Archive For The “Trucking Reports” Category
Georgia spring fruits and vegetables are generally a week or more early giving 
truckers some loading opportunities a little sooner than normal. Greens ranging from kale to mustard, collard, etc. are in a steady mode for harvest, packing and shipping. In the weeks ahead veggies ranging from beans to cucumbers, squash, eggplant, peppers, etc. will be coming on from central and southern areas of Georgia.
Light shipments of sweet Vidalia onions are underway, with good volume about another week away.
Something not widely known about Georgia is its blueberry shipments have significantly increased over the past eight years or so. In 2004 it had 20 million pounds of blues and this year it should ship about 50 million pounds, despite half of the crop being wiped out by a February freeze. In recent years Georgia has ranked anywhere from second to fourth in blueberry shipments, and this is expected to continue increasing.
Georgia peach shipments should be starting around May 10th from the Ft. Valley area. Volume is expected to be normal for the early and middle part of the season, although the late season peaches could yield lighter shipments if projections hold. Georgia typically ships peaches into August.
In South Carolina peach shipments should get underway around the third week of May.
Various greens from Georgia – grossing about $2600 to Philadelphia.
Florida tomato shipments have been heavy, but loadings are expected to
gradually decline some this week and continue this trend through April. Florida blueberry volume from central and northern areas of the state continues to increase. South Florida potatoes loadings continue to increase, while the biggest volume is building with various vegetables from the southern and central parts of the state. Favorable weather has most items ahead of schedule this year. Loading opportunities in Florida overall should be excellent this spring through May, or at least until hot summer weather starts taking its toll of the vegetables.
Florida vegetables – grossing about $3300 to New York City.
A mild winter, great spring and increasing produce volume is gradually 
increasing demand for refrigerated equipment in several areas of the country. This is resulting in rising freight rates, although higher diesel fuel prices is certainly putting a damper on many truckers getting too excited about these changes.
In Florida, we’ve seen rate increases of 10 to 15 percent in the past week as volume continues to build for spring vegetables, and red potatoes. Watermelon shipments are underway, but we’re another week or so away from good volume.
In southeast Georgia, light shipments of Vidalia onions are occurring, but decent volume won’t hit until around April 15th.
On the West coast, we’re seeing a few more $7000 freight rates to New York City and Boston, but the majority of rates remain a few hundred dollars less. But this is an indicator of what’s coming as volume continues to build from Southern California, the San Joaquin Valley as well as the Salinas area.
Mexican vegetables, melons and mangos crossing the border at Nogales, AZ are showing small rate increases as this area enters it’s final peak volume month for shipments.
I keep hearing about shortages of equipment for hauling sweet potatoes out of eastern areas of North Carolina, but there seems to be no increases in the freight rates. Could there be a correlation? Duh!
North Carolina sweet potatoes – grossing about $2250 to Chicago.
Southern California, avocados, berries, etc – about $6800 to New York City.
Nogales vegetables – about $5800 to Philadelphia.
South Florida veggies – about $3600 to Boston
As we move further into spring and there are shipping gaps with some fruits 
and vegetables, one of the most consistent items on a year around basis are potatoes. They certainly don’t always pay the highest of freight rates, but they are dependable, and usually less perishable; meaning less risk to the hauler and hopefully less chance of dealing with “claim happy” receivers looking to shaft you with a unfair deduction or rejection.
All potato shipping areas combined around the country are loading over 4,700 trucklload equivalents of spuds on average per week right now. Idaho is accounting for around 1750 truckload equivalents weekly. Other leading states currently shipping spuds are Colorado’s San Luis Valley, the Columbia Basin in Washington state and the nearby Umatilla Basin in Oregon, as well as South Florida and Central Wisconsin. Much fewer shipments are occurring from Western Michigan, Aroostrock County, Maine, as well as from the Imperial and O’Neill areas of Nebraska and the Red River Valley of North Dakota and Minnestoa.
Twin Falls Idaho area – grossing about $5300 to New York City
San Luis Valley – $1600 to Dallas.
South Florida – $2700 to Baltimore
NOTE: The new U.S. potato season usually kicks off around late July or August. A peek at the upcoming year for potatoes shows potentially good news if you haul the product, or if you are a consumer. Potato farmers in the Northwest once again can’t resist the urge (or is it greed?) to plant an additional 30,000 acres of spuds for the 2012-13 season. That will probably more loading opportunities and lower retail prices. It could also mean a disasterous season for growers if too many spuds end up in the distribution pipeline.
Volume and shipments continue to seasonally build in California, resulting in 
more demand for refrigerated equipment. This means rising freight rates, which have increased five to 10 percent and more recently.
There will be huge increase in avocado shipments this year — as much as 25 percent more out of Southern California. Cinco de Mayo, the Mexican festival widely celebrated in the U.S. May 5 will mean big shipments of the fruit. The amount of avocados shipped to U.S. markets with be split about evenly from those loaded in California, and with avocado border crossings from Mexico. Southern California also will be loading berries and citrus.
Various types of lettuce shipments are increasing from the Huron District in the San Joaquin Valley. Broccoli and cauliflower loadings have started from the Salinas Valley. Light volume with strawberries, broccoli and cauliflower has got underway from Santa Maria.
