commissary INSIDER - August 2016 - 14

Operations and logistics: Less-than-truckload shipping By Stephanie DeCamp n an ideal world everything between a commissary and its clients would be delivered fresh the day it's made, but the nature of the supply chain will only allow for that when working on a smaller, more local scale. I According to market research firm Technomic, a refrigerated truck can deliver a freshly-made product to a retailer every day only within a four-hour radius of drive time, which is why many commissaries are located near metro- politan areas. But what of those that are closer to their supply than their demand? Or for that matter, what of those whose businesses simply grow successful enough that they must expand their distribution area, yet