Author Archive
There’s been some freeze damage to fresh produce in the West this month, but overall it should not have a big affect on your loading opportunities. The biggest event will be the cold of January 16-17 slowing the growth of some items, which in turn reduces volume for shipping.
There’s been pretty good movement of Iceberg lettuce and romaine out of the Yuma District, but expect reduced shipments beginning in early Februrary….In the nearby Brawley and El Centro areas of the Southern California desert broccoli escaped freeze damage, but again, shipments will eventually decline for a period while the product rebounds from the cold.
As for strawberries, it looks like Oxnard and Orange County in California dodged the freeze bullet, but product out of Santa Maria will have lighter than normal loadings through the middle of February.
Yuma lettuce – grossing about $6000 to New York City.
In the San Joaquin Valley, oranges apparently escaped freeze damage, while mandrains were not so lucky, especially from areas north of Fresno.
Driver turnover rates among the nation’s fleets has gone up and continues to be high. It has increased with small trucking companies too, but remains well below the big carriers.
The American Trucking Associations reports turnover rate for large fleets to be at 89% for the third quarter of 2011. That is up 10% from the second quarter rate of 79%. The driver turnover rate has risen 50 percentage points since the start of 2010.
Meanwhile, small truck load fleets had a 57% driver turnover rate, up 10 points since the third quarter of 2008.
By Bully Dog
The newest product line Bully Dog is proud to introduce is the Heavy Duty Gauge Tuner (HDGT). In today’s Webinar we will go over the product details including digital gauges, a driving coach and many others as well downloadable upgraded Heavy Duty tuning options. The HDGT also includes the exclusive first relase of Bully Dog’s upgrade tuning for 2011 and 2012 Cummins applications.. The HDGT is taking big rig performance to the next level and beyond.
Register for a session now by clicking a date below:
Thu, Jan 19, 2012 10:00 AM – 11:00 AM CST (TODAY)
Tue, Jan 24, 2012 2:00 PM – 3:00 PM CST
Once registered you will receive an email confirming your registration with information you need to join the Webinar.
We’re starting to get a little more information on that Florida freeze that hit 
the night of January 3rd, particularly in regards to how it might affect loading opportunities for tomatoes. The Immokalee area is the primary winter production site for winter tomatoes in the state. As is often the case, some fields and areas got colder than others, or stayed below freezing for more hours.
There’s about 100 loads a week of mature green and plum (roma) tomatoes being shipped a week. However, plants affected by the early January freeze are expected to produce a lot less next month. So expect Immokalee tomato loading opportuities to plung for a couple of weeks starting in mid February.
Mostly mixed loads due to light volume this time of the year from Florida. So you can expect multiple pick ups that may range from tomatoes, to various veggies, strawberries and citrus. Be sure and add 0nto the freight rate for mulitple picks and drops.
Florida produce grossing about $3000 to Boston.
The Heavy Duty Gauge Tuner incorporates Bully Dog’s SAE tested and emissions 
tested diesel engine tuning with a complete gauge package, diagnostic features and the famous economy focused driving coach to bring you a tool that will maximize your vehicle utility. Check out our product feature highlight videos and our fliers to fully explore the potential that the Heavy Duty Gauge Tuner holds for your Heavy Duty diesel tractor.
If it were not for the South American country of Chile, we would not have a lot of 
produce items during the winter (which is Chile’s summer), or at least if so it would be a lot more expensive. I’ve lamented over the California grape season ending, because their grapes were fabulous this year. Chile will be stretched to equal the quality and taste of California this winter, and if they do it will probably be later in the season. Best buys on Chilean grapes at your store should occur during February and March…..There also are peaches, nectarines and plums now available from Chile, as well blueberries and raspberries.
The Chileans do a good job of growing fresh produce, wine grapes and salmon — and they just keep getting better. I’ve been to Chile and have witnessed it first hand. A great country — and lovely people!!
Peaches, nectarines, plums and table grapes from Chile are now arriving at ports by boat on both the East and West coasts. That fruit is distributed all over North 
American via truck. The stone fruit arrivals should start arriving in larger volume by the end of January….The heaviest volume for grapes should begin by late January as well and continue through March, when a seasonal decline will start, with the season ending by May.
The East Coast ports at Wilmington, N.C. and Philadephia receive a majority of the Chilean produce. The primary port on the West Coast is at Long Beach, CA.
