It’s easy to just purchase our grocery lists without thinking about how the food gets to the store. However, transportation is vital to maintaining our agricultural supply chains.
Here’s everything you need to know about the relationship between agriculture and transportation:
Why Is Transportation Important for Agriculture?
Transport is important for agriculture because many of these agricultural products come from rural areas without enough people nearby to consume them. Instead, these products need to be transported to more populated areas where they can be bought and consumed.
For example, in the United States, many farms are located in the Midwest, but there’s a far greater concentration of people living on the coasts.
This means that agricultural products are grown in Iowa, Nebraska, Missouri, and Kansas will need to be transported to more populous coastal states like California, Florida, and New York.
What Is the Process of Transportation in Agriculture?
Agricultural products are transported from farms to restaurants and grocery stores using a variety of different methods, including highways, railroads, and waterways using semi-trucks, trains, and boats.
Most agricultural products end up on semi-trucks at some point in the journey from farm to fork, specifically at the end of the journey.
For instance, agricultural products may be taken on a truck from the farm to a freight rail hub where they are then transported across the country — before being loaded onto another truck to be taken to the final destination.
What Types of Trailers Can Transport Produce?
There are four different types of trailers that are able to transport produce: reefer, dry vans, flatbed trailers, and drop-deck trailers.
Let’s learn more about these different kinds of trailers so that you can better understand how they work in agriculture:
1. Reefer
Refrigerated trucks are also known as “reefers.” Reefer trucks are equipped with temperature control and temperature monitoring mechanisms to keep agricultural contents safe and consumable.
The reefer truck system that controls temperature involves a compressor, a condenser, and an evaporator. These components work together with refrigerants to maintain a specific temperature.
Reefer trucks also come with insulated trailer boxes to easily maintain the cold temperature inside the trailer.
Without proper insulation, the cold air inside the trailer would either escape or would be heated by the warmer air outside — or both. Polyurethane foam is used to seal the trailer box.
2. Dry Vans
A dry van might look quite similar to a reefer truck on the outside — but the real difference is on the inside. Unlike reefer trucks, dry vans have no temperature control mechanisms. At the same time, they are completely enclosed and are able to protect agricultural products from damage related to weather and road hazards.
Dry van shipping is extremely versatile — making it the most common method of shipping. These vans come in a variety of sizes ranging from 48 to 53 feet long. Most of these vans are 13.5 feet tall and 102 inches wide. Since dry van shipping is the most common method of shipping, it is also quite affordable.
Dry vans can be used to transport dry and nonperishable products. These vans have wooden floors that can be damaged by moisture and condensation, so they may not be ideal for shipping other types of agricultural products.
3. Flatbed Trailers
Flatbed trailers differ from both reefers and dry vans in that they are not enclosed whatsoever. Instead, these are open trailers that don’t protect the elements.
This makes them ideal for transporting oversized and heavy products that would be difficult or impossible to transport with enclosed trailers.
Flatbed trailers are ideal for transporting agricultural equipment and goods, including hay bales, grains, tractors, and more.
These trailers come in a variety of different sizes and are used to keep farms running and producing food items.
4. Drop-Deck Trailers
Drop-deck trailers, also known as step-deck trailers, have a gooseneck hitch upper deck of about 10 to 11 feet in length in addition to the trailer’s main deck that’s about 37 to 38 feet long. These trailers are about 39 to 40 inches off the ground and range from 96 to 102 inches wide.
Drop-deck trailers are stronger and heavier than your basic flatbed trailer, meaning that they can transport heavier loads of up to 45,000 pounds.
There are also double-drop-deck trailers that have a front platform, a lower-middle platform, and a back platform. The middle platform rides less than two feet off the ground.
Double drop-deck trailers are also longer than a single drop-deck trailer — ranging between 48 and 53 feet in length.
These trailers are even heavier than single drop-deck trailers and are able to transport loads up to 55,000 pounds.
How Can Transportation Companies Facilitate Agriculture Shipping?
Transportation companies play a huge role in facilitating the shipping of agriculture and maintaining agricultural supply chains.
Leveraging Their Carrier Network
To facilitate agriculture shipping, transportation companies can leverage their carrier networks to handle increasing shipping demands. After all, trailers are only one part of the equation — drivers are the other.
Driver shortages are creating major problems in supply chains all over the world, but issues within the agricultural supply chain are particularly troubling.