There have actually been a few $7000 freight rates from California to the East Coast. It’s going to be interesting in another month of so to see how high freight rates have risen as produce volume and demand for refrigerated equipment builds.
Southern California produce – grossing about $6700 to Boston.
NOTE: Cinco de Mayo is a celebration of a much smaller, less trained Mexican military unit that defeated the French in battle in 1862.
Texas is among the top one-half dozen states when it comes to fresh produce 
shipments. Although it has lost acreage and production over the years as more growing operations were shifted to Mexico, the Lone Star State still remains an important piece in the nation’s food supply chain. Although the production/acrerage may not necessarily increase in coming years, the amount of produce coming in from Mexico should increase significantly starting in 2013 with the completion of a Mexican highway connecting production areas in Western Mexico with the Lower Rio Grande Valley of Texas.
Onion shipments have started from South Texas, which is the state’s leading vegetable item in volume, coming off of 20,000 acres. Other leading veggies from the state is cabbage, carrots and spinach, although there’s dozens of other veggies.
However, there were heavy rains and hail in Hidalgo County on March 29th, and we’re still waiting on damage assessments to see how much truck loadings will be affected. This includes another big item from Texas, watermelons. The good news is hail storms are usually localized, meaning some fields may have been hit, while others may escape damage altogether.
By the end of this year, a 143-mile cross-continental highway known as the Autopista Durango-Mazatlan is scheduled for completion. It will reduce travel time from West Mexican growing regions to ports in Texas. This won’t mean the closing or reduced importance of the major Mexican crossing at Nogales, AZ. It could mean more loading opportunities for U.S. truckers for Mexican produce crossing the border into the Lower Rio Grande Valley.
Texas vegetables grossing – about $2500 to Atlanta.
I’m in Central and Southern Georgia this week checking out everything from peaches, to vegetable and pecan shipments for 2012.
As with much of the country, it has been a mild winter in the south, which is resulting in crops — and shipments occurring one to two weeks earlier than normal.
The Georgia peach harvest should kick off around May 8 – 10, with shipments by truck picking up by mid-May. Georgia is the third largest shipper of peaches in the nation, behind California and South Carolina. Georgia ships about two million boxes of peaches in an average year.
As for vegetables, I was standing in a field of kale that was being harvested yesterday and the field foreman said kale will be shipping for another six months. Similar accounts can be said for many other vegetables as Georgia will be shipping good volume through the summer and into the fall.
Georgia Greens from the southern areas of Georgia – grossing about $2800 to New York City.
Very light shipments of California lettuce got underway last week from the 
Huron District of the San Joaquin Valley. Shipments are increasing this week, but full volume isn’t expected until around Easter (April 8). Lettuce, broccoli and cauliflower shipments from the Imperial Valley and Yuma District are finished.
Broccoli and cauliflower shipments have now seasonally transitioned from the California and Arizona deserts to the Salinas Valley. Lettuce loadings should start from Salinas in late April.
Salinas vegetables – grossing about $4200 to Chicago.
Overall, there should be excellent quality vegetables coming out of the Salinas Valley this spring due to excellent growing conditions. This should translate into a huge demand for trucks, especially as we enter May and the big volumes of veggies start coming out of the fields.
Produce shipments from the eastern portions of the United States continue to 
be seasonally light. Florida is still one of the better places for loading produce right now, although it’s biggest volume in spring shipments are still ahead of us. South Florida potato shipments continue to increase, but still are light. Tomatoes are among the volume leaders with about 750 truckloads a week. Plant City strawberry volume is in a seasonal decline. There’s also varying amounts of citrus and vegetables. Blueberries have started in light in volume, but increasing from Central and Northern Florida.
Central and Southern Georgia has light volume with mixed greens…North Carolina sweet potatoes continue steady shipments. The state has 65,000 acres of sweet potatoes and ships about 50 percent the volume in the United States.
Truck availability has been tightening some in North Carolina and Florida, with rates from Florida showing a little strength.
New York state has light to moderate shipments of apples and cabbage from Western and Central areas. Apples addionally are being shipped from the Hudson Valley. The Empire State also is loading about 150 truckloads of storage onions per week, primarily from Orange County. Of course, apples, cabbage and onions are not compatible on the same load and can result in quality issues due to oder absorption, etc., especially on longer hauls.
New York cabbage is grossing – about $200o to Boston.
North Carolina sweet potatoes – about $2750 to Boston.
Florida vegetables – about$3000 to New York City.
Supplies of refrigerated equipment are tightening for hauling Lower Rio 
Grande Valley produce, as well as Mexico fresh products crossing the border into Texas. This has resulted in some relatively small rate increases. Everything from grapefruit, oranges, greens, and cabbage, among other items are being hauled out of South Texas to various U.S. destinations.
There continues to be steady movement of Colorado potatoes out of the San Luis Valley…..The same goes for Michigan apples from the Western part of the state.
In the Red River Valley of North Dakota and Minnesota shipments of red potatoes have recently increased by about 15 percent. Most of this season, loadings have been below those of a year ago. However, increased demand should keep shipments above 2011 levels through the spring and into the summer. No significant rate increases have been reported.
Grand Forks, ND red potatoes shipments – grossing about $3900 to Philadelphia.
Colorado russet potatoes – about $1600 to Dallas.
Michigan apples – $2000 to Houston.
South Texas produce – $3000 to Chicago.