If you search for the latest in autonomous trucks, you’ll find headlines like “Driverless Vehicles and the End of the Trucker,” “Will Technology Make Truck Drivers Obsolete in 10 Years?,” and “Robots could replace 1.7 million American Truckers in the next decade.” You’ll also find articles titled “Driverless trucks will be (mostly) great,” “Automation won’t wipe out all of the jobs in the trucking industry,” and “Saying that Autonomous cars will kill millions of jobs by 2025 is crap.”

So, what is it? Is the threat of autonomous trucks as major as it sounds to the trucking industry? We’ve weighed some of the latest big thoughts on the topic for you to decide.

End of the Road: Will Automation Put an End to the American Trucker? by The Guardian

The number of Americans who drive heavy trucks, taxis, buses, and delivery vehicles surpasses 3.5 million. In this article by The Guardian, many of those drivers believe that autonomous technology could threaten their livelihood, but not in the near future.

Google, Uber, and Tesla are among the more than 260 companies working to develop their own forms of autonomous vehicles. These vehicles would either eliminate driver jobs or downgrade them to co-pilots.

Many agencies quoted 10 years before autonomous trucks are fully operational in the industry. Most drivers don’t see their jobs changing anytime soon. Drivers interviewed by The Guardian said people, in general, are not ready for autonomous trucks, combined with the lack of current infrastructure to support them widespread.

Since 2014, at least 41 states and Washington D.C. have considered legislation regarding autonomous vehicles, with 21 states actually passing legislation.

Robots Could Replace 1.7 Million American Truckers in the Next Decade by LA Times

Analysts and industry experts cited in this article agree that autonomous truck technology could replace drivers within a decade.

Federal agencies insist that autonomous trucks will save lives, and autonomous vehicle makers promise that the cost of travel and transporting goods will be lowered in the process as well.

This article includes quotes from several lecturers about autonomous vehicles’ and other automation’s impact on the work force.

Jerry Kaplan, a Stanford lecturer, said, “We are going to see a wave and an acceleration in automation, and it will affect job markets.”

James Bensen, a lecturer at the Boston University School of Law was quoted saying, “The people whose skills become obsolete are low-wage workers, and to the extent that it’s difficult for them to acquire new skills, it affects inequality.”

Will Technology Make Truck Drivers Obsolete in 10 Years? by Forbes

This article, from 2015, cites a report “On the road towards the autonomous truck” done by consulting company Roland Berger. According to the report’s analysts, the final stage of fully autonomous vehicles would begin in 2025 onward where the “driver is practically no longer required.”

Safety and cost are again named as two major factors why autonomous truck technology would replace or reduce truck drivers. Adaptive cruise-control and other vehicle-to-vehicle and vehicle-to-infrastructure communication will decrease human error. Less fuel consumption, lower cost for driver wages, and platooning would also save costs.

Driverless Trucks Will Be (Mostly) Great by Bloomberg

While the idea of self-driving trucks hitting the roads within the next decade seems daunting, this article points out that trucks with some degree of automation are already present in ore mines and hauling freight.

The Editors of Bloomberg who penned this article believes that automation won’t cut jobs, but will instead lead to faster employment growth as the combination of human and robot labor improves productivity. Writers believe trucking jobs wouldn’t disappear but would morph into tech and logistics jobs that would require different skills, but offer better pay and working conditions.

Truckers Do a lot of Stuff Besides Driving that Automated Vehicles Don’t by Quartz

According to Quartz, driving a truck is the most common occupation in 29 states. About 40% of people in the trucking industry aren’t even driving a truck at all.

According to Quartz, driving a truck is the most common occupation in 29 states. About 40% of people in the trucking industry aren’t even driving a truck at all.

Joseph Kane, a senior research analyst at the Brookings Institute was cited in the article.

“Many truck drivers and many support workers, mechanics and other administrative workers, they will continue to play an enormous role in this industry,” said Kane.

In a report by Joseph Kane and Adie Tomer titled “Automated trucking’s rapid rise overlooks the need for skilled labor,” the authors pointed out that many of the nation’s truck drivers aren’t just sitting behind the wheel on auto drive. Drivers are necessary to inspect freight, fix their equipment, unload and deliver freight, among other tasks.