California, Arizona and Texas are all importing winter produce from Mexico. There are Baja tomatoes coming into California. The biggest change is happening in Arizona where various types of veggies and melons are crossing
the border at Nogales. Volume is building and plenty of action should be taking place at the many distribution loading docks on this side of the border between now and the next three months or so….Still overall produce loads are not nearly as plentiful as other times of the year in the U.S. Too often produce truckers are facing multiple picks ups starting in Southern California, then proceeding to Yuma, AZ and possiblity even Nogales.
Mexico produce in crossing the border at McAllen, TX ranging from various veggies to citrus and tomatoes. You might have to fill out the load with Lower Rio Grande Valley citrus or cabbage from the Winter Garden District, just south of San Antonio.
Texas produce – grossing about $2600 to Chicago.
Nogales mixed loads – around $5500 to New York City;
$3500 to Chicago.
Goal is Reduce Potential Disputes with Produce
January 17, 2012 – The North American Produce Transportation Working Group (NAPTWG), representing produce transportation stakeholders from 
associations and industry groups across North America, announced today the availability of the new North American Produce Transportation Guidelines. The document integrates multiple existing transportation guidelines into one best practices document which can be used throughout North America to ensure the ongoing vitality of the carrier sector. These best practice guidelines were agreed to by various stakeholders in the produce supply chain and were reviewed and endorsed by the Blue Book and the Dispute Resolution Corporation (DRC) to ensure compliance with industry trading guidelines for North America. The NAPTWG aims to provide necessary guidance for seamless product movement and to ensure that the produce industry continues to have sufficient access to carriers to meet the needs of the produce industry in North America.
“The new guidelines represent an incredible volume of work by industry associations and produce organizations involved in the transport of fresh produce,” noted David Dever, President and CEO of Sun World International and United’s NAPTWG Chairman. “We all know how crucial ensuring the vitality of our carrier industry is to the long term viability of the North American produce industry and this is one tool to support that.”
Best practices are generally-accepted, informally-standardized techniques, methods or processes that have proven themselves over time to accomplish given tasks. By following proper processes, checks and testing, a desired outcome can be delivered more effectively with fewer problems and unforeseen complications. In addition, a “best” practice can evolve to become better as improvements are discovered. The NAPTWG compilation of best practice guidelines is intended to be an evolving document to guide efficiency in produce transportation.
“Transportation carriers are facing increasing costs and complexities today,” said David Owen, President of National Association of Small Trucking Companies (NASTC). “If we don’t all play our part in assisting carriers and making produce a desirable industry to do business in, we could face shortages of carriers in the future. The guidelines should be used by all to ensure that doesn’t happen.”
The document is available free of charge to the produce industry and carriers at www.naptwg.org.
###
The North American Produce Transportation Working Group (NAPTWG) is comprised of more than 25 national and regional produce industry associations, transportation service providers, grower/shippers and perishable receivers. In cooperation with United Fresh Produce Association, NATWG works to provide best practice resources to those involved in the fresh produce supply chain.
By Larry Oscar
Life is a journey of learning, or at least it should be. Sometimes I wonder if people realize that we were created to learn, and we should never stop learning. We have the largest brain for our size of any species on the planet. It’s a shame that some folks just don’t use it. As you get older it’s even more important that you exercise your brain just as much as you should exercise your body. Failure to do so results in a slower mental function and more rapid 
deterioration of your faculties. That goes for other things too…. but I digress.
New technology has helped a lot of us improve our lives, but it requires us to learn and use our brains even more. We all could use more education. Education is the key out of poverty. It is the source of innovation and economic prosperity. It is also the fuel that keeps your life fire glowing. Without it we can become a walking vegetable, our life gets boring, and we will shrink into a society of Eric Blair’s (George Orwell) vision of 1984.
Blair was a committed socialist. Ironically his novels educated us, at least for those people who took the time to read them, on the evils that socialism brings. We are a species that continually asks questions and challenges the status quo. That’s not a bad thing, that’s a good thing. For by doing so we learn what works and what doesn’t. In the sixties we challenged darn near everything including the length of a persons hair. As a result, we found out what matters, and what doesn’t. Hair length doesn’t. Unprotected sex does.
Recently we have all witnessed the good and the bad of so called “change.” The recent Tea Parties our tax paying citizens are attending reminds me of the sixties protests. I was at some of those protests. They were a great place to meet chicks!Those protests were supporting individual liberties and an ever expanding freedom from slavery. They brought about new civil rights legislation aimed at insuring that all of us enjoy freedom. Not just a certain group, but all of us.
