Our Team of Logistics Pros Offer Shippers Valuable Insights 

U.S. Shipping Volumes

The leaves are falling and so may be your profits this peak season. It is a wild and wooly freight market this year and the supply chain has dealt shippers a tough hand. We are fighting a pandemic that has far-reaching economic and personal ramifications. Shipping volumes are 50 percent higher than either of the last two years. High rates and lack of capacity keep gnawing away at profits, just like the virus keeps rearing its ugly head around the country. Relying on historical trends has become pointless with a market that is as unpredictable as this year’s presidential race (or as President Trump’s next tweet). 2018 dealt us a bull market, 2019 was flat, and well, we all know the story this year.

Documentation: The Essential Safety Net in Cold Freight Shipping

Tracking & Real-Time Visibility

Less than a decade ago, a shipment of frozen fish would leave a dock in California and possibly go through several different states and several different temperature zones before arriving at its destination. It also may have had several deliveries along the way. The shipper knew it was frozen when it left its place of origin, and the receiver made a notation that it was frozen upon arrival at its destination. But what about the four hours it sat in an open truck while other cargo was being unloaded on a hot 102°F day in the Southwest? Before GPS tracking and real-time visibility, there was no way of knowing what happened in between points A, B, C, and D.

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.

Retta Hyatt has been a driver for less than a year, and in that short time she has become accustomed to life on the road.  She and her traveling companion, a chocolate lab named Jamaica, are witnessing the COVID-19 pandemic from behind the wheel of a big rig. Sounds safe, right? Well, yes and no.

FREIGHT MARKET & THE PANDEMIC

Looking at the freight market in Q1 of 2020 is much like watching the new season of Ozark on Netflix; it first requires a brief look at what came before. My personal binge-watching policy dictates that before diving into a new season, I do a quick recap of the last two episodes to get the full impact of what is going on now.

So, let’s review what was happening at the close of 2019 in the freight industry. Everyone summed up the year by comparing it to the bull market of 2018, with slight resignation but hopefulness. The overriding sentiment was that even though the market in 2019 paled in comparison to the previous year, the industry was still experiencing growth, and we had 2020 to catch up. 

...plus everything you need to know to get a competitive truckload freight rate

What Defines a Full Truckload?

There are different kinds of truckload shipments and services, such as cold or dry truckload shipments, flatbed freight and heavy haul truckload shipping. A full truckload (FTL) is characterized by filling either a 53’ or 48’ trailer containing one shipment going from point A to point B, or it can be a multi-stop load which will add costs. It can range from 24 – 30 pallets or more. The amount of space the cargo takes up can be more important than the weight of a truckload shipment. (Learn more about freight optimization and capacity utilization reporting in Choptank's new customer portal, Orbit TI®.) Weights can vary from 5,000 pounds all the way up to 45,000 pounds, the latter being a more common full truckload weight.

Choptank Transport, Inc., one of the nation’s top third-party logistics firms, has chosen the automated Load Track platform from Trucker Tools to achieve higher levels of shipment visibility, customer service and carrier satisfaction.