The authors of this article believe automation won’t wipe out all of the jobs in the trucking industry because there will still be plenty of jobs that a human can do that a robot cannot.

Saying that Autonomous Cars Will Kill Millions of Jobs By 2025 Is Crap by Jalopnik

This article author’s opinion on autonomous cars and trucks is apparent by the title alone.

There’s no denial that autonomous vehicles are coming. It’s the idea that driverless vehicles will eliminate millions of jobs within the next decade that the author is calling “crap.”

The author, Michael Ballaban, is quote “boldly dismissing” the prediction that autonomous cars will change our world in a decade, calling that notion “hooey.”

The article’s main points include that just because autonomous trucks and cars are available to the general public by 2025, doesn’t mean that every person will own one or find one to be the best fit for them at the time.

“There are massive upfront costs associated with replacing entire fleets, upfront costs that large business like trucking companies and large bus buyers like cities don’t exactly like.”

These articles laid out many of the facts behind the race to automation, researched timeline estimations for the rollout, and reasonings on both sides of the coin. Beyond the facts, there are many opinions (some more strongly worded than others) about whether autonomous trucks will really replace driver jobs, especially within the decade as many industry experts suggest.

Get a quote.

The U.S. Oil Boom. We aren’t talking about the 19th century when railroads were creating new ways to transport goods and oil was discovered as an additional fuel option- but the current rising oil production in 2017.

It sounds a little strange, growth in the oil and gas industry in today’s economy, but it’s happening. The United States is pumping more oil than ever before according to oil industry service provider, Baker Hughes.

The resurgence of shale oil drilling in North America has helped keep gas and diesel prices low for the most part in 2017. Even though the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) is experiencing oil production cuts, the United States is seeing more oil production than ever before, which is creating a unique situation for the trucking and logistics industries.

Rising Oil Production= More Hauls

Higher oil production means more trucks on the road hauling oil. Makes sense, but that’s not the only impact on the industry. Rising oil production also means the need for more drilling equipment, pipe, drill bits, chemicals, and other materials at all drilling sites, at all corners of the nation.

By the Numbers

In the last year, the number of Land Oil Rigs currently in use in the United States is up by 118 percent, (885 as compared to 479) in May 2016, according to Freight Waves.

The output of oil production in the United States has surged nine percent to above nine million barrels a day in the last eight months, according to CNBC.

Using a two-rig, eight-well land oil rig design as the base, it is estimated that every new land drilling rig adds over one million miles of truckload hauling. (See Freight Wave’s infographic here.)

The Future of U.S. Oil Drilling

Oil production in the United States is expected to keep growing to 10 million barrels a day by next year, shattering the previous record of 9.6 million barrels a day in 1970, according to CNBC.

The Energy Information Administration (EIA) suggests that U.S. drillers might have to live with a smaller profit margin next year, with the West Texas Intermediate Crude, the benchmark in pricing oil, trading at about $53.61 a barrel, down 2.7 percent from the forecast announced last month.

How is Oil and Oil Rig Equipment Transported?

If you’re not familiar with the oil industry, you may be unfamiliar with the methods (sometimes unique) used to transport oil and the materials needed for oil drilling.

Oil is typically transported one of four ways: pipelines, intermodal (rail), ocean, and truckload. These methods are used to transport the oil from the drilling sites to refineries, after which where the crude is refined into end-user products like gasoline, diesel fuel, and asphalt. It is then shipped to gas stations and other distributors and retailers for consumption.

Pipelines are one of the more common transport methods for oil since they require less energy and don’t create capacity issues over the road or rail. Intermodal oil shipments via the rail are also becoming more popular since rail is an environmentally-friendly alternative to truckload shipping and can carry more capacity.

There are challenges with truckload capacity in general, so it isn’t the most common mode when it comes to transporting oil. While pipelines and rail have mostly fixed destinations, trucks have more freedom. You’ll typically see trucks coming into play in the last portion of oil delivery – from the refineries to gas stations or storage locations.

Oil is also transported from more remote locations where pipelines or rail are not available. Typical barges can carry 30,000 barrels of oil and are a little more economical, where appropriate, versus rail.

Drilling equipment and pipe needed at Land-based Oil Rig sites will most likely be transported via flatbed, a truck with a flat area for carrying freight that can either be open or covered. See our flatbed anatomy blog with infographics here.

