Midwest Fresh Forum

Given your Midwest location, have you seen an uptick in shipping as a hub for redistribution or storage as carriers grapple with the ELD mandate?

Don Goetz, Fries Brothers, Inc., Cincinnati, OH
Electronic logs have added at least one day to most deliveries.

Kerry Byrne, Total Quality Logistics, LLC, Cincinnati, OH
Although the ELD mandate has had a significant impact on the market, we haven’t seen an uptick in shipping as a hub for redistribution or storage. Regarding fresh commodities, this might be because of the desire to maintain quality control while limiting the number of touches, in addition to the time-sensitive nature of the product and concerns of food safety.

Dominic Russo, Rocky Produce, Detroit, MI
We’re seeing a shortage of drivers more than anything; e-logs are definitely posing challenges, especially on the over-the-road side. But when we’re handed a challenge, we take it on and handle it. We have the right equipment and we’re doing everything we need to do. 

Pepe Vega, La Galera Produce, LLC, Chicago, IL
We have to consolidate partial loads from Texas all in one warehouse, and it just takes a lot of time.

Dennis Diekemper, J.R. Kelly Co., Collinsville, IL
We saw increases in freight costs when it was put into effect; our less-than-truckload especially went up quite a bit. 

Sam Maglio, Maglio Produce, Milwaukee, WI
There’s definitely been a movement at shipping point to consolidate pickups for the over-the-road drivers. We’ve seen that in our McAllen facility where customers ask us to assist them in getting trucks out of the region with only 1 or 2 pickups rather than 5 to 7.

John Carkoski, J & J Distributing, St. Paul, MN
The biggest impact for us is cost; overall, we’re probably seeing about a 20 percent year-over-year increase.

Brendan Comito, Capital City Fruit, Des Moines, IA
We started using electronic logs in 2015, so the effect on our own delivery fleet has been minimal. However, we have noticed on the inbound side that several older truck drivers decided to retire rather than implement e-logs. This resulted in a shortage of drivers in a critical segment of our industry; due to the truck shortage, we’ve had items arriving late.

Joan Daleo, Ole Tyme Produce, St. Louis, MO
There’s really no doubt the trucking situation is as bad as we’ve seen it. You don’t have an influx of labor into the trucking industry, and it’s dealing with ELD rules and other regulations. But I’m not aware of changes in redistribution or shipping patterns from St. Louis because of ELDs.

Dan Pupillo, Midwest Best Produce, St. Louis, MO
Higher truck prices and you’ve got to add a day or two to every trip, depending on where you’re going. It’s definitely causing price point problems for retailers.

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This is an excerpt from the most recent Produce Blueprints quarterly journal. Click here to read the full article.