Archive For The “Trucking Reports” Category
Although it’s very doubtful any of the shippers in the Coachella Valley will be able to provide you with a full load of vegetables, there is decent volume with veggies being shipped in the weeks ahead.
Eggplant loadings have just started and should continue into late June. Shipments of beans started in mid April and was followed by bell peppers and corn, which should continue into the first week of June.
Mature-green tomatoes are just now starting and should last until the first or second week of June. Green tomatoes in the desert should continue until “greens” start out of the San Joaquin Valley.
In addition to corn, beans, eggplant and tomatoes, the Coachella Valley also is shipping bell peppers, seeded watermelons; cucumbers, and hard squash. May and June will be peak shipping months for most of these items.
Red grapefruit from the desert has been going on for several months and loadings should continue through May.
Grapes
Very light volume of Coachella Valley table grapes get underway this week, although it will be at least two more weeks before the is good volume.
Last year Coachella shipped about 5.6 million boxes of table grapes. This year, shippers believe there will around 5.8 million 6.2 million boxes shipped.
Coachella shippers are hopeful good volume will occur in time for the Memorial Day holiday (May 25-27).
California desert vegetables – grossing about $7300 to New York City.
Georgia shipments should start from the Fort Valley area in mid-May, about a week or two later than in recent years. Loadings should be more normal this season, with peak movement occurring in July and continuing until about August 10. The season then should conclude a week or so later.
Looking at Vidalia onions, too much rain, mostly in March, is resulting in a disease known as seed stems. This results in bolts, flower stalks and seeds showing up on the plants in the field. Seed stems cause the core of an onion to become hollow, which results in rapid deterioration of the entire onion. Most of this is problem is removed at the packing shed with grading, but keep an extra eye out for it when loading. A significant reduction in loading opportunities is expected because of the problem.
South Carolina peach shipments typically follow Georgia shipments, with only a few days or a week separating when the two areas start and finish.
Michigan
Michigan ranks third in the nation for asparagus shipments, annually producing 25 million pounds. The harvest is usually underway by May 1st, but cold weather has the crop behind schedule. Asparagus should finally be getting underway anytime now.
Michigan also is one of the leading shippers of blueberries., with loading opportunities normally from June to September, with the most volume occurring in July and August.
“Blues” shipments from Michigan totaled only 72 million pounds in 2011 and 87 million pounds in 2012. This year, it may return to a more normal loading amount at over 100 million pounds of blueberries.
It’s often observed you can haul onions on practically anything and driver Pelvis Bates of Newberry, SC is proof. HaulProduce.com met Pelvis several weeks ago as he was unstrapping a flatbed trailer with a load of onions.
He had delivered a load of steel from North Carolina to San Antonio. From there he deadheaded to south Texas where he picked up the onions around 10 p.m. on a Tuesday and was preparing to have them unloaded on the Atlanta State Farmers Market on the following Thursday afternoon.
His onion load was grossing 71,000 pounds, with the product on pallets on a 48-foot Great Dane flatbed. He was driving an International Pro Star Premium.
Pelvis drives for Senn Freight Lines Inc. of Augusta, GA, a company he says is owned by two brothers running 102 trucks.
This was the 45-year-old trucker’s first produce load in his relatively short career in trucking.
“They (shipper) told me to leave the front and back of the load open (with the rest of the load covered by strap held tarps) so the air could flow through it. This was to help prevent the onions from going bad,” he said.
Before entering trucking three years ago, Pelvis worked for a screen printing company. When that business folded, he received a severance pay and used some of the money to enroll in truck driving school.
His first job in trucking was with Swift Transportation pulling dry vans. He has been with Senn Freight about a year.
As Pelvis was unstrapping his load after the 1,300-mile haul, he says this is the first job he has had pulling a flatbed trailer.
“It is extra work unstringing the straps and and removing the tarps. When I first started doing this it took me two hours to strap a load. It now takes me about 45 minutes to an hour. That’s a lot of strapping. These tarps weigh 180 pounds each. If it’s 100 degress out here, that is hard work,” states the 45-year-old.
Pelvis says one of the best things about trucking is it affords the opportunity to see a lot of the country. Becoming an owner operator has crossed his mind, but he quickly adds, “it’s too expensive. I don’t see how those guys do it.”
Light shipments of cherries from California’s Arvin district near Bakersfield have gotten underway within the past week. Decent volume should be occuring within the next week or two. Excellent quality with good volume are being forecast for both California and Washington state this season, despite a mid April freeze in Washington that will reduce some loading opportunties.