Capacity Challenges

According to Forbes, some of the 10-fastest growing industries in the U.S. include services to buildings and dwellings; building finishing contractors; residential building construction; foundation, structure, and building exterior contractors; building equipment contractors; nonresidential building construction; and other heavy and civil engineering construction. Basically, a lot of building materials (including those needed for oil drilling) are hitting the highways and bringing a need for truckload capacity in an already tough market.

Driver shortages due to increased volume and driver retirements, governmental regulations, and fleets choosing to scale back operations are all contributing factors to the capacity decline. Mix these issues with suppliers facing increased demand to get their products to land oil rigs and it’s the perfect equation for capacity challenges and potential rate hikes.

Future of the Oil Industry and Trucking

It’s no doubt to industry experts that oil production will break records in 2018, with projected growth of 7.5 percent. The supply is expected to outpace consumption, with the need to transport oil to storage facilities in high demand.

One of the factors to watch will be tighter capacity issues with the implementation of Electronic Logging Devices (ELDs) in December 2017.

As capacity tightens, having a proven, experienced Logistics partner will help keep oil producers and distributors product’s rolling- a Logistics company that can access the need and commodity, and select the best carrier in the most appropriate mode to move the petroleum products and equipment to its destination.

A little over 15 years ago, Armstrong and Associates found 46 percent of Fortune 500 companies use 3PL (third-party logistics) companies to help with their freight arrangement. In May 2017, that number nearly doubled to 90 percent.

The study found that companies that use 3PLs do so to control their costs and improve the efficiency of their supply chain, while some larger companies rely mostly on 3PLs to handle their complete day-to-day freight management.

Why are more successful companies turning to 3PLs? It’s a growing market, turning away from the transactional relationships of the past and building “meaningful partnerships,” according to the 21st Annual Third-Party Logistics Study.

Of course, the overall economy has a major impact on the logistics market, so we’ll take a look at the contributing economic factors, the growth in logistics, and the role 3PLs play that have the biggest companies in the United States relying on them for all of their logistics needs.

Growing Logistics Market

Saving time, saving money, and avoiding headaches are top reasons to turn to a third-party logistics company. The cost reductions achieved by using a 3PL are expected to be a major market driver for 2017 to 2021, based on a report from Radiant Insights. The logistics market overall is projected to grow at an annual rate of 6.5 percent per year during this time frame.

The American Trucking Association’s Trucking Activity Report sees growth continuing in freight and trucking through 2026. The report shows 28.6 percent increase in freight tonnage and a 74.5 percent increase in revenues to $1.52 trillion by 2026.

New orders for trucks dipped slightly in May, but research groups say overall, the outlook for the market is positive. Class 8 orders were down 30 percent from April, but were still 18 percent higher than May 2016.

Stifel analyst Michael Baudendistel wrote in a letter to investors that the firm believes the dip in Class 8 orders should be interpreted as a step back from unsustainable levels and believe there will be a strong growth period from 2019-2020.

Autonomous trucks are also expected to take the nation’s roads by storm within five years, according to the Transportation Research Board. This of course after the autonomous truck Otto went on a 120-mile beer run sans driver at the wheel in Colorado in October 2016.

Increases in technology and efficiency in the transportation world could have a major impact on delivery times and capacity.

Current Economy

While the Logistics industry has plenty of growth in its forecast, the U.S. economy is sending mixed signals.

Overall, the United States’ industrial production rose one percent in April 2017, the largest expansion in more than three years.

The U.S. unemployment rate hit its lowest level in 16 years, down to 4.3 percent. There were 138,000 jobs added in May, slightly down from April. While the number of jobs added was still lower than predicted, there were significant gains in sectors like mining, which added nearly 50,000 jobs.

At the Federal Reserve’s last interest rate meeting, there was a 67 percent chance of a rate hike occurring in June. If this is the case, it would be the third rate high in the last seven months, after a period of several years with few hike rate increases by the Fed.

Consumer spending stayed steady in May, at a $104 daily spending average, similar to the $107 average in April, according to Gallup. This is the fourth month in a row that self-reporting through Gallup averaged $100 or more.

Consumer confidence is down for the second month, but is up 19 percent from last year and according to Forbes, people are spending their money online, at value retailers, and on beauty products.