Today our nation is “changing” back to an era when slavery was considered a normal part of the society. Our leaders are creating a “slavery class” out of taxpayers. Think about it. What’s the difference in being forced to work for the sole benefit of plantation owners under forced involuntary servitude, and in being forced to work for six months out of every year for the sole purpose of the government under forced involuntary tax servitude. No difference, in fact, for those fifty percent of us that are forced to work to pay income taxes so a special few, forty eight percent of us who don’t pay income taxes, can feed off of the producers in our society.
There is no difference at all. What kind of “change” is it that simply rotates the tires. If you have a car with four bald tires, what good does it do to rotate them? Today we hear all of the talking heads spout out, “The polls show that the American people want……..”. We need true leadership in our nation and we are not getting it today. Not from either party. To tell the American people that “The peopleknow they must live within their means”, and then in the next breath to say to them, “We must pass this $787 billion dollar stimulus bill….”, funded by borrowing, is the ultimate in hypocrisy. That’s not the change that was voted for. It’s not what the American people “want” that our leaders should be focusing on. It’s what the American people “need” that they should be focusing on. What the American people “need” is to be forced to live within their means. That refers to individuals, local governments, state governments, and the federal government as well. The American people “need” to be educated and we must never stop getting educated.
We “need” to learn from the lessons history has given us. We “need” to put our “needs” in front of our “wants”. “Wants” are an emotion, but “Needs” are the requirements of life. We have been living in a false economy. When seventy percent of our economy is consumer spending, and those consumers are in an all time high credit card and mortgage debt, then our economy has been funded by false wealth. You can’t borrow a million dollars and then call yourself a millionaire. We have been called “The richest nation on Earth”. How can we be the richest when we have more debt than any other nation in the world?
The truth is we are a nation of undereducated debtors who don’t want to pay the bills for the lifestyles we have been living. If you’re going to give a dance, you have to pay the band. Enough said. I’m running out of space and time, and to top that off I “NEED” more scotch and another cigar. Rats!I ’m out of both…….Oh well, I’ll do what seems to be the “new patriotic thing”, and go mooch them from my neighbor.
There’s been some freeze damage to fresh produce in the West this month, but overall it should not have a big affect on your loading opportunities. The biggest event will be the cold of January 16-17 slowing the growth of some items, which in turn reduces volume for shipping.
There’s been pretty good movement of Iceberg lettuce and romaine out of the Yuma District, but expect reduced shipments beginning in early Februrary….In the nearby Brawley and El Centro areas of the Southern California desert broccoli escaped freeze damage, but again, shipments will eventually decline for a period while the product rebounds from the cold.
As for strawberries, it looks like Oxnard and Orange County in California dodged the freeze bullet, but product out of Santa Maria will have lighter than normal loadings through the middle of February.
Yuma lettuce – grossing about $6000 to New York City.
In the San Joaquin Valley, oranges apparently escaped freeze damage, while mandrains were not so lucky, especially from areas north of Fresno.
Driver turnover rates among the nation’s fleets has gone up and continues to be high. It has increased with small trucking companies too, but remains well below the big carriers.
The American Trucking Associations reports turnover rate for large fleets to be at 89% for the third quarter of 2011. That is up 10% from the second quarter rate of 79%. The driver turnover rate has risen 50 percentage points since the start of 2010.
Meanwhile, small truck load fleets had a 57% driver turnover rate, up 10 points since the third quarter of 2008.
By Bully Dog
The newest product line Bully Dog is proud to introduce is the Heavy Duty Gauge Tuner (HDGT). In today’s Webinar we will go over the product details including digital gauges, a driving coach and many others as well downloadable upgraded Heavy Duty tuning options. The HDGT also includes the exclusive first relase of Bully Dog’s upgrade tuning for 2011 and 2012 Cummins applications.. The HDGT is taking big rig performance to the next level and beyond.
Register for a session now by clicking a date below:
Thu, Jan 19, 2012 10:00 AM – 11:00 AM CST (TODAY)
Tue, Jan 24, 2012 2:00 PM – 3:00 PM CST
Once registered you will receive an email confirming your registration with information you need to join the Webinar.
We’re starting to get a little more information on that Florida freeze that hit the night of January 3rd, particularly in regards to how it might affect loading opportunities for tomatoes. The Immokalee area is the primary winter production site for winter tomatoes in the state. As is often the case, some fields and areas got colder than others, or stayed below freezing for more hours.
