Pre-cooling method, pulp temperature, ethylene and mixing rules, and the harvest migration that drains reefer capacity out of every other market. How agricultural freight actually books, and why the clock starts before the truck arrives.
Agriculture is two very different freight problems wearing one label. One is perishable: fresh produce moving from a packhouse or cooler to a distribution centre against a shelf-life clock, in a reefer, with a temperature record that will be read at the receiving door. The other is not perishable at all: hay, bagged feed and seed, fertiliser, irrigation pipe, nursery stock and farm machinery, most of which rides on an open deck and prices like construction freight.
What makes the perishable half distinctive is that its capacity is seasonal and geographic at the same time. The harvest moves up the country through the year, and reefer capacity moves with it — which is why a food shipper in Ohio finds reefers scarce and expensive in July for reasons that have nothing to do with Ohio. Understanding that migration is worth more than any negotiating tactic.
These profiles need different equipment, different paperwork and different rate expectations. Treating them as one category is the most common reason this freight sits on a board.
| Profile | What it is | Usual equipment |
|---|---|---|
| Fresh produce — field to cooler | Vegetables, berries, melons, citrus, leafy greens. Pre-cooled by hydro, forced-air, vacuum or icing depending on the item, then held. | Reefer |
| Tree fruit & storage crops | Apples, pears, potatoes, onions. Often moving from controlled-atmosphere storage rather than straight from harvest, which changes the season entirely. | Reefer |
| Nursery, greenhouse & floral | Live plants, sod, cut flowers. Temperature, ventilation and light exposure all matter, and the freight is fragile in ways pallets do not protect against. | Reefer / Dry van |
| Hay, forage & straw | Baled hay and forage. Bulky, light for its cube, tarped, and length-driven on securement. | Flatbed |
| Bagged inputs — feed, seed, fertiliser | Palletised bags and totes. Dense, weight-limited, and moisture-sensitive. | Dry van / Flatbed |
| Farm machinery & implements | Tractors, harvesters, planters, irrigation equipment. Driven on and off by ramp; frequently over standard width. | Step deck |
| Processed & packaged ag | Milled, bagged, canned and boxed products moving out of processing plants on a normal grocery cadence. | Dry van |
The whole perishable side. Beyond the set point, produce reefers need airflow: air chutes, pallet configuration that lets air move through the load rather than around it, and continuous mode for most fresh items. Some commodities also ship with top ice or in a vented configuration. What a reefer cannot do is remove field heat — that is the packhouse's job, done before the truck arrives.
Current national benchmarks, and what carriers, brokers and shippers each pay: reefer freight rates →Hay, forage, irrigation pipe, bulk-bagged inputs and equipment. Hay is a length-and-tarp problem rather than a weight one; the tiedown count follows article length under 49 CFR 393, and tarping is real work in a field with wind.
Current national benchmarks, and what carriers, brokers and shippers each pay: flatbed freight rates →Farm machinery. The lower deck plus ramps is what lets a tractor or harvester be driven on and off, and the extra roughly 20 inches of legal cargo height keeps a tall implement out of permit territory. Wide implements often need permits regardless of height.
Current national benchmarks, and what carriers, brokers and shippers each pay: step deck freight rates →Bagged feed and seed, packaged processed product, and anything that does not need temperature control but does need to stay dry. Dense bagged goods weigh out around 44,000–45,000 lb, so post the weight, not just the pallet count.
Current national benchmarks, and what carriers, brokers and shippers each pay: dry van freight rates →Rates on this freight follow the equipment, not the industry — a pallet of canned goods and a pallet of hardware price the same in the same van. See all market rates per mile or the weekly market reports.