Role of 3PL

Third-party logistics companies are growing in popularity for a multitude of reasons: they can save time by increasing efficiency, providing visibility to freight spend, handle all logistics operations as a one-stop shop, and can service virtually any industry, and many operate in all 50 states and across the globe.

In the 21st annual 3PL Study, 93 percent of shippers surveyed said that improved, data-driven decision-making is essential to the future success of supply chain activities and processes. Of the 3PLS in the study, 98 percent reported that as well.

In the day to day world of freight arrangement, shippers can spend hours manually entering data and coordinating shipping with different carriers. Working with a 3PL cuts down on the amount of time spent on these daily operations, but can also provide services well beyond the input of data!

From staying ahead of potential impacts on the industry to in-depth account reviews, to cutting and managing costs, to fully outsourcing logistics operations with account management offered through a Transportation Management System, a 3PL can offer tremendous visibility to clients.

In the 21st Annual Third-Party Logistics study, 86 percent of shippers said that using 3PLs has improved their customer service, and 73 percent said 3PLs offer new and innovative ways to improve logistics effectiveness.

New demands from consumers and shippers will continue to evolve the logistics industry, making offerings more robust to better serve the industry.

Why Wait, Join the 90 Percent

We’ll take care of the nitty gritty of freight arrangement to get your shipments from point A to point B so you can focus on your core business. If you need anything from an emergency storage solution to a full warehouse operation, we can set you up with our warehouse providers. Have an emergency shipment that needs to leave ASAP? Don’t stress about finding a truck – we’ll do that part for you. Want to fully outsource your logistics operations with our Integrated Outsourcing TMS? You got it.

Join the 90 percent of top companies that rely on 3PLs to guide them through the complex world of logistics! Send us any one of your shipments and we’ll give you a no-hassle quote, from a real person, every time.

A day in the life of logistics has a loose framework and cycle, with each shipment navigating its way from creation, shipment, billing, and payment. Each day is different and exciting for shippers, carriers, and third-party logistics companies alike.

As a 3PL, we spend our days receiving shipments and working with carriers to arrange transportation via truck, rail, air, and sea.

So, want to know what a day in the life of a third-party logistics company is like? We’ll give you a front row, 3D tour (okay, not 3D…we don’t have a Virtual Reality tour just yet).

Shipments

Every day, our Logistics Specialists, Logistics Assistants, and Account Managers for each Team come in, get their morning coffee, tea, etc., say hello to their colleagues and sit down to their computers.

On average, there are about 90-100 shipments waiting to be covered when the day begins. Some have already been handled by our 24/7 Team (the night crew, if you will) and some will be easier to find a carrier for than others.

Our Operations Department at each Regional Service Center (five offices around the United States) is made up of individual teams that each handle certain customer accounts. These teams will be responsible for checking what shipments have been sent in by our customers, what is already loaded into the system, and calling to check up on other customers to see if they have any shipments that need to be taken care of.

As soon as the day begins, these teams spend the next 8 or so hours making the magic happen. Talk about hard workers with dynamic personalities!

Cycle of a shipment: finding a carrier

When a customer has a shipment that needs to be covered that day, it is listed as pending in our freight management software. It can make its way to us through a phone call, fax, email, or our Transportation Management System (TMS). At this point, our job is to find a carrier who can pick up and deliver that shipment in the necessary time frame. This is where the fun and unique form of matchmaking begins.

We have a network of more than 32,000 carriers who are currently vetted in our system and checked for operating authority, insurance information, and safety ratings. These carriers are checked on a daily basis for compliance and before every shipment.

When choosing a carrier for a particular shipment, we either work with what we call “relationship carriers”- carriers that we’ve developed a relationship with over time, or a carrier that is newer to us, in terms of tenure with us or number of shipments handled. The idea is to develop relationships with all of our carriers to not only build rapport but to help our customers receive the best rates and service possible.

Once we’ve found a carrier for that shipment, we call the carrier or driver directly to dispatch them on this particular shipment.

Logistics and Relationship Carriers

It seems impossible– a network of 32,000 carriers, you can’t possibly get to know them, right? Walking through the operations floor, you’ll hear the conversations and know that building relationships with our carriers is a part of what we do.