There’s about 100 loads a week of mature green and plum (roma) tomatoes being shipped a week. However, plants affected by the early January freeze are expected to produce a lot less next month. So expect Immokalee tomato loading opportuities to plung for a couple of weeks starting in mid February.
Mostly mixed loads due to light volume this time of the year from Florida. So you can expect multiple pick ups that may range from tomatoes, to various veggies, strawberries and citrus. Be sure and add 0nto the freight rate for mulitple picks and drops.
Florida produce grossing about $3000 to Boston.
The Heavy Duty Gauge Tuner incorporates Bully Dog’s SAE tested and emissions tested diesel engine tuning with a complete gauge package, diagnostic features and the famous economy focused driving coach to bring you a tool that will maximize your vehicle utility. Check out our product feature highlight videos and our fliers to fully explore the potential that the Heavy Duty Gauge Tuner holds for your Heavy Duty diesel tractor.
If it were not for the South American country of Chile, we would not have a lot of produce items during the winter (which is Chile’s summer), or at least if so it would be a lot more expensive. I’ve lamented over the California grape season ending, because their grapes were fabulous this year. Chile will be stretched to equal the quality and taste of California this winter, and if they do it will probably be later in the season. Best buys on Chilean grapes at your store should occur during February and March…..There also are peaches, nectarines and plums now available from Chile, as well blueberries and raspberries.
The Chileans do a good job of growing fresh produce, wine grapes and salmon — and they just keep getting better. I’ve been to Chile and have witnessed it first hand. A great country — and lovely people!!
Peaches, nectarines, plums and table grapes from Chile are now arriving at ports by boat on both the East and West coasts. That fruit is distributed all over North American via truck. The stone fruit arrivals should start arriving in larger volume by the end of January….The heaviest volume for grapes should begin by late January as well and continue through March, when a seasonal decline will start, with the season ending by May.
The East Coast ports at Wilmington, N.C. and Philadephia receive a majority of the Chilean produce. The primary port on the West Coast is at Long Beach, CA.
California, Arizona and Texas are all importing winter produce from Mexico. There are Baja tomatoes coming into California. The biggest change is happening in Arizona where various types of veggies and melons are crossing the border at Nogales. Volume is building and plenty of action should be taking place at the many distribution loading docks on this side of the border between now and the next three months or so….Still overall produce loads are not nearly as plentiful as other times of the year in the U.S. Too often produce truckers are facing multiple picks ups starting in Southern California, then proceeding to Yuma, AZ and possiblity even Nogales.
Mexico produce in crossing the border at McAllen, TX ranging from various veggies to citrus and tomatoes. You might have to fill out the load with Lower Rio Grande Valley citrus or cabbage from the Winter Garden District, just south of San Antonio.
Texas produce – grossing about $2600 to Chicago.
Nogales mixed loads – around $5500 to New York City;
$3500 to Chicago.
Goal is Reduce Potential Disputes with Produce
January 17, 2012 – The North American Produce Transportation Working Group (NAPTWG), representing produce transportation stakeholders from associations and industry groups across North America, announced today the availability of the new North American Produce Transportation Guidelines. The document integrates multiple existing transportation guidelines into one best practices document which can be used throughout North America to ensure the ongoing vitality of the carrier sector. These best practice guidelines were agreed to by various stakeholders in the produce supply chain and were reviewed and endorsed by the Blue Book and the Dispute Resolution Corporation (DRC) to ensure compliance with industry trading guidelines for North America. The NAPTWG aims to provide necessary guidance for seamless product movement and to ensure that the produce industry continues to have sufficient access to carriers to meet the needs of the produce industry in North America.
“The new guidelines represent an incredible volume of work by industry associations and produce organizations involved in the transport of fresh produce,” noted David Dever, President and CEO of Sun World International and United’s NAPTWG Chairman. “We all know how crucial ensuring the vitality of our carrier industry is to the long term viability of the North American produce industry and this is one tool to support that.”
Best practices are generally-accepted, informally-standardized techniques, methods or processes that have proven themselves over time to accomplish given tasks. By following proper processes, checks and testing, a desired outcome can be delivered more effectively with fewer problems and unforeseen complications. In addition, a “best” practice can evolve to become better as improvements are discovered. The NAPTWG compilation of best practice guidelines is intended to be an evolving document to guide efficiency in produce transportation.