Transportation companies need to work hard to recruit and maintain their driver networks by offering incentives and improved working conditions.
For example, RPM is able to maintain a carrier network of over 30,000 strong thanks to driver-friendly initiatives.
RPM developed a dedicated app wherein drivers can gain immediate access to available loads with competitive rates, book these loads, and quickly get paid after completion.
This app also offers digital capture of all documents and real-time capture for damage claims.
Finally, and perhaps most importantly, the app provides one-to-one support for drivers with a dedicated representative that’s available anytime.
Working With CSA FAST Pass-Approved Drivers
Another thing that transportation companies can do to facilitate agriculture shipping is to work with CSA FAST pass-approved drivers. The Free and Secure Trade (FAST) program is the US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) program for low-risk shipments entering the United States from both Canada and Mexico.
This program allows FAST pass-approved carriers to receive expedited processing at dedicated lanes at border crossings.
According to the CBP, U.S. citizens, U.S. lawful permanent residents, Canadian citizens, Canadian lawful permanent residents, and Mexican nationals are eligible for FAST membership so long as they are over 18 years of age and possess a valid driver’s license.
They also must not have a criminal record — including convictions, pending charges, warrants, and pardons. They must not have been found in violation of any customs, immigration, or agriculture regulations or laws in any country.
A driver must complete an online application form to apply for a FAST pass. From there, a background check will be conducted to verify the information presented on the application.
After you have passed the background check, you receive conditional approval, after which you schedule an interview to go over the application yet again.
The FAST application and approvals process can be lengthy, and just the background check portion alone can take up to six months.
Then it can take even longer for you to be able to schedule your interview, depending on the wait times at the enrollment center of your choosing.
After everything has been completed and approved, you will have your FAST pass for a period of five years.
Applying for a FAST pass will cost $119.95 for a one-time processing fee. In addition, you pay $50.00 for a five-year membership — for a total cost of $169.95.
However, when it comes time to renew your FAST pass after five years, you will only have to pay the $50 membership fee again.
Temperature Monitoring
The final thing transportation companies can do to facilitate agriculture shipping is to monitor temperatures both inside and outside reefer trucks.
Obviously, monitoring the temperature inside the truck is key to preventing spoilage, but why does the outside temperature matter?
The outside temperature actually affects the inside temperature. For example, if it’s 100 degrees outside and the contents inside the trailer need to be kept at a balmy 40 degrees, you’re going to need a lot of cool air in the trailer to maintain the correct temperature.
At the same time, if it’s 50 degrees outside and the contents inside the trailer need to be kept at 40 degrees, you’re not going to need as much cool air to maintain that temperature. Here’s a quick guide to the proper temperatures for some common agricultural products:
- 32 to 36 degrees Fahrenheit is ideal for broccoli, cabbage, kale, lettuce, peas, blackberries, blueberries, cantaloupes, figs, peaches, raspberries, and strawberries
- 45 to 50 degrees Fahrenheit is ideal for basil, beans, cucumbers, eggplants, peppers, summer squash, citrus fruits, and watermelons
- 55 to 65 degrees Fahrenheit is ideal for pumpkins, winter squash, sweet potatoes, tomatoes, and honeydew melons
Can Agriculture Shipping Be Sustainable?
Sustainability is a huge issue these days, so can agriculture shipping be sustainable? According to the World Bank, the current agriculture shipping environment isn’t very sustainable or environmentally friendly.
It’s estimated that up to 50% of the harvest is wasted between the farm and the fork. In addition, transport-related emissions make up about 15% of overall greenhouse gas emissions — with 60% of those emissions coming from road transport alone.
In the United States alone, diesel fuel accounts for about 25% of the food system's total amount of energy consumed.
So how do we cut down? By changing the way, we ship agriculture. Instead of using diesel fuel trucks, it’s projected that the sales of electric trucks will increase.
These electric trucks have a long way to go to replace diesel, but it’s certainly a good place to start.
Conclusion
As you can see, there’s more than meets the eye when it comes to transporting agricultural products. There are so many different variables involved that can impact how grocery store shelves are stocked.
As a top logistics provider in the agricultural space, we are dedicated to maintaining our agricultural supply chains to keep food on the shelves and on our tables.
Sources:
FAST: Free and Secure Trade for Commercial Vehicles | CBP
Transportation of Fresh Produce | LSU Agricultural Center
To Feed the Future, Let's Make Logistics and Transport Sustainable | World Bank