Two of our Logistics Specialists, Nicole Hastings and Carrie Harman, booked more than 300 shipments each in April 2017. Carrie says working with relationship carriers is a huge part of hitting that number, but so is coming in early to cover hot shipments, putting in extra effort to find carriers to haul harder to move or less desirable freight, and staying on the phones day in and day out.

Cycle of a shipment: Carrier Relations

Before a carrier is dispatched for a shipment, our busy bees in Carrier Relations get to work. This team makes sure that everything needed for compliance is on file. If anything needs to be updated, someone from the Carrier Relations team will contact the Carrier and make sure it happens so the driver can get on the road. This team stays in contact with the Logistics Specialists to make sure everything runs smoothly.

Driver is on the move

After we dispatch one of the drivers in our network, they begin heading to pick up the shipment and get it to its destination. Whether it’s a truckload of tomatoes, a few pallets of paint, a container of radios to go over the rail, or an expedited shipment of emergency response equipment that has to ship fast, our logistics team is contacting carriers and getting tracking updates on all shipments for our customers.

If there’s any factor that could create a delay in a shipment, our team is working around the clock to troubleshoot and problem solve.

If a truck were to break down “after hours,” which has happened before, our 24/7 Team is able to find another driver who could get there, load the shipment onto his/her truck and be back on the road, without a single hiccup in the delivery window. The customer knows there was a change in trucks, but there was no interruption in service.

Driver arrives at destination

Once the driver arrives at the freight’s destination, he or she either backs up to a loading dock or uses a forklift or liftgate, etc., to unload the shipment. The receiver (the location/person receiving the shipment) verifies that everything came off the truck as it should, and our team confirms.

At this point, the driver can then be released to head out to the destination, and the “behind the scenes” work on that particular shipment can begin.

Billing Cycle

Once the shipment is delivered, the billing and payment cycle begins. The drivers can either email or fax their paperwork to our billing team. Then, the carrier gets paid and the customer is billed for the shipment.

In April 2017 alone, our billing team processed tens of thousands of bills – and our Customer Service team fields any questions that may come through about payments.

This entire process cycles again for every shipment that is booked through Trinity Logistics. This process happens hundreds of times a day on our operations floor – a converted bowling alley with Teams of Logistics experts in a “bull pen” –solving issues, covering freight, and finding solutions for the most challenging shipments.

Why work with a 3PL?

In the cycle of arranging shipments, there are only three real pieces of the puzzle that involve our customers. First, our customers contact us with their shipment details. Later in the cycle, we provide them with tracking updates. Then, they receive a bill for the shipments, and only have to pay Trinity for the shipments, instead of each individual carrier.

We work with customers who are looking to cut down on the amount of time spent finding trucks to cover their shipments and are looking to expand their capacity. Some of our customers take advantage of our Transportation Management Systems to completely outsource their logistics operations with Trinity’s account management and carrier base.

We take the time to update our customers on industry news that could affect their core business and find solutions together. Our main goal is to help save our customers time, money, and headaches.

We also offer:

– Single source for all shipment arrangement
– Innovative solutions
– Integrity and personal relationships
– A full team ready to make your shipments flow quickly and smooothly

This time of year in the United States, the weather gets a little warmer, people start daydreaming about trips to the beach or vacations to the mountains, and farmers are gearing up for their busiest work season. Not only does produce need to be harvested at peak freshness, it also needs to be shipped; thus the world of fresh produce logistics. When it comes to fresh produce, the most impactful time for any area in the United States is March through June.

With new food safety in transportation regulations, like the Food Safety Modernization Act, and decreased capacity due to supply and demand, finding a reliable carrier who can pick-up and deliver your fresh produce at peak freshness can be time-consuming, and quite frustrating.

The fresh produce logistics team at Trinity Logistics has the resources and industry expertise to arrange your shipment, regardless of how specialized your requirements may be. So if you’re shipping cucumbers, berries, broccoli, apples, or bananas, know that we love coordinating it all.

Produce by Region

The U.S. has different produce harvest times based on region and climate, so we’ll go over some of the top crops and time frames to get an idea of what’s being transported and when.