Apricots are among the most perishable of stone fruits, but optimism abounds this year the product won’t get taken out by Mother Nature as it pretty much has been the past four years.
Most apricots are grown, packed and shipped in the San Joaquin Valley. Loadings should be hitting stride now and continue through May. About 90 percent of the apricots grown in the United States come from California. Production in 2011 was nearly 69,000 tons.
Meanwhile, there are much better loading opportunities with California items ranging from strawberries to mixed vegetables.
Strawberry shipments are heavy and will continue to heavy for another month.
Overall, the Salinas Valley is becoming the most active area for produce shipments. Lettuce, broccoli and cauliflower, plus dozens of other mixed vegetables are being shipped and volume will increase in the weeks ahead.
The nearby Watsonville district is shipping some strawberries, but but there also are berries and some mixed veggies coming out of the Santa Maria district to the south.
The Coachella Valley is expected to start harvesting desert grapes any day now, but good volume shipments are not expected until the week of May 20. Normal volume is expected.
Southern Californa strawberries, vegetables – grossing about $5400 to Chicago.
Salinas Valley mixed veggies – about $7400 to New York City.
Talking with a hauler of oversized loads and he was lamenting how rates on the moving the big stuff has dropped in recent weeks. Well, the same holds true for loads of fresh fruits and vegetables, although this is fairly predictable this time of the year when total praoduce volume across the country is much lower than during it’s summer peak.
Still, if you haul perishables, the western states are the place to be doing it — especially with this being the last full week before Christmas.
Washington state apples continue to be shipped in record amounts with about 3,200 truckload equivalents being loaded per week from the Yakima and Wenatchee valleys…..A little further south in Washington’s Columbia Basin and the nearby Umatilla Basin in Oregon, both potatoes and onions are being shipped, although in much lesser volume than with Washington’s apples.
The Columbia and Umatilla basins are loading about 400 truckloads of potatoes and around 750 truckloads of onions per week.
The Yuma district in Arizona is likely your best bet when it comes to winter vegetables. This desert area is shipping Iceberg lettuce, romaine, broccoli and cauliflower, among other items. Between these four veggies, the total truck loads are around 2,500 of per week.
Idaho potatoes are another big mover from the Western states. There are about 1,750 truckload equivalents of spuds being shipped on a weekly basis. The state needs to sell a lot of potatoes to pay for their sponsorship and ads related to the recent Famous Idaho Potato Bowl!
USA potato loads will be up eight percent over a year ago when this season ends around August. The 991,500 acres of spuds is six percent more than athe previous season. Of course, Idaho shipments easily lead all other states, but there are significant loadings available in Washington state, Oregon, Wisconsin, the Red River Valley of North Dakota and Minnesota, among others.
Idaho is shipping about 1750 truckload equivalents of potatoes per week, although a greater percentage is shipped by rail than most other spud production areas….By contrast, Colorado’s San Luis Valley is moving about 1000 loads per week, all by truck.
Southeastern Greens
Central and southern areas of Georgia are loading collards, kale, mustard and turnip tops for the holidays. Loads of greens should continue from Georgia into March or April, depending on the weather. Broccoli also is being shipped.
Chilean Imported Grapes
While Chilean grapes are starting to arrive in the USA anytime now, it will be late January before good volume and loading opportunities are available at USA ports. Grapes arriving at such ports as Wilmington, NC; Philadelphia, and Long Beach, CA are shipped throughout the states and into Canada, with volume expected to top last year.
Georgia vegetables – grossing about $2800 to Boston.
Idaho potatoes – about $5400 to New York
Colorado potatoes – about $2000 to San Antonio.
While Michigan and New York took major hits with apple crops this year, there are plenty of apples for hauling through the end of the season, which won’t occur until next summer. In fact, nine percent more apples remain in USA storages, compared to a year ago.
As of December 1st around 103 million bushels of fresh-market apples remained for haulers. This also is nine percent above the five-year average.
Forget the freeze-related losses in Michigan and New York, Washington state is loading the fruit in record numbers. 34-million bushels of red delicious apples alone, remain to be shipped. Beside red delicious, there are more Galas, golden delicious, fujis and granny smiths than last year.
