Fewer things in life are as certain as death, taxes and late trucks.
The reasons for delayed deliveries can range from understandable causes such as Department of Transportation delays, mechanical breakdowns, bad weather or washed-out roads, to the innumerable human error factors that could fill this page and about ten more.
Late trucks can put a produce buyer into serious stress mode, especially if he or she needs the produce for shipping out the same day. What can a buyer do to prepare for – and hopefully avoid – this all-too common scenario? Here are a few thoughts.
Work with reputable shippers
Your produce supplier is where the journey begins. The best advice I received as a young produce buyer is to be someone’s customer. When you connect with produce shippers who provide the desired quality and quantities you need on a regular basis, this is the beginning of a great buyer-shipper relationship.
Stick with them. A reputable, trusted shipper will provide you with not only the product you need and the brands you prefer but also valuable market information to help you make good buying decisions.
Anything less than level of partnership risks an interruption in the supply chain, and that could result in delayed loading or short quantities.
Work with reputable transportation
Whether you hand the order off to a broker, to someone who handles logistics internally, or you set up and dispatch the truck yourself, it’s always in your best interest to insist upon (and stick with) reliable transportation sources.
Reliable transportation is just as important to the produce buyer as the produce supplier. And direct, pointed questions need answered up-front.
- Are they regular produce haulers?
- Do they have all their paperwork in line (insurance, etc.)?
- Does the trucking company have updated, well-maintained tractor-trailers, use experienced drivers and have a good safety record?
- Do the drivers keep in touch with the buyer/dispatcher? Not only at loading check-in points, but do they communicate well regarding pickup numbers on purchase orders, ensure that certain commodities are handled or loaded correctly (such as pallets/no pallets, proper product loading temperature, top-iced loads, matching correct commodities with what’s printed on loading manifest, etc.)?
- Do the drivers do their part to maintain the cold chain, checking temperatures of product being loaded, monitoring proper interior trailer temperatures and using recording devices? How about securing the produce with load locks and keeping their reefer on the entire trip?
Once dispatched, good produce runners are adept at ensuring they get loaded promptly, whether it’s a straight load of a single item or a mixer. They are also aware the freight is perishable and strive to arrive at the buyer’s warehouse at the expected date and time.
Preparation is key
Ensuring a produce load arrives intact and on time begins with a certain amount of forethought. You can’t expect to book and load something on Monday for arrival to your warehouse on Wednesday or Thursday that week if you’re starting from scratch.
A Monday loading of apples, for example, is usually set up the week prior between the buyer and the shipper, at least in intent.
This preparation takes place in a phone call or email from the prior week. Something like, “Yeah, my regular Monday apple loading is looking good. Count on me to load two trucks to cover what I’ll need. Figure we’ll have one load of the fujis on ad and another mixer load or two for the varieties.”
This puts everything in motion early – especially if the transportation side has similar notice and the loads requires multiple pickup points, whether it’s arranged by the buyer or the shipper.
A buyer must secure commitments from both to save time and avoid a late delivery on the receiving end.
Know your commodities
Is what you’re loading early, peak or end-of-season? Are the quality and other packing specs intact? Plentiful or tight supplies?
Are there special circumstances to account for, such as pre-cooling, cross-docking, fumigation?
These are just a few examples of things to anticipate and consider so that enough time is factored into securing product and ensuring there are no surprises that prevent a timely delivery.
Build a little “safety stock” into your computations
Just like at the retail store level, a warehouse or distribution center buyer must follow this formula: Demand minus inventory equals order quantity.
That’s the starting point … but a buyer can never assume the produce load will be exactly on time or arrive with no quality issues, so it’s prudent to build in at least two to four days of safety stock into the purchase order (more or less, depending on the item).
This way if there are problems including a late delivery, the buyer can avoid shorting the stores on inventory they need to support sales. In the event of a load rejection, on-hand safety stock can provide the same cushion, allowing the buyer time to react and try to recover with alternate sources, which could be local short-buy sources or an immediate reorder from the supplier.
Communication is key
This is true of all critical control points, especially when it comes to warding off potential issues.
On the supply side, the shipper, the transportation source and the driver should be able to provide frequent updates.
On the buy side, the relevant parties include the produce director and staff, produce managers in the stores, the quality control people and the warehouse operations manager (who may be called upon to make special arrangements for a late or after-hours receiving).
Frequent checks with the inbound driver are crucial, and a buyer should be aware of where his or her trucks are while en route.
Have a backup plan
In the event of a late produce truck, the buyer should know where to turn to cover with short buys locally or how best to pro-rate on-hand inventory to the stores. Late trucks are inevitable. Even the best plans sometimes go awry.
Murphy’s Law is real
It isn’t if things will go wrong but when, so a buyer must be prepared.
You’ll never bat 1.000 when managing a perishable line of goods such as fresh produce. But with some planning and through building reliable supplier and transportation relationships, and by trusting your own experience and instincts, you can help minimize the likelihood (and stress) of late produce deliveries; and hear those magic words from your buying report: All’s well, quality is great, with minimal out-of-stocks.
Armand Lobato has served in a variety of roles over his four decades in the produce industry, from produce manager to merchandiser to buyer on the retail side, and his experience spans foodservice as well.