How to Manage Shipping Fresh Produce

The shelf life of a produce is limited. With this, on-time delivery holds utmost importance. Through the chain of supply, moving of these goods should be quick. Any delay could lead to lost revenue due to spoilage. With this kind of risk, managing the shipment of these produces proves to be a challenging task. 
With that note, here are some tips on how you can manage to ship the fresh produces without delay.    
​

• Develop a standard procedure for the operation that is documented. Consignee facility or shipper have rules that every carrier should know. With this knowledge, detention charges are reduced as well as the fees for loading and unloading.  It also reduces the mistakes that occur in handling the freight that is rejected. 

---

• Create an inventory for your carrier. When there is a rise in fuel costs, the pricing flexibility of the shippers is useful. This flexibility is gained through identifying multiple modes and carriers for moving the fresh produce.   

• Creating forward inventory. To ensure the consumers that they will be presented with the freshest selection, companies need to have the ability to order good today that will be delivered tomorrow. This will only be possible when you can give them a delivery network that is just-in-time. 

• Staying on schedule. The consignees and shippers should make carrier appointments so as dock backlogs will be prevented and the food spoilage risk will be reduced. 

• Make sure that as a shipper, you can attract. To start with that, you need to inspect the inside of your trailer to ensure its dryness, cleanliness, and good smell. You need to have operating procedure standard and your carriers should know them. Checking your shipping department to see if they really confirm proper temperature of loading and matches the count of cases to the leading bills. Do everything to make yourself a shipper that is attractive. 

• Monitoring the temperatures. As a shipper, it would be your responsibility to check the proper temperature of the trailer while it is still in your warehouse. But, upon it leaves for shipment, that responsibility would be shouldered by the carrier. What you need to do is to ensure that the carrier you got has all the right tools and procedures to ensure the proper temperature while it is in transit. 

• Find the match that is the perfect one. It is not enough that you give your best in creating a supply chain that can meet the needs of your business, you also need to ensure that you work with carriers that understand those needs and have the capability fulfil them. 

• Ship forward, trace back. You may not want a recall but there is nothing wrong with equipping yourself with technology that can help in tracing the product from the very beginning. 

• Deal with the issues of the time. As shippers, you have the right to inspect your product but it is also your duty to process rejection in a quick manner. 

Fresh produce shipment may face challenges ahead so you need to be able to manage it accordingly to ensure that it would be a successful shipment.

If you want to know more about our shipping services and for a free quote please click here.
​