Almost every one of these is the shipper's to state and the packhouse's to execute. A carrier cannot fix any of them once the doors are shut.
| Pre-cooling method and completion | Hydro, forced-air, vacuum, room or ice, and confirmation that field heat is out before loading. This is the single most consequential line in produce freight. |
| Pulp temperature at loading | The product's internal temperature, taken and recorded at load. It is the number a rejection argument is settled on, and it is not the same as the air temperature in the trailer. |
| Set point and mode | The hold temperature as a number, and continuous or cycle. Most fresh produce needs continuous; the set point holds what pre-cooling achieved rather than pulling temperature down. |
| Airflow and loading pattern | Whether the load is pinwheeled, offset or straight-stacked, whether an air chute is required, and how far the load must sit off the rear doors. Airflow failures look exactly like equipment failures on the download. |
| Ethylene and mixing restrictions | Which commodities cannot ride together. Ethylene producers accelerate ripening in ethylene-sensitive items, and some items simply share odour. State the restrictions rather than assuming a mixed load is fine. |
| Top ice or special packaging | Whether the load ships iced, in vented packaging, or under a specific pallet configuration — all of which change weight, airflow and how it must be handled. |
| Recorder requirement | Whether a portable recorder rides in the load in addition to the unit's own download, and who supplies and reads it. |
| Inspection and rejection procedure | What happens at destination if the product is downgraded — who calls the inspection, who decides on a diversion, and who pays for the truck while that is decided. |
Capacity on this freight is close to constant through the year. Demand is not, and that gap is what moves the rate.
| Period | What happens |
|---|---|
| Jan–Mar | Florida, southern Texas and imports through the southern border and southeastern ports carry the winter deal. Reefer capacity concentrates hard into those origins and is thin leaving them. |
| Apr–May | The Rio Grande Valley, Georgia and the Carolinas come on. This is the beginning of the annual migration that pulls reefers out of general freight nationwide. |
| Jun–Aug | The peak. California's Central Valley, the Pacific Northwest and the upper Midwest all run at once, and reefer capacity is at its tightest of the year for every shipper in the country, produce or not. |
| Sep–Nov | Tree fruit, potatoes, onions and storage crops. Volume stays real but shifts to storage-crop origins, and general reefer capacity begins returning to the rest of the market. |
| Dec | The quietest stretch. Domestic harvest is largely done, the winter deal has not fully started, and reefer capacity is abundant. |
| The load waits for the pick | Produce is frequently loaded as it is packed. A truck scheduled for the morning can wait most of a day because the harvest ran slow, and nobody involved considers that unusual. |
| First-come is the norm at sheds | Many packing sheds run first-come rather than appointment, so arrival order decides the day. See the FCFS policy. |
| Detention here is structural, not exceptional | Long waits are built into how this freight loads, which is exactly why free time and detention rates must be agreed in writing rather than assumed. See the detention pay policy. |
| Cancelled and short loads happen | Weather, a failed grade or a slow pick can cut a load in half or cancel it after the truck has arrived. Agree in advance what that costs. See the TONU policy. |
| Receiving windows are unforgiving | Produce receivers hold tight appointment windows because their own downstream schedule is tight. A missed window on perishable freight is not simply rescheduled — it can cost the load. |
| Rejection is a live commercial event | A downgraded load at the door has to be diverted, discounted or dumped within hours, and the truck is part of that decision. Know in advance who makes it and who pays for the waiting. |
Every one of these is an accessorial with a written LoadBoot standard, agreed before the truck moves rather than argued about after: detention, layover, TONU, lumper fees, driver assist and FCFS versus appointment.
FSMA Sanitary Transportation rule (21 CFR Part 1, Subpart O). It applies to produce and animal feed in transit just as it does to packaged food: the shipper specifies the sanitary and temperature requirements in writing, the carrier supplies suitable equipment and meets them, and the relevant agreements and records are kept. Exemptions exist — very small businesses, food fully enclosed by a container, food transhipped through the US — but a temperature-controlled domestic produce move should be assumed to be covered.
Trailer condition and prior commodity. Produce receivers commonly refuse a trailer on washout grounds alone, and some will not accept one that previously hauled raw protein, animal products or non-food loads. Whether you require a food-grade washout with a ticket is a spec, not an assumption.
