Wel­come!

Mar­ket­place trends are hot top­ics for dis­cus­sion when lean­ing in on the fresh pro­duce busi­ness.

Sim­i­lar to other indus­tries where mov­ing prod­ucts from “Point A to Point B” is nec­es­sary, the fac­tor of trans­porta­tion is crit­i­cal to agri­cul­ture.

So much is hap­pen­ing in the truck­ing indus­try right now, that it is a chal­lenge just to keep up with activ­ity. Con­vey­ing the impact of truck­ing to fresh mar­ket stake­hold­ers is another mat­ter alto­gether.

Tech­nol­ogy advance­ments, new reg­u­la­tory require­ments, dri­ver short­ages, increases in freight rates and dete­ri­o­rat­ing high­ways are top of mind for all truck­ing com­pa­nies and dri­vers.

Start­ing on Decem­ber 18^th of this year, the com­pli­ance phase of the ELD (Elec­tronic Log­ging Device) man­date begins as dri­vers and fleets must start using Fed­eral Motor Car­rier Safety Admin­is­tra­tion (FMSCA) approved ELDs in their vehicles.

Though many com­pa­nies have already insti­tuted ELD use in the past few years, com­pli­ance will now be work­ing toward a 2019 100 per­cent adher­ence.

ELDs are designed to auto­mat­i­cally record a driver’s dri­ving time, engine hours, vehi­cle miles, date/​time, and other safety mea­sures. Hours of ser­vice or HOS max­i­mums are man­dated by state and fed­eral agen­cies.

This is intended as a tool for safer dri­ving and fewer acci­dents due to road fatigue.

Labor, or more pre­cisely, lack of it and lack of exper­tise, has already led to dri­ver and facil­ity short­ages.

Longer wait times at pack­ing sheds and ship­ping points has cre­ated daily frus­tra­tions for dri­vers and cus­tomers. Long lines in the cue means missed pick­ups and tim­ing out on runs.

Even con­sol­i­dat­ing prod­uct loads demands more coor­di­na­tion among ship­pers and dis­trib­u­tors.

Grow­ers want to be able to focus on grow­ing and har­vest issues, avoid­ing the asso­ci­ated has­sles with trans­porta­tion in gen­eral.

Labor short­ages already con­tribute to headaches of farm­ers. They are strong advo­cates for trans­porta­tion infra­struc­ture and pol­icy improve­ments.

Farm­ing shapes the local land­scape — polit­i­cally, eco­nom­i­cally and the lit­eral coun­try­side. As demand for truck­ing increases, it’s impor­tant to keep this con­tribut­ing fac­tor in the dia­log when fresh mar­ket trends are exam­ined and resolved.

To read the full Mar­ket Report, includ­ing this week’s mar­ket update, see below or click here.