions. I’m not saying this will happen, but when there’s bills to be paid to help justify these new ports of entry, one never knows.