Let's Talk Logistics

As the news continues to be saturated with images of overflowing containers and clogged ports, the public is getting used to hearing that the world’s supply chains are a hot mess – but the situation this fall has become more alarming than ever. Delayed and missed deliveries have become the reality for many Americans, and prior expectations have slipped, even for next-day delivery junkies. As the world’s consummate consumers, we are becoming surprisingly tolerant of what seems like a long-term state of affairs.

What happens, though, when a shipment is not just delayed, but it never arrives? The last thing a shipper wants to believe is that their freight has gone missing and possibly has been stolen. Unfortunately, it can and does happen.

Thanksgiving and Christmas are two times of the year when cargo theft happens most often. The holidays are a time when people are preoccupied with having time off and are anxious to get home to their families. In other words, they are often off their game, which means letting their guard down and creating a perfect opportunity for freight crooks to do what they do best.

The graphic below is based on CargoNet's past 5 years of data. CargoNet is a unique solutions provider that helps its members collectively share information between law enforcement, victims of theft, and shippers and receivers to recover and prevent stolen freight.

Source: CargoNet

This is the time of year when temperatures across the country widely vary. Higher elevations are already snow-covered while areas of the East Coast can still be in the eighty-degree range like they were just a week ago.

For any given cross-country shipment, the ambient temperature outside the trailer during the spring and fall months can go through multiple changes along the route. If the reefer unit has not been regularly serviced or the trailer is in disrepair with leaks or holes, the safety of the cargo may be in jeopardy. 

It is during these months of unpredictable weather swings that shippers with temperature-controlled freight need to pay close attention to best practices and use extra vigilance in maintaining their cold chain.  

It is hard to believe it has been almost two years since the onset of the pandemic. We still don't fully understand the extent of the disruption that has overwhelmed the global supply chain, nor do we know what to expect in the coming year. It is uncharted, unfamiliar territory. 

From short supplies and depleted inventories to delayed shipments and order backlogs, the movement of goods has never been so unpredictable and stress inducing. But the biggest issue for shipping managers, and dare I say, the elephant in the room,  is not so much the daily struggles that come with tight capacity, employment woes, and lack of raw materials, but the result of it all, which is soaring freight rates. 

Never before has the American consumer needed so much of everything, and needed it so immediately. Partially caused by the shortages at the beginning of the pandemic, and also driven by people working from home and shopping online, consumer behavior has changed drastically over the past year. 

News coverage of the massive congestion at U.S. ports has made its way from niche industry publications to mainstream news media. Why? Because supply chains hold the strings to what we eat, drink, wear, live in, and consume. In the past six months, a rapid series of disruptions have created a colossal problem for both B2B and B2C channels, especially at the ports.

"Regarding location, there are two areas in a trailer that placing a temperature monitoring device (TMD) is not recommended. You never want to put it on the south-facing wall because the south wall is always warmer. The TMD is not going to give you an accurate reading in that location."

 -Doug Thurston, Vice President Sales, Emerson

If you are just chiming in on this blog post, it is important to note that this is the second half of the two-part series, Myth or Fact? The Truth About Refrigerated Shipping. Part one can be found here.

The Experts

Moderator: James Lee, Choptank Transport, Vice President of Legal Affairs

Expert Panelist Jeffrey K. Brecht: University of Florida, professor, and co-author of Protecting Perishable Food in Transport by Truck and Rail.

Expert Panelist Doug Thurston: Emerson, Vice President of Sales

Expert Panelist Greg Blades: Thermo King, General Manager

Myth or Fact #4: Is it okay to mix a load of products that have varying temperature requirements on the same truck? For example, fresh with frozen, dry with frozen, or dry with fresh.

"Maintaining the cold chain means looking at the entire shipping process from start to finish. Once the products have been cooled, you can never allow them to warm. When the cargo is allowed to warm anywhere in the distribution system, it is almost impossible to cool it back down again. If you let that happen, you will have a negative effect on the quality and the shelf life of the freight." - Professor Jeffrey K. Brecht, University of Florida

This blog is the first of a two-part series taken from our 2020 webinar, Myth versus Fact: The Truth About Refrigerated Shipping. Part two will be posted next week. You can also listen to the webinar here. 

The Experts

Moderator: James Lee, Choptank Transport, Vice President of Legal Affairs

Expert Panelist Jeffrey K. Brecht: University of Florida, professor, and co-author of Protecting Perishable Food in Transport by Truck and Rail.

Expert Panelist Doug Thurston: Emerson, Vice President of Sales

Expert Panelist Greg Blades: Thermo King, General Manager

Myth or Fact #1: All refrigerated trailers built after 1995 have download capability.

Greg (Thermo King): This is a myth. The download capability was an option on units all the way up until the early 2000s. They started becoming more standard equipment around 2004, until around 2006 when it became completely standard and available on all trailer equipment.

Shipping temperature-controlled freight can be a risky business even on the best of days, but when outside temperatures soar to record-breaking highs, (most recently putting 13 million Americans under a severe heat advisory), it is time to pay extra attention to your cold freight shipments.

The past month was the hottest June in North America on record. In recent days, California, Nevada, and Arizona all surpassed previous record temperatures. It has been so hot in the Pacific Northwest that roads are actually buckling. What does this mean for shippers and carriers?

Cross-border freight movement between the United States, Canada, and Mexico was affected by the global pandemic just as much as the rest of the world. In 2020, overall freight was down by 13% compared with 2019. If you are looking at just truck Canadian truck freight, it declined by 10% during that same timeframe.

But in 2021, things seem to be getting back on track. The concept of reshoring and near-shoring has gained popularity after commodity shortages along with inventory deficits spurred on a sourcing frenzy to find vendors closer to home. 2020 taught us the full risks of offshoring in the supply chain, and it has many companies making changes. 

Choptank Transport has demonstrated a steadfast commitment to corporate responsibility for more than twenty years, and it is excited to announce its plan to provide a customer-facing environmental initiative as well. 

We all want future generations to enjoy the world we currently live in, and many are willing to take measures to curb carbon emissions and stop excessive pollution to ensure that future. Choptank is one of those companies. 

According to a 2004 EPA study, 23% of the total greenhouse gas emissions from transportation come from heavy- and medium-duty trucks. At Choptank, our hope is to reduce that number or even someday, help eliminate it. Stay tuned, as we will be providing more information on our new green initiative in the coming weeks and months.

To hear what the industry is doing now to address the issue, read our guest blog post from Jason O'Leary, Managing Partner, Surety Bonds Direct, detailing five advancements already in play toward a greener supply chain.

The world of logistics has historically been relatively slow to adjust to the need for greener business practices. 

It is always surprising how a garden planted with the same array of annuals and perennials every year can look entirely different from one Spring to the next. It all depends on rainfall, temperatures, soil nutrients, and a multitude of other factors, but that is the beauty of it! Every growing season is uniquely it is own.

For wholesale nursery growers, their seasons can be just as temperamental, but with much larger consequences. Choptank works with hundreds of nurseries across the United States to help get their live plants to market, in good condition, and at reasonable rate

s. Since Mother's Day is coming up and nursery freight is in full swing, we thought we would check in with several of our nursery and landscape shippers in states like Alabama, Maryland, Ohio, and Pennsylvania, to see how the 2021 season is shaping up so far.

CONSUMER BUYING HABITS