As transportation costs increase, demand grows, and capacity leaves the US freight industry, every shipper is navigating a challenging transportation environment this summer. However, food shippers face additional complexities.  

Whether they’re shipping large volumes of delicate, perishable produce across the country during peak harvesting season, or shipping frozen foods over long distances in the scorching summer heat, food shippers have no margin for error. They need to get products to their destinations quickly, as well as carefully control in-transit temperatures to avoid spoilage.  

Food shippers can’t just bid their freight out and then choose the lowest-price option. They need to identify a transportation partner who understands the challenges of food shipping and can access special equipment, like temperature-controlled vans and trailers, to provide the white-glove service that’s often needed to move food. Shippers need to work closely with trusted carriers and 4PLs like Redwood to ensure these partners are using a systematic approach to maintain safe and reliable conditions.  

Transportation partners should always be able to demonstrate exactly how they will monitor temperatures, provide special handling, avoid cross-contamination and otherwise maintain food quality. They should already have well-defined standard operating procedures in place to ensure quality control and food-safety compliance. 

Carriers and 4PLs should also be able to demonstrate their general expertise in transportation management. For example, how will they optimize routes? How will they identify and resolve disruptions, such as the extreme weather that typically affects the US during summer months? If a customer is shipping produce across the US-Mexico border, are partners prepared to manage the additional challenges of customs clearance, without incurring costly delays? These are all critical questions that every food shipper should be asking — and every transportation partner should be prepared to answer. 

Real-Time Visibility and Awareness: A Growing Need 

Perhaps the most important capability we’re seeing emerge today is the availability of real-time “track and trace” capabilities for food shippers. Once an expensive, resource-intensive service typically used by only pharmaceutical and health care manufacturers, today real-time tracking is within the reach of just about every company — and it’s particularly valuable for food shippers who want to protect the quality and integrity of their products. 

With track and trace, food shippers have real-time visibility and awareness of their products at every stage of the transportation journey, as their transportation partners share real-time data with them. Thanks to Internet of Things (IoT) sensors mounted inside vans and trailers, shippers can not only pinpoint the specific location of their products — but they can also monitor their storage conditions along the way.  

Real-time awareness provides food shippers with increased confidence and improved communication. Shippers can not only protect their enormous inventory investments, but also preserve their critical customer relationships. At any moment, they can tell customers exactly where their products are, and exactly when they’ll arrive at their final destination. 

In today’s farm-to-table environment, real-time tracking provides yet another benefit: It documents the sourcing and chain-of-custody for every product that’s delivered to a restaurant, grocery store or big-box retailer. It’s easy to answer any questions from customers about the source and safe handling of food products, because the transportation partner has created an accurate digital map of the products’ end-to-end journey. It’s easy and seamless to share that data with grocery retailers and other stakeholders. 

If you’re a food shipper, you already know about the real dangers of product recalls, foodborne illnesses, spoilage, and waste. But you may not realize that real-time traceability is within your reach. If you’re hungering for real-time visibility and increased delivery confidence, why not discover how track and trace can help? Learn more about our full menu of capabilities for food and beverage shippers, or meet with us to discuss your specific challenges and opportunities.