Hauling Produce

But why wouldn’t anyone want to help? It’s enough freight for everyone

 

How? You don’t think a shipper would rather deal with the person who has the freight instead of someone who never drove or doesn’t touch the freight personally

 

Produce is a very large and time consuming problem. I did it because I didnt know any better. Then I discovered flatbedding and other types of trucking loses less time than produce does. Sitting waiting for a dock is a truck that is not on the road. And sometimes it takes days to get loaded or empty.

Then you have extra paperwork, reefer fuel is a different type of tax expense. You have to keep track of that seperate from tractor fuel. When you say Onions Im thinking either Georgia Yellow or Yakima Washington. One of those two.

Then there are the trailer washouts. Some hauls require ice. *(Thankfully I did not do that too often... the weights usually went out the window when they added ice to the load... which slowly got lighter as the water escaped the 4 corner holes in that reefer. (Which is also useful for your nose, if you smell bad food inside, there is a problem that usually ends in a landfill dumping the refused product) That happened twice, usually because the load was picked up in the company yard and was traced to a fuel boy who didnt fuel the waiting load in time and it ran dry and then raised the temp and spoiled. But the fuel boy put fuel back into it and ran the unit before we got there to get it. It didnt start to stink until day two. That was a big big mess. But not our fault.

OSD is the biggest headache. All of the damaged cargo is traced to a scratch inside the box holding a case of stick butter. The butter is fine perfect no problem but because the forklift poked it trying to collect the pallet, it is now a OSD insurance problem for the company that hauled it. Sometimes the driver gets to take it home and eat it. Other times you arrange for a whole sale warehouse to get it and resell. Sometimes it's bad and you dump it so people don't get really sick when buying it at the store.

And if your reefer coughs and gets sick 300 miles from the nearest carrier or transcold dealer capable of fixing it? Toss the ELD and get there now. Or lose the whole load as the temps rise during the burning up of the reefer. I had one fail on me in Grand Junction at 9 PM one night due to be in denver. Two choices Salt Lake (200+ miles NW out of route) or straight across I-70 to Denver in the 46 degree temps and rain where I am at with potential snow up top in the passes. Fortunately we made denver in time to fix the reefer and delivered by noon. A few hours late but it was delivered and accepted to a little mexican shop downtown COD to boot. *(Something like 1450 dollars roughly for the haul, most of which vanished in the emergency reefer repair)

People have to eat. But what they really want is medicine. McKesson plus Reefer at 60 degrees = heaven for me. Drop hook, unloaded reloaded next morning within the hour with cardboard back to memphis. Usually overnight delivery. Sometimes Team to Linfield CT that handles all east coast medicine.

Anyway that's just a surface of my thoughts when it comes to produce and reefer. The one thought above all else is lumper fees and lost time waiting for a dock. I think it was 60 to 100 dollars in my time and companies usually hate to pay it. Now it's 300 plus per load I hear.

You can try it. It's a free country. Maybe you will find something good and thrive making money hand over fist with it. Maybe not. You can always give it a try. But as for me Im glad Im out of that mess. Flatbedding is much more fun.

 

What about unloading it yourself.

 

That I have done all my early life.

There are two things.

You have limits on your driving. In my time after 10 hours driven, you cannot drive until you have rested or were home off duty a certain amount of hours.

You can drive 10 hours somewhere, then spend the next 30 hours shuffling freight from large pallets, say 48 of them double stacked in your trailer into about 105 small wood pallets. And counting, checking barcodes and product codes against the large spreadsheet they give you while you do it.

There is no limit to the number of hours you physically can work in that trailer back there yourself after driving. You just cannot drive again until you have rested.

Finally there is no overtime for trucking who work in trailers. There is a exemption in place. for that. I once loaded butter in Baltimore SW every day drive into the night, wait to morning and unload it in several customers at Hunts point NY. On the floor, 45000 pounds of it and off the floor again in several stops then drive deadhead the next day and load back towards maryland. You don't sleep.

Some of my actual medical issues that are disabling is directly traced to the manual labor I did in my younger years with that spine. I would be loading and unloading twice a day every day except weekends where it's time to run across the Nation to be somewhere early monday morning to do it all over again.

When I reached 32, I decided enough manual labor in the produce. Enough is enough is enough. I was being abused by places like Associated Grocers, Krogers and Walmart etc. enough.

