Let's Talk Logistics

"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.

You’ve got the best freight insurance in the world, right? Sure you do—until you have a claim, that is. When compensation is needed, some policies can turn out to be about as much good as a screen door in a submarine. In other words, you're not covered.

Palletizing LTL and Truckload Shipments

From the largest shippers to the smallest ones, LTL or truckload, when it comes to palletizing your shipments, everyone occasionally gets it wrong.

Not paying attention to important palletizing details when you're preparing a shipment for transport can cause any number of unnecessary problems. Worst case scenario, you can wind up with damaged product, costing your company time, money and your most prized possession, your company’s reputation. You can also experience longer loading and unloading times, as well as creating underutilized trailer space. Getting it right is important, and even though the process is becoming more automated every year, most shipments still are prepared manually.

Photo courtesy of: https://www.npr.org/2018/10/10/656052881/hurricane-michael-an-extremely-dangerous-category-4-storm-heads-toward-florida

Want to know what's going on in the transportation and logistics industry?  Choptank shares firsthand what's happening regarding recent trends, changes in rates and fuel, capacity insights, and more in its monthly report.  Ship & Transport #Market Report_1217 

Curious about what's going on in the industry with wildly fluctuating prices and capacity all over the map?  Check out our recent transportation industry market report. 

If you're not in the trucking industry, you probably don't think much about parking big rigs. However, for drivers, taking breaks in proper parking locations can be the most frustrating part of the job. With stringent hours of service rules, finding a safe location and factoring in time to park is a big challenge.

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