The competitive world of e-commerce is full of challenges, which you, as a retailer, must address with sufficient solutions to keep your business running and growing. Many of them refer to last-mile delivery, the final stage of the delivery process, which, despite its apparent simplicity, may provide lots of roadblocks affecting customer satisfaction and your business reputation and efficiency. Let’s talk about the most common of them and arm you with reliable solutions to address each problem.
Traffic congestion
A constantly-growing number of vehicles on our roads is one of the biggest challenges of last-mile delivery. Driving in rush hours may dramatically increase the duration of last-mile delivery as well as a result in unexpected expenses due to increased fuel consumption. Moreover, you can never predict what will happen on the road because the risk of road collisions during rush hours is significantly higher. So, is there any solution? Obviously, you should avoid delivering products in rush hours by scheduling effective routes and optimizing your logistics by monitoring traffic in real-time and adapting your routes to road conditions on the fly if necessary.
That said, transporting foods in food-grade trailers comes as a big solution to the challenge which is food spoiling. Food-grade trailers are designed to transport food safely, also preventing contamination such as cross contamination, which can take place after a trailer carrying a product with allergens contaminates the next load of products considered allergen-free.
Raw Materials Shipping
Food-grade trailers come in handy especially if there’s a need for the transportation of raw material. As opposed to finished products, raw materials are not packaged as sustainably. This is why they require special handling, being at bigger risk of contamination from the leftovers of previous shipments.
Who Must Use Food-Grade Trailers?
The requirement to utilize food-grade trailers is regulated by the Rule on Sanitary Transportation of Human and Animal Food. Based on this rule, food-grade trailers have to be used by shippers, receivers, loaders, and carriers, who deliver food on the US territory by rail or motor vehicle.
The rule is also adhered to by shippers in other countries who ship food to the US by rail vehicle or motor, or by ship or air. Such shippers need to arrange for the transfer of a container for the transportation across the United States. But this rule doesn’t apply to exporters who ship food through the US territory by motor or rail vehicle on the condition that the food is not to be distributed in the US.
What Are the Requirements for Food-Grade Trailer Drivers?
There are several requirements pertaining to the Rule on Sanitary Transportation of Human and Animal Food. The requirements are applied in a number of areas, which include vehicles and transportation equipment, operations in transportation, records, and training.
Now, let’s take a closer look at the specifications of each area mentioned.
- Vehicles and transportation equipment
The materials of the vehicles must be clean and have the capacity of maintaining the temperatures needed to carry the goods safely
- Operations in transportation
To make sure the food is being transported in a secure way, carriers have to conduct a number of special operations. The trucks need to have accurate temperature control and protective systems preventing contamination.
- Training
Carrier staff training includes sanitary transportation practices and other practices indispensable to ensuring that personnel possess relevant knowledge of transporting food
- Records
Drivers are obliged to keep the records of the procedures, agreements, and training.
Raw Materials Shipping
Food-grade trailers come in handy especially if there’s a need for the transportation of raw material. As opposed to finished products, raw materials are not packaged as sustainably. This is why they require special handling, being at bigger risk of contamination from the leftovers of previous shipments.
Finished Products Shipping
The shipping of finished products is also a complex and delicate process – finished goods don’t undergo the same safety checkups as raw materials upon reaching their final destination location.
For instance, we don’t wash finished products in order to mitigate contamination risk. What we do instead is consume them right after taking them out of the package.
Transportation in Food-Grade Trailers
Food-grade trailer drivers have to take into consideration key factors like ELD management, point logs, and overnight crews
ELD system
An ELD is an electronic logging device used to keep the records of whether or not drivers follow the requirements imposed by law. ELD logs driving activity and provides automatic updates for dispatchers to easily spot any violation and track available hours.
Point logs
Point logs show whether or not drivers meet federal regulations. For example, a driver can’t be on duty for more than 14 hours and if they exceed their duty time, point logs detect the violation.
Overnight crews
An overnight crew helps drivers ensure that their trailer is tested properly and then decontaminated for the purposes of food safety. Such crew also make sure that the freight arrives on time.