Texas, Arizona, and New Mexico
The most impactful time for produce harvest in Texas is March to June, but produce can be found here year-round as it is brought over from Mexico. In surrounding states, New Mexico and Arizona, there’s another push for produce that occurs October through November. Some of the top crops you’ll see out of this area include broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, grapefruit, cucumbers, onions, lettuce, pumpkins, and peppers (especially the spicy variety).

California
In California, produce season kicks in around the southern part of the state in March to June, and slowly creeps its way up north of the state, ending in September. Some of the top fresh produde from California during these times include carrots, clementines, nectarines, artichokes, lemons, green leafy vegetables, avocados, and kiwi.

The East Coast
Produce season along the East Coast, like California, starts in the south and slowly creeps its way North. Florida begins its big harvest around May, while the harvest in Maine ends in the fall. From south to north, some of the most popular crops from the East Coast include oranges, peaches, tomatoes, watermelon, corn, cucumbers, apples, cherries, and blueberries.

Shipping Produce

There are a lot of factors that go into making sure fresh produce arrives in the same fresh condition for grocery stores, markets, and restaurants relying on it for their business. Total transit time, proper refrigeration, and shipper’s documents in line with the Food Safety Modernization Act all have to be taken into consideration.

We have 35 plus years of experience arranging refrigerated truckload shipments, so we know that no detail can be left out when it comes to these time-sensitive products. We help arrange produce shipments with dedicated full truckload services, port services, and even supply chain consulting and Transportation Management System solutions. Basically – no matter what scale operation you need, we have a solution that can help.

Our dedicated teams handle the careful transportation of your produce and are available to answer your questions 24/7.

When Trinity Logistics first opened its doors in 1979 as Trinity Transport, the small family-owned company specialized in the arrangement of truckload freight. In the last decade, Trinity has expanded its focus into the arrangement of more specialty services, designing solutions that don’t necessarily fit within the cookie cutter of ordinary freight arrangement. One of those services is dray service, or drayage, which is typically needed with shipments where freight is coming into a port or being transported via intermodal, or rail.

What is Drayage?

Drayage is most commonly known as the act of pulling containers out of a rail yard or ocean port and either loading them or unloading them before returning the container to the port or rail yard, typically over short distances. With dray service, an empty or full container can be mounted on chassis, or a flatbed, to be delivered either from your door to the port or rail yard or from the port or rail yard to your front door. Drayage is an important part of the shipment and transportation of products to and from different modes of transportation.

The term “drayage” comes from “dray,” meaning a horse-drawn cart with low sides, used to transport goods a short distance. Eventually, the horse-drawn carts were replaced by trucks, but even today drayage refers to short distances between multiple modes. Drayage moves continue to prove highly valuable in keeping freight moving without interruptions. The upward trend in globalized trade has increased imports and exports that are shipped via ocean, drawing attention to the need for dray services.

Why is Dray Service Needed?

Most people in Logistics think of drayage as it relates to intermodal or containers on a ship, but here are two other dray services you may not have considered: shipment to shopping malls and trade shows. For many shopping malls, there may be a centralized loading dock or drayage area where receivers pick up from in order to limit congestion at the mall itself. If you exhibit at trade shows, you are probably familiar with paying bills for trade show drayage. Whether you ship directly to the show site or to a show warehouse, every company’s exhibit needs to get from the loading dock to its respective spot on the show floor. Imagine the traffic jam if that were left entirely up to the individual companies to retrieve their crates from the loading docks! Many trade shows employ outside services who provide drayage, delivering crates to each company’s designated exhibit space, and back to the loading dock after the show is complete.

We can arrange pickup and/or delivery in advance, on a tight turnaround for port cut, or to get your freight out before the Last Free Day. Our Logistics Team is trained in drayage and can help you avoid any necessary fees to keep your freight moving.

Think you could benefit from the arrangement of drayage services? Give us a call today!

Lumper. It’s not a four-letter-word, but to many in logistics, a lumper fee is often times viewed in a negative light.  A lumper fee is charged to the carrier when a shipper utilizes third-party workers to help load or unload the trailer contents. Lumpers are often used at food warehousing companies and grocery distributors. These fees are often reimbursable to the driver by the shipper or the freight broker.

Why lumpers?

Some receivers outsource to lumping services that are independent of their core business, especially in the grocery distribution business. Lumpers allow for truck drivers to catch up on rest and save energy for their driving, and can sometimes save time for drivers.

