Watermelonseason

Watermelon season starts at 3:17am eastern time. It's usualy around the rural parts of the state. Let us know how things are this year..

 

Seems to be going strong right now. We haven't really gone after it like I thought we would.

 

Ahh, watermelon season. It comes right after nursery stock season. I have fond memories of waiting in the dirt hoping the pickers picked my size so I could get loaded within 10 hours. It was always funny to see the look on a Newbs face when I was called ahead of him after him being there 8 hours, because my size was in abundance.

Watermelon 101.

1. You will wait a lot of unreimbursed time to be loaded. Nature of farming. If it is raining hard or really rained hard the last couple days, find a different type of load since when the fields get muddy, they won't pick, and you're not going to get loaded.

2. Every store orders different size melons. If all the melons coming in are your size, you are in luck. If they're only grabbing one bin per bus, you're gonna be a while and trucks coming in after you will get loaded sooner. nature of the beast.

3. Have good vents on your trailer!!!

4. Find out what the back up plan is for rejected loads. A very good melon company I drove for exclusively during the season would send any rejected load to their NJ facility. Make sure you know and are OK with what will happen if it is rejected. DC's reject for all sorts of reasons including having too many melons already (welcome to the produce business).

5. HAVE PLENTY OF LOAD LOCKS or straps(best).

6. There is no reason to get these loads from a freight broker. The produce brokers or Melon companies will deal with you direct. I will pm the name of the one I used to run for to anyone that wants it. I haven't run for them in about 5 years, but they were terrific to run with if you understood the rules above.

 

For the above reasons, we don't do watermelons anymore.

 

Can you PM me the name of that company pleasee.. Thanks in advance

 

Yeahp.... I would like to have Melon company's name ,too. Even if the season is almost done. Thanks !