“Transportation carriers are facing increasing costs and complexities today,” said David Owen, President of National Association of Small Trucking Companies (NASTC). “If we don’t all play our part in assisting carriers and making produce a desirable industry to do business in, we could face shortages of carriers in the future. The guidelines should be used by all to ensure that doesn’t happen.”
The document is available free of charge to the produce industry and carriers at www.naptwg.org.
###
The North American Produce Transportation Working Group (NAPTWG) is comprised of more than 25 national and regional produce industry associations, transportation service providers, grower/shippers and perishable receivers. In cooperation with United Fresh Produce Association, NATWG works to provide best practice resources to those involved in the fresh produce supply chain.
By Larry Oscar
Life is a journey of learning, or at least it should be. Sometimes I wonder if people realize that we were created to learn, and we should never stop learning. We have the largest brain for our size of any species on the planet. It’s a shame that some folks just don’t use it. As you get older it’s even more important that you exercise your brain just as much as you should exercise your body. Failure to do so results in a slower mental function and more rapid deterioration of your faculties. That goes for other things too…. but I digress.
New technology has helped a lot of us improve our lives, but it requires us to learn and use our brains even more. We all could use more education. Education is the key out of poverty. It is the source of innovation and economic prosperity. It is also the fuel that keeps your life fire glowing. Without it we can become a walking vegetable, our life gets boring, and we will shrink into a society of Eric Blair’s (George Orwell) vision of 1984.
Blair was a committed socialist. Ironically his novels educated us, at least for those people who took the time to read them, on the evils that socialism brings. We are a species that continually asks questions and challenges the status quo. That’s not a bad thing, that’s a good thing. For by doing so we learn what works and what doesn’t. In the sixties we challenged darn near everything including the length of a persons hair. As a result, we found out what matters, and what doesn’t. Hair length doesn’t. Unprotected sex does.
Recently we have all witnessed the good and the bad of so called “change.” The recent Tea Parties our tax paying citizens are attending reminds me of the sixties protests. I was at some of those protests. They were a great place to meet chicks!Those protests were supporting individual liberties and an ever expanding freedom from slavery. They brought about new civil rights legislation aimed at insuring that all of us enjoy freedom. Not just a certain group, but all of us.
Today our nation is “changing” back to an era when slavery was considered a normal part of the society. Our leaders are creating a “slavery class” out of taxpayers. Think about it. What’s the difference in being forced to work for the sole benefit of plantation owners under forced involuntary servitude, and in being forced to work for six months out of every year for the sole purpose of the government under forced involuntary tax servitude. No difference, in fact, for those fifty percent of us that are forced to work to pay income taxes so a special few, forty eight percent of us who don’t pay income taxes, can feed off of the producers in our society.
There is no difference at all. What kind of “change” is it that simply rotates the tires. If you have a car with four bald tires, what good does it do to rotate them? Today we hear all of the talking heads spout out, “The polls show that the American people want……..”. We need true leadership in our nation and we are not getting it today. Not from either party. To tell the American people that “The peopleknow they must live within their means”, and then in the next breath to say to them, “We must pass this $787 billion dollar stimulus bill….”, funded by borrowing, is the ultimate in hypocrisy. That’s not the change that was voted for. It’s not what the American people “want” that our leaders should be focusing on. It’s what the American people “need” that they should be focusing on. What the American people “need” is to be forced to live within their means. That refers to individuals, local governments, state governments, and the federal government as well. The American people “need” to be educated and we must never stop getting educated.
We “need” to learn from the lessons history has given us. We “need” to put our “needs” in front of our “wants”. “Wants” are an emotion, but “Needs” are the requirements of life. We have been living in a false economy. When seventy percent of our economy is consumer spending, and those consumers are in an all time high credit card and mortgage debt, then our economy has been funded by false wealth. You can’t borrow a million dollars and then call yourself a millionaire. We have been called “The richest nation on Earth”. How can we be the richest when we have more debt than any other nation in the world?
The truth is we are a nation of undereducated debtors who don’t want to pay the bills for the lifestyles we have been living. If you’re going to give a dance, you have to pay the band. Enough said. I’m running out of space and time, and to top that off I “NEED” more scotch and another cigar. Rats!I ’m out of both…….Oh well, I’ll do what seems to be the “new patriotic thing”, and go mooch them from my neighbor.