Florida Citrus
While loads of Florida citrus will be down by five percent this season, the USDA still sees 146 million boxes being shipped. The primary decrease in volume will occur with the early and mid season varieties, which are off seven percent. The USDA issued its first forecast in October and will follow with monthly updates through the end of the season in July.
The USDA makes its first estimate in October of each year and revises it monthly as the crop takes shape until the end of the season in July. Disease and weather factors are cited for the decline in volume.
During the 2011-12 season, Florida moved 146.6 million boxes of oranges.
For Florida specialty fruit, the USDA predicts volume declines with tangelos and tangerines.
As for Florida grapefruit, the Sunshine state should ship around 18 million boxes, down from the forecaset of 20.3 million boxes a month ago.
Florida citrus – grossing about $2400 to New York.
Washington state apples – about $5600 to New York.
Early California navel orange shipments have gotten off to a good start this season and expect to load around 93 million boxes before the season concludes. This would be up from 83 millon cartons from the previous season. Loadings have been steady and are expected to remain this way in the weeks ahead.
Something to keep an eye on is the restrictions California is putting ictions on citrus fruit and plants in Tulare County after two recent detections of Asian citrus psyllid. It is not a full quarantine, but if another psyllid is found — it would be the fourth detection. This would trigger a two-year quarantine. Current restrictions are in place for six months.
The psyllids, which can carry citrus greening disease, feed on citrus trees, sucking the sap and weakening them, but they can carry citrus greening, a bacterial disease. The disease is no threat to humans or animals, but it can stunt and even kill citrus trees. The problem also has been detected in Florida and Texas.
Desert Shipments
In The California desert, as well as Yuma, AZ, recent warm cauliflower and broccoli shipments well above normal. Loadings are usually brisk this time of year anyway as supplies to buyers for the Christmas holidays are ramping up. A similar situation exist for various types of lettuce in the desert.
Strawberries
California is in between seasons now and strawberry shipments are light. While the Watsonville area has pretty much finished, loadings are now coming out of Ventura and Orange counties. Volume will remain light until after the first of the year.
Entering the lightest season volume wise for produce loads, it’s not uncommon for multiple pick ups and drops to fill out the trailer. Pick ups starting in southern California may extend to the California desert, Yuma and perhaps even Nogales. Changes for the better are occuring at the Arizona, Mexico border that should improve produce crossings in the USA and reduce delays for loadings at the many Nogales warehouses.
The Mariposa port was built in the 1970s, designed to handled 400 trucks crossing into Arizona daily. Over the years changes have increased the truck count to around 1600 to 1800 a day. In the past an estimated 25 percent of the trucks crossing the border into Arizona were delayed because of gridlock on the Mariposa Road (State Route 189), which connects the port to I-19. Numerous stop lights on the state route often contribute to the delays.
In 2009 a $220 million expansion of the port was started and is scheduled for completion in 2014. This should increase traffic capabilities to 4,000 to 5,000 trucks a day crossing the border in Nogales.
Meanwhile, there is light volume of watermelon, honeydew, squash, bell peppers, tomatoes and other items crossing the border from Mexico, it will be another month of so before the volume really improves.
Nogales produce is grossing about $3400 to Chicago, about $5800 to New York.
Strawberry shipments from the Plant City, FL area have been underway for more than a month, but only in very light volume. This is changing as available loads will show significant increases by December 10, and be in big volume around December 15-20. Central Florida also has very light volume with cherry, grape, roma and green tomatoes. The area also is shipping variety of vegetables. However, this overall is seasonally a very light volume period for Florida. Expect multiple pickups to involved with most loads.
You may even have to fill out the trailer from those Florida pick ups with a few pallets of cabbage, greens or broccoli from Southern Georgia. In fact, the whole Eastern seaboard extending into the Northeast and New England doesn’t hold a lot of volume, but sometimes something is better than nothing.
In eastern growing areas of North Carolina, the biggest volume is with sweet potatoes, not necessarily known for paying the best freight rates…..In upstate New York, Orange County is shipping storage onions, while central and western areas are loading cabbage. New York apples were hit pretty hard by freezing weather earlier this year, especially from western and central shipping points. Even the Hudson Valley did not escape the freeze, although it came out better than the rest of the state.
In northern Maine, Aroostoock County is shipping around 150 truck loads of potatoes a week.
Maine potatoes – grossing about $1700 to New York City.
North Carolina sweet potatoes – about $1500 to Atlanta.
Florida vegetables and strawberries – about $2600 to Boston.