PACA and why rejections escalate fast. The Perishable Agricultural Commodities Act governs the commercial relationship between produce buyers and sellers, not the carrier directly — but it is the reason a rejected or downgraded load turns into a formal dispute with a short clock. The freight documents, the pulp temperatures and the unit download are the evidence that decides where the loss lands.
Open-deck rules on the non-perishable half. Hay, equipment and bagged inputs fall under ordinary cargo securement, 49 CFR 393.100–393.136, with tiedown counts set by article length. Farm implements are frequently over 8 ft 6 in wide and need permits even when they are not tall. Note also that some agricultural operations use federal hours-of-service agricultural exemptions within a set radius during planting and harvest — check whether your movement actually qualifies rather than assuming it does.
This is general operating information, not legal advice. Regulations are amended and state rules vary — confirm current requirements for your commodity and route before relying on them.
Rate is rarely why this freight sits. It sits because a carrier cannot tell from the posting whether the load is legal on his trailer, how long he will wait, or what he gets paid if it goes wrong. Six things fix most of that.
| Commodity, pulp temperature and set point | What it is, what temperature it will be at loading, and what it must be held at. All three, in writing. |
| Pre-cooling status | Whether the product is pre-cooled and by what method, and whether the truck is expected to wait for it. |
| Airflow and loading configuration | Pallet pattern, air chute requirement, and clearance from the rear doors. This prevents a load that fails on the download despite a correct set point. |
| Mixing restrictions | Anything that cannot ride with this commodity, and whether the trailer must be dedicated. |
| Realistic load time and the free-time clock | If the load waits for the pick, say so and price it. A truck that expected two hours and waited nine will not come back. |
| Washout standard and prior-load restrictions | Food-grade with a ticket, or broom-clean, and any restriction on the previous commodity. |
Post a agriculture and produce load → · Why posting is free for brokers and shippers →
No, and this is the most expensive misunderstanding in produce freight. A refrigeration unit conditions air and holds a temperature; it is not sized to remove field heat from a full trailer of product. Pre-cooling — hydro-cooling, forced-air, vacuum cooling or icing, depending on the commodity — happens at the packhouse before loading. Product loaded warm arrives warm, and the download will show a set point that was correct the whole way.
Because the unit can only hold what the air can reach. A load stacked tight against the rear doors, or blocking the return air path, will develop hot spots even with a perfect set point — and the resulting rejection looks identical to an equipment failure. Pallet pattern, air chutes and rear-door clearance are part of the temperature spec, not separate from it.
Some commodities release ethylene as they ripen and others are highly sensitive to it, so putting them in the same trailer accelerates ripening or causes physiological damage in the sensitive item. There are also odour-transfer pairs that ruin flavour. The restrictions are commodity-specific and the shipper is the only party who knows them — a carrier who is not told will build a legal, well-secured, commercially ruined load.
Because of the harvest migration. Reefers follow the produce season up the country — Florida and south Texas in winter, the Rio Grande Valley and the Southeast in spring, California, the Pacific Northwest and the upper Midwest through the summer. When those regions are loading, reefers leave everywhere else, and every reefer shipper in the country pays for it regardless of what they haul. Current benchmarks are on the reefer rate page.
It becomes a commercial decision within hours: divert to a secondary buyer, discount, or dispose. The freight side of that is who directs the truck and who pays for the time while the decision is made — which is worth agreeing before it happens rather than during. The pulp temperatures at loading, the unit download and the bill of lading are what determine where the loss actually lands.
No — it prices as open-deck freight, alongside construction material, and it competes for the same flatbed and step-deck capacity through the same summer peak. Hay is a tarping and tiedown-count problem; implements are usually a width and permit problem. See the flatbed and step deck rate pages.
Posting is free for brokers and shippers — no subscription and no per-post fee. Every carrier who can accept your load has had authority, insurance and safety checked first, every load carries live GPS, and the accessorial terms above are written down before the truck moves.