I started changing by hiring onto a company here in Arkansas called Ronnie Dowdy, a hauler of produce in Batesville. He had a drop hook account with walmart and a number of other shippers and recievers. Suddenly all that manual lumping labor went away in 10 minutes when you drop a loaded trailer in say Waco Walmart DC, pick up a empty and roll out past 50 other truckers waiting their turn on the dock. Boom done. Next load please sir. Oh california with missouri apples? KEWL let's go.

From there reefer work improved with FFE and reached it's absolute best in Medicines valued at million and beyond in 60 degree reefer winter or summer with McKesson of Memphis.

When you are not laboring in the trailer, you are either resting or actually rolling down the road making money. Resting is a benefit to your ability to be ready to roll on the road and make mileage pay when you are told it's time to go. Youre late.

That is the last and greatest abuse ever anywhere. I pulled into a Walmart 10 minutes late, I think in Oklahoma probably Pauls Valley somewhere after a really difficult run. (That is not a excuse... you are a professional who is very happy you MADE IT AT ALL....)

Gaurd girl says, hum. Youre late. Makes phone call into traffic manager. hangs up and says get off my property, do not come back with a appointment earlier than 5 days from now. Git.

That phone call to my boss was not a good one. He had a preplan that just got ripped up over 10 minutes tossed a bunch of money along with it. And now has to sit and burn fuel baby sitting a loaded trailer 5 days.

Solution. Trailer went to a drop lot that had staff which fueled and baby sat trailers. So one load gone. Bobtail get another trailer. Sit two days as a punitive punishment while dispatch decided what to do with you after investigating your late trip to the reciever to decide if you are going to have your job or not.

Its a can of worms. If there is a problem, it really tends to escalate. You as a produce or any driver are not allowed to cause problems or become part of one. The boss man does not want to even hear it. If he did, you are fired and he will find another person who will get the job (Hopefully) done without causing or being a problem in some way. YOU as a driver might do everything within your power, but when other people says sorry youre late, get off my property... that is THAT.

I got harder in my heart in the trucking business to the point of questioning dispatcher, when is that load due to deliver, date, time and how many miles. Figure the run in my head and say yes I'll take it or NO I will not, give it to a team. You are late already.

There a a thousand ways to be late with a load. Only a few of them are valid, such as running out of legal hours in your driving today. Decades ago they fired you for not working the logbook correctly. (NOT the legal way but THEIR WAY...) Now we have the ELD.

Again, I enjoy produce work, as long it;s medicine loads and drop/hook. It eliminates MANY PROBLEMS.

There is just ONE Produce customer who is my personal Favorite. If you want a EXAMPLE of a FIRST CLASS Facility, take a look at Pokomoke City Maryland on the eastern Shore, near the ocean at about the 114 mile marker on I think 13.

You arrive any time in the night before your appointment. The woods to the side is the bullpen, you get your rest with the radio waiting for your dock call in the morning. When you are legal to go to work after your sleeper berth time, you get to the dock (Preferably early) and they unload you. Hand you the bills when done. You are not allowed to touch nothing. You are not allowed to sleep all day. They will check on you. You deliver, get the bills, and get out.

And see you next time in Pokomoke City. No problems every. time. Ive been going into there I think over 20 years when sent there and my family ordered food products from there as business people for a while. So, some of the things Ive hauled ended up on our tavern dinner table. Who knows. SO that's motivating.

Just one little thing. Maintain a watch on the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel System if coming from the south. Nor'easters and wind speeds will determine as well as how much weight you have in your trailer your ability to cross that ocean at all. Just be warned that sometimes the ocean rollers will come across the bridge decking now and then and you will want to find a blue beacon or something to get that salt off your rig before you lose your wiring to it.

 

Out of curiosity would you call asking the shipper what they're paying to have it moved and then beating the broker with it unethical too?

 

I don't know that that would be an unethical practice- scummy yes/ cutting rates to get the work proves one has no value added service, and will therefore be disregarded soon as the next cheapest guy comes around.
I answered bc NoLuck is banned.

 

So then how do you know the brokers not being honest with how much he's making?

 

I don't care what a broker makes, or if a broker makes money. That's on them. I do what makes me money. If I don't know how to make money with a truck: doesn't make any difference if I cut the broker out or not.