Refrigerated Trucking in High Demand but Short Supply

2013 turned out to be one of the best bumper crop years ever and the average production for harvest is up over ten times from last year. Everything from grapes in California to apples in Washington , Minnesota, Texas, California and New York. With the amount of crops being harvested this year there is a high demand for refrigerated trucking in California as well as every other state. Potatoes are another high producing crop this year in Idaho and Wisconsin and the demand for refrigerated trucking services is going through the roof.

West Coast Carriers is also seeing a major jump in refrigerated trucking requests from its customers as well as farmers, growers and cold storage facilities throughout the United States and Canada. An example of this is the state of California which has had a record grape harvest for over three consecutive weeks. We’re all hopeful this will reduce the cost of wine over the long run but all joking aside, on a current average there are a thousand refrigerated loads looking for carriers and only 200 or less available. This puts a tremendous strain on the capacity for refrigerated trucking in California as well and the United States and with the increase in demand comes the increase in price, better known as supply and demand.

As the demand for refrigerated trucking goes up and the availability of refrigerated freight increases you can expect the rates to sky rocket. We are already seeing an increase in refrigerated trucking rates out of California, Washington and Chicago. The shortage in refrigerated trucks this season has growers, farmers and shipping companies getting desperate to get their temperature controlled produce to market. Some companies will ship certain produce in vented vans or use a flatbed trucking service with side kits and a tarp.

This year has favorable growing conditions for almost every state and most have reported record produce harvests in Tomatoes, Apples, Potatoes, Pears, Grapes, Plumbs, Cabbage and Avocados just to name a few. This is far different from the normal fourth quarter push we’re all used to every year and is expected to increase refrigerated trucking costs across the board. West Coast Carriers works hard with each of its customers to reduce the amount of increase by offering consistent pricing year around for refrigerated Trucking.