If we have learn a thing over the years is that we have learnt nothing. Shipping perishable can give hell of a ride to any company with 2 or 20 or 100 years of expertise. When you think you know, that is when you should be the most on high alert because Nature itself will teach you another lesson you did account for.
Step by step, you need to know where you ship from, what is the destination, decide on best route and check mark tasks to maintain the ideal temperature set point.
1. Where you ship from
Lets say you ship from same country. You need to know what is the closest city or town which has an airport or a terminal for a truck load. Then you would contact all the logistics partners to ask for quotes. When you find the right partner make sure they give you credit application to give you net terms to pay. Ensure they can handle claim in case of faulting you on a shipment. Investigate the credit worthiness of your partners. If you ship from the forest, you probably need to plan the drive of your load in a reefer unit from your lost location to the meetibg point with the truck driver or directly to the local airport. You ll calculate all the fuel cost, driver time, unloading and reloading. When you drop at the airport, make sure you have all the correct IDs and Account Number pre approved as Known shipper with TSA. Your AWB in hand and the correct gross weight listed. Your product will be rejected if not according to 3-5% from weight listed. The most important with perishable is to drop your cargo with a facility that had a cooler. If not you will need to arrive at the last minute before cut off time of departure.
2. The destination
Understand the conditions and environment of the locations you ship from and to. What is the weather like on the day and time of arrival? Do the facility it arrives in as a cooler? If not, have you notified the receiver to be present at the time it arrives. Even when you gain experience, you come to see that human errors is the biggest challenge and you cant be a jerk to all the crews of every airlines. You can work with some that seems to be alright with perishables such as Southwest, Alaska or Air Canada. Many airport claim to have cooler on their site, but calling them about it first will help you get more guarantee. For example, PHL doesnt have any cooler no matter if airline cargo website will tell you they do.
3. Decide on Best Route
The most important task is to choose the correct mode of transport. With air cargo, you will always want to prioritize direct flights. Whether it is mix between trucking and air cargo or only one or the other. In summer, reefer trucking is the safest freshest way to ship perishable. In winter, air cargo doesnt require the ice pack in each produce box that you normally add during the hot summer months. A logistic lane from forest to a city has usually a lot of different drivers and Forwarders involved and you need to coordinate all of them, reminding them of the risks and warnings signs. You need to map your route and put the time of pickup, drop off, the contact of drivers and receivers. Calculate all costs and divide it by quantity of produce. Remember with cargo you pay for the gross weight not net weight. For trucking you pay by the skid or by full load truck. Finally if you are doing international airport consider the ISC fees of the airports and if they have direct flights from overseas. You ll almost always want to work with the main ones like EWR, MIA, ORD, SFO. Then you ll need to work with a driver or a forwarder to finish the lane for the final destination.
4. Checks to Maintain Temp Set Point
Perishables are all about avoiding spoilage and contamination. This can happen with your cargo left on tarmac for hours or in temperature above 40F. You can test your logistics using single use temp data logger. Eventually you ll see that not only the flights are all ambient temp going to 70F but not all customers have reefer units to receive the products correctly. Shipments require someone on your team to be alert and able to contact all the logistics partners on the move. Making sure that your product is kept refrigerated. That means calling the cargo facility, double checking departures and manifests. Get ready to improvise as sometimes the USDA will hold your shipment and other time ailines will book you a triple connection flight instead of direct. During summer months, you must be on high alert and sometimes act to intercept the product before it is too late.
That's it for now.
