Buy load of produce and re sell

Most determine who you can't sell it to, including the final buyer.

The farm sells to Acme. You can't buy and sell to Acme. You can't buy and sell to someone who sells to Acme.

Typical end user agreements.

 

Get the customer lined up first. You can buy a load of anything you want and sell to anyone you want. It’s called free market. As far as Legalities are concerned. Might be best to form a separate Company to buy, and pay your Trucking Company to haul it. Just a guess, for insurance purposes, to insure the load in an accident. Questions for a Lawyer and maybe your Accountant. I do know cash is king when dealing with Produce. A lot of the transactions are off the books. Stuff gets sold and written off as disposed of, as if it rotted.

 

Produce brokers have connections with farms, distributors, and all the other middlemen of produce. Lots of traveling and meet and greet involved. It’s a career. Generally the connections and produce warehouse, comes before the truck. So, the fact you have a truck means little. It’s the other work and assets that are more important. But hey, dream big! If you make it, I can transport your product!

 

Not exactly true. End user agreements can void the contract and then the buyer is without product or paying a far higher price.

 

This is the way produce was back in the 40's to the 60's. Trucker buys a trailer load of whatever, pays the farmer in cash, and try's to get it sold before it goes bad. Every day on the trailer, the price drops. Most had several customers set up at markets and sold to the buyer that offered the most for the load.
Your plan is old and would probably fail in today's digital marketplace.

 

I’m talking about dealing directly with the Farmer. Buy the load, get or don’t get a receipt. Sell the load. Very simple. You’re not going to take the load into a Farmers Market like Detroit for instance and sell it. Most Wholesalers have their deals already. Might get lucky a time or two. Paying the Truck is a minor cost of Business. You’d be lucky to get the cost and Truck load rate back. Probably lose money, because the big Wholesalers negotiate better prices than anyone buying only 1 Truckload. In fact the OP would be better off paying a Truck himself if he wanted to go solely into the Produce Business. I know one O/O who started a Produce Company. Hauled onions out of Texas. 3 loads per week. Always way overloaded. Started buying and selling. Made twice as much money hauling only 2 loads per week. I’ve always wanted to do something similar during Produce Season. I know of 2 brothers who started buying cheese on the east coast. Bring it back and deliver to all the smaller local stores. They took turns every week, running the Truck to east coast with a high paying load, while the other delivered product locally. No store front, just 2 Trucks and 2 Reefers. Along with a beautiful Catalog. They took a decent Market Share away from the place I worked at, which is the largest cheese wholesaler in town, been in Business 100+ years. These guys were smart. Very low key. I got one of their catalogs, my Boss never heard of them, and could care less. He has his solid customers. A local grocer with 6 stores in my metro area told me he’d buy from me. Has a warehouse. It was just talk. Never took the risk. I decided a back up buyer would be needed. It’s very risky. Especially if you don’t own a Reefer. As far as the Farmers are concerned, they’ll sell to anyone. They don’t care if you met them while hauling for a Produce Broker who buys and sells to major chains. Nobody cares. Not even the Produce buyer/Broker. He has his customers, and you don’t have a chance at cutting in on that. Need a Buyer like the Independent I mentioned. His only choice is to buy from local Wholesalers, or make connections out of State, etc. It’s a risk. Have to know how to buy, and know the Market. Can’t buy garbage, you’ll be sitting on the roadside trying to sell it. Don’t buy a load of watermelons on July 1st and try to sell it on July 5th. Price drops in half after the 4th. I always watch watermelon prices. This year they were very high. Now they’re very low, about 1/3 the price. Rain, timing, and quality of crop all affect supply and prices every year. Market location is another factor. Buying in Georgia for the Detroit Market? Better be familiar with the watermelon prices in Texas. Texas watermelons are very abundant here. Sometimes Georgia prices can’t compete. A lot of it has to do with Shipping costs. Most Georgia melons go to the east coast. The big chains have they’re own Independent produce brokers they deal with that follow the crop, starting in Florida, ending in Delaware. Sometimes the prices are high, sometimes low. Every year is different. Risky Business for everyone involved.

 

Like that up into the early 80's

 

Smaller growers don't care who buys, larger grower only sell overage from their commitments.

Trying to find the buyer that can take a whole load, you start moving into those that have prior commitments and likely end user on who they can buy from.

Selling certain products, like watermelons at the right time can be profitable. Or not. Or end up selling to a hog farm at a loss.

Any rate, you need buyers and a price commitment for it to work.