Why the negative light?

The “can sometimes save time for drivers” is viewed just like that – sometimes. If you read any trucker forums, you may find many truckers state they have run into headaches when choosing to use lumpers because the lumpers often do their restacking on the trailers, which can be rather time-consuming. However, if the truck drivers decide against using lumpers, they could find themselves trying to unload with hand-jacks and possibly taking additional time to learn their way around a new warehouse.

Lumper Fees vs. Paying Driver

Many trucking companies do not want their drivers unloading freight unless it is part of their normal job duties. In order to keep their drivers well rested and ready for the road, trucking companies will choose to pay lumpers to unload freight rather than have their drivers expend energy or risk injury doing so. There’s no “industry standard” on this, some trucking companies won’t offer to pay their drivers additional money to unload freight to deter them from doing so, or others will offer to pay lumpers significantly more than they would their own drivers.

Service or Scam?

If there are truckers concerned when they go to unload their trailer, that lumper services will be focused upon them, there are protections under United States Law. Forcing a carrier to pay a service for unloading without reimbursement is illegal under Title 49 of the United States Code, § 14103. It says carriers should have the option to unload their own trucks, and if they are not given the option without being compensated for the lumper fee by the shipper or the receiver, then the law has been violated. If a driver is ever put in that particular situation, they should know that being coerced to pay out of pocket for lumper fees is prohibited.

3PLs

If you are a carrier working with a third-party logistics company, or looking to become a carrier for one, ask if they cover lumper fees. Most freight brokers include this in their carrier payment. Just make sure the covering of the lumper’s bill is submitted right away to prevent any delays.

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Here’s your annual reminder: from April to July, warmer temperatures gradually creep across the U.S. and the transportation world gets rocked by produce season. Many people don’t realize that even if you aren’t in the produce business, this can still affect your supply chain. Not sure exactly what this means for shipping your freight? Let’s go over the facts so you can be prepared.

What does produce season do to truckload capacity?

From early spring to summer, crop harvest volumes are at an all-time high across the nation. More crops means more produce that needs to get to market, and thus, more trucks needed on the road. With trucks in higher demand, especially on the southern East Coast, capacity gets tight every year around this time.

Since produce is time-sensitive, and farms are usually in close quarters with each other, trucks can be especially hard to come by within specific, small geographical areas and within particular timeframes. The proximity of your pickup and drop-off locations to these areas can really have a big impact on the availability of trucks for your loads. This can also mean higher shipping rates are required to secure these highly sought after trucks.

Produce is almost always shipped on reefer (refrigerated) trucks, and since there’s a lot of freight needing to be moved, this especially cuts down on available refrigerated equipment during produce season. Unfortunately, since this type of commodity is so time-sensitive, intermodal or other alternative modes of transportation aren’t very popular options. This means capacity will be even tighter if your freight requires refrigerated equipment.

In summary: during produce season, peak volumes of fruits and vegetables are ready to be shipped to grocers around the country, demand for trucks gets higher, capacity gets tighter, and shipping rates may go up.

How can working with a 3PL, like Trinity Logistics, help me during produce season?

Whether you ship produce or not, working with a non-asset based shipping company like a 3PL can provide you with access to thousands of carriers available to ship your freight. Trinity works with a network of over 30,000 vetted carriers. The larger the network of carriers, the more likely a truck can be found that’s ready and willing to move your freight. Working with a multi-modal company can also provide you with other shipping options, like intermodal, if truckload capacity becomes an issue and there are acceptable alternatives for the commodity you’re shipping.

Trinity Logistics is also a member of the Produce Marketing Association (PMA). This means that educated sales reps familiar with the produce industry are arranging the shipment of your time-sensitive and high-value produce. Our common practices include asking carriers to check the pulp (internal) temperature of the produce to check if it’s warm before loading, providing daily tracking updates, and encouraging remote temperature readings from carriers.

We have over 200 actively shipping customers in the produce industry. If you’d like a to request a shipping quote, or simply have a question about the upcoming produce season and how it might affect you, call 866-603-5679 or click here.

When it comes to managing your company’s logistics and supply chain, life can quickly get hectic. Needing to seek out carriers for each mode of transportation that you require costs you time, money, and resources. This is why working with a one stop shipping solutions provider can save you from a major headache.

