Myth or Fact? Part 2: The Truth About Refrigerated Shipping

Posted by Choptank Transport on Aug 19, 2021 11:15:00 AM

"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.

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Tags: Cold LTL, refrigerated freight services, truckload freight shipping, Shipping Truckload

Myth or Fact, Part 1: The Truth About Refrigerated Shipping

Posted by Choptank Transport on Aug 12, 2021 3:41:22 PM

"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.

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Tags: Cold LTL, refrigerated freight services, frozen freight shipping, truckload freight shipping, Shipping Truckload

Record Heat Puts Cold Chain Shippers on Alert

Posted by Harriet Mills on Jul 16, 2021 3:16:26 PM

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?

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Tags: Cold LTL, refrigerated freight services, truckload freight shipping

Proper Produce Pulping and Mixed Loads

Posted by Harriet Mills on Jul 30, 2020 9:09:53 AM

What’s the big deal about pulping?

Taking temperatures isn’t just something you should do for COVID-19. It is an essential part of shipping produce on refrigerated trucks. In the logistics industry the process is called pulping, and it is the act of taking the fruit’s or vegetable’s temperature during various stages of the shipment.

 

If God had written ten commandments for shipping produce, the first commandment would be, “Thou shalt not put a warm load of melons straight from the field into a pre-cooled truck and expect it to deliver on-temp.” Every cold chain shipper should know this.

 

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Tags: Shipper News, Cold LTL, refrigerated freight services, frozen freight shipping, truckload freight shipping

Food Waste in America's Supply Chain

Posted by Harriet Mills on Jul 23, 2020 9:42:18 AM

 

Ready to hear some crazy statistics about America's food in the supply chain? Before I divulge any numbers, let's look at the big picture concerning the food we ship in this country.

 

The food we grow in the United States combined with the food we import is more than enough to sustain the population amply. That's the good news. The bad news is there are still more than 37 million starving people in the U.S., reports Feeding America—but the real kicker? Of all the food waste in this country, up to 40 percent occurs in the supply chain, according to the USDA's website. Do we have any control over this astronomical percentage? Well, let's just say we can do better.

 

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Tags: Shipper News, Cold LTL, refrigerated freight services, frozen freight shipping, Shipping Truckload, nursery freight

Avoiding Charge-Backs, Vendor Penalties & Accessorials

Posted by Harriet Mills on Jun 2, 2020 3:02:09 PM

 

Whether you are shipping truckload or LTL, there are always ways to save costs on your freight spend. One of the easiest things you can do that will have the most impact to your bottom line is to dedicate time to thoroughly evaluate your freight bills. Review every charge-back, vendor penalty, and accessorial fee over the last few months.

 

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Tags: Cold LTL, Dry LTL, Freight costs, truckload freight shipping, FTL

Why Haven't LTL Rates Dropped Alongside TL?

Posted by Harriet Mills on Nov 22, 2019 10:26:11 AM

And what you can do about mitigating LTL costs ... 

LTL rates have remained high since the freight recession hit in Q4 of 2018, and to some, this is hard to understand. Conventional wisdom says that when market pricing for truckload shipments rises, so does Less-than-truckload (LTL) pricing.  Conversely, when truckload pricing dips, so should LTL, but we are beginning to see a shift in the industry that is far from normal.

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Tags: Shipper News, Cold LTL, Dry LTL

7 Most Common Cold LTL Shipping Mistakes

Posted by Harriet Mills on May 7, 2019 11:11:00 AM

... that could be costing you money ! 😐

 
 
Getting your freight out the door is a top priority but doing it hastily can sometimes cost you more in the long run. According to Choptank’s Cold LTL division, here are seven of the most common mistakes made when it comes to shipping reefer LTL freight.
 
1. Weight -  Shippers will sometimes tender their loads at net weight, but that is not correct. Failure to provide accurate information regarding the weights of your product can result in rate increases and delays due to overweight trucks. For accurate billing, invoicing and load planning, gross weight is required. What are the differences between net, tare and gross weight?
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Tags: Shipper News, Cold LTL

Need Specialty Freight Services?

Posted by Harriet Mills on May 2, 2019 10:43:43 AM

Shippers who have truckload freight occasionally need LTL, intermodal or oversized freight services. These sporadic and out of the ordinary loads can be hard to cover if you work with a 3PL that specializes in only one or two mode offerings.

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Tags: Shipper News, Cold LTL