When you’re transporting perishable food items, speed is essential. Delayed shipments can cause potential contamination and spoilage, cutting into your profits. For food items, consider working with an experienced perishable foods freight forwarder and using expedited shipping to ensure your products arrive on time and in top condition. 

Traditional Trucking Comes with a High Risk

If you’re shipping food, traditional speed trucking poses several significant risks that can affect your bottom line. Inadequate temperature control, longer transit times, and increased handling are some of the biggest risks, though by no means the only ones. 

Whether you’re shipping produce, meat, or frozen food, all foods need to be properly temperature controlled to ensure safe handling. While any food shipping will include a refrigerated reefer or a similar temperature control such as insulated packaging with dry ice, the longer your items are in transit, the more opportunity there is for temperature control failure. For reefers, the most common issue is equipment breakdown. The longer the reefer is on the road, the higher the chance something will happen. Packaging like dry ice has its own shelf life and too long a transit time will lead the dry ice to evaporate and with it, temperature control of the products. 

Longer transit times also pose issues of their own. Perishable food items are on a timer from the moment they are picked or processed, so it’s vital they arrive at the destination as quickly as possible to avoid spoilage. Using traditional trucking can significantly delay transit times and cause issues with food spoilage. 

Another component is that for non-expedited LTL shipments, products will often have increased handling compared to expedited shipping. An LTL shipment contains loads from multiple shippers in each truck. Each stop the trucker makes means that the container will be opened (affecting temperature control) and packages will be moved around to remove the correct item. Not only does this increase the potential for spoilage, but it also increases contamination risk. 

Expedited Trucking Provides a Smarter Route for Food Shippers

Expedited trucking offers a smarter, more efficient option for shipping perishable foods. In addition to quicker arrival times, expedited shipping helps minimize handling and contamination opportunities and maintains the right temperatures to prevent spoilage. 

Minimize Handling and Contamination

Expedited shipping can not only speed up the transit time but can also cut down on the handling and potential contamination of your products. Each time the truck stops to deliver goods, the driver must open the container to remove the delivered items. Especially in hot weather, repeatedly opening the container can affect temperature control and render refrigeration less effective, causing increased spoilage.

Maintain Optimal Temperature

In addition to opening the container less, expedited shipping will help maintain optimal temperature by getting the shipment to the destination faster. This helps for several reasons. First, it reduces the time the shipment is in transit and thus, reduces the chances of equipment failure or adverse conditions, such as extremely hot weather, affecting the reefer’s ability to keep the shipment cool. Second, for shipments using dry ice and insulation to keep frozen items cold, timing is vital to ensuring that the dry ice remains viable. Even in optimal conditions, the dry ice will eventually evaporate, making timely delivery all the more important. 

Reduced Transit Times

Finally, expedited shipping does just what it says on the tin and offers shorter transit times. For perishable items, shorter shipping times can make all the difference. Even with the best conditions, perishable items will still spoil — and fairly quickly — unless they are delivered in a timely manner. A spoiled shipment isn’t valuable to anyone. While expedited shipping may be more expensive when selecting a carrier, it’s well worth it to have your shipment delivered in good condition. 

Entourage Freight Solutions is the Partner for Smart, Expedited Shipping 

When you’re shipping perishable food items, food safety and maintaining item quality are at the top of your list. Expedited shipping is the way to ensure that your products reach their recipient quickly and safely while observing all food safety handling laws. 

To help you find the best expedited shipping options for your needs, there’s Entourage Freight Solutions, a third-party logistics provider (3PL) that specializes in express shipping. They have a wide and dependable network for finding the optimal capacity for your needs and their expedited expertise means you’ll get the best service and support. Contact Entourage Freight Solutions today to get your quote.