You’ll only need to establish a relationship with one party.

Working with a third-party logistics company (3PL) that is able to provide multiple modes of transportation including truckload, less-than-truckload (LTL), intermodal, and international, as well as technology solutions, gives you an all-in-one avenue to get your freight where it needs to go in the most cost and time-efficient manner.  A 3PL, like Trinity, will assign you to a single sales representative that will be your main point of contact for shipments of any kind, versus needing to establish relationships with multiple representatives across multiple shipping companies.

Time is money.

If you’ve got your employees tied up in rate shopping and tracking shipments, you could be wasting some of your most valuable resources. Whether you’re currently working with multiple 3PLs or routing your shipments through asset-based carriers, you might be wasting more time than you think. By working with a one stop shipping solutions provider, you can free up your team to accomplish bigger and better tasks. Let your  provider do all of the dirty work behind getting your shipments where they need to go.

More volume to one provider means lower shipping rates.

The higher volume of shipments you’re able to provide to a single 3PL, the more leverage they’ll have with carriers to negotiate shipping rates. So, instead of spreading your freight out to multiple providers, choosing a 3PL that can service all of your needs could end up saving you not only time, but money as well.

You’ll be able to simplify your administrative tasks.

After you find multiple different carriers to haul your freight,  you may end up with a pile of invoices bigger than you. Perhaps one of the most relieving aspects of working with a one-stop shop is eliminating the need to pay multiple invoices to a range of carriers. By choosing one logistics solutions provider, you’ll only need to worry about paying a single shipping company.

Aside from the time and money savings, choosing a one-stop shop logistics provider can relieve you from stresses that go along with managing contact lists and invoices. If you’re seeking this kind of provider, Trinity Logistics offers a variety of logistics and shipping services that cater to a variety of industries and customers’ needs.

To learn more about how Trinity’s total solutions provider approach can help you, click here.

When searching for the perfect carrier to move your freight, you might find yourself wondering how to decide between an asset-based carrier and a non-asset based provider (also known as a third-party logistics company, or 3PL). Working with a company that has their own fleet of equipment might seem like the obvious answer as to who you should call to move your freight. While it’s true that by going this route, you can work directly with the carrier that will be physically hauling your shipments, you may be missing out on some extra perks.

Capacity

First, there’s the issue of capacity. With an asset-based provider, the capacity they have is whatever their particular fleet can handle at the time. This can range from one or two trucks to hundreds of trucks, depending on the size of the company. With truckload capacity being tighter than ever over the past few years, having access to only a small number of trucks can be risky business. If your asset-based carrier of choice is booked up, your freight may end up on the back burner.

You might imagine that working directly with an asset-based carrier would lead you to build better relationships, and thus, better access to capacity, but by working with a 3PL, your network would increase dramatically. By building relationships with one or two sales reps at a 3PL, you’ve secured a network of thousands of carriers, and greatly increased the capacity you have access to.

Daily Freight Management

Many shippers often find themselves wishing they could save time when it comes to scheduling and tracking their freight, or managing inevitable issues like delays and breakdowns. Working with an asset-based company means you’re on your own when these things happen, and it’s up to you to work it out with the carrier.

Time is truly of the essence when it comes to freight management, and no one knows this better than an experienced 3PL. This is why 3PLs are a good choice for those looking to save a little time in their daily freight management. A 3PL works out any issues that arise with the carrier directly, and only involves you if necessary.

Risk

Finding asset-based carriers on your own may leave you wide open for potential risk, from freight claims to stolen cargo or worse. Unless you have procedures in place to vet the asset-based carriers you’re working with, you could end up getting scammed, working with an uninsured driver, or someone who is non-compliant with government regulations. Working with a 3PL who has a carrier compliance department would ensure that only highly vetted carriers are hauling your freight. Any reputable 3PL will do their best to build a carrier base that is compliant and trustworthy.

If you’re used to working with asset-based carriers, hiring a 3PL to handle your shipments may come off as a little intimidating at first, as working with a “middle man” may be different than what you’re accustomed to. However, be careful to not let your hesitation cost you both time and money, as you may be missing out on valuable pros that come with working with a 3PL.

If you’re interested in how a 3PL, like Trinity, could help make managing your freight easier, click here.