Posts Tagged “haul”
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.”
The South American country of Chile provides a substantial portion of loadings of fruit (not to mention for consumer consumption) beginning in the new few weeks and continuing well into the New Year. While some Chilean fruit arrives by air early in the season, the vast majority of it is shipped by boat arriving at ports in Philadelphia; Wilmington, NC and Long Beach, CA.
Over 75 varieties of fruit are imported each year from Chile, but the five top items providing you with loading opportunities are grapes, apples, avocados, blueberries and navel oranges. These account for about 75 percent of the volume. Limited amounts of fruit already are arriving by air, particularly cherries. However, volume will pick up significantly in December, but heaviest volumes with the biggest item – grapes arrving by boat — is typically during January, February, March and April.
Table Grapes
Heaviest arrivals at USA ports for grapes is expected to be at the beginning of the season – starting in late December, with a second peak in volume occuring in late March or early April.
Blueberries
The first “blues” will arrive by air in early December, with arrivals by boat at USA ports coming by the middle of the month. Chilean blueberries should be available for hauls into April. However, your best loading opportunities will during the peak volume period of about December 21st to February 22nd.
Cherries
The first boat with cherries should arrive on the East Coast between December 6-10. There were 3 million boxes of Chilean cherries imported a year ago, although imports are expected to be somewhat lower this time around.
Stone Fruit
Heaviest volume is with plums, although there are lesser amounts of nectarines and peaches. Plums tend to have less quality problems, followed by nectarines. Chile seems to have a lot of quality problems with peaches, and this is something to keep in mind when hauling this winter fruit. Your chances of claims and rejections may increase.
Other Fruit
Chilean kiwifruit and Asian pears will start arriving at USA ports in lat March, with sugar plums coming in late April. These will be followed by persimmons, pomegranates and quinces in spring and summer.
Having opposite seasons from the USA, southern hemisphere countries such as Chile make it possible to have fruit on a year around basis.
At least for some shippers in the Red River Valley, it was looking a little dim in September due to drought. However, October rains have increased yields — and loading opportunities have improved for those who haul red potatoes out of the region, located on the borders of North Dakota and Minnesota.
The last of the spuds are now being dug. It’s looking like valley potato shipments for the 2012-13 season will be quite close to the five-year average. Currently, only about 250 truckloads a week or being shipped, but loadings are still increasing as the focus moves from harvest, and storage to shipping.
From central Wisconsin, russet potato loads are averaging around 500 truckloads per week…..Peak shipments of cranberries for the Thanksgiving holidays are now underway from central Wisconsin.
Nebraska continues light loadings of potatoes. In the southwestern part of the state potatoes are being shipped from the Imperial, Neb area. The other most active part of the state is around O’Neill in the northeastern part of the Nebraska.
In the Lower Rio Grande Valley of South Texas, grapefruit and orange shipments have been slowly ramping up. Because California’s season ended early, there’s been good demand for Texas citrus, although loadings have been limited and there’s not much citrus yet to be found in the retail stores.
If you are loading grapefruit or oranges in South Texas, it should be a little more simple than 20 years ago when there were at least two dozen citrus companies. That number has shank to only four, primarily due to mergers and acquisitions. This should be reducing the number pick ups required for some hauls.
Central Wisconsin potatoes – grossing about $3400 to Houston.
Red River Valley red potatoes – about $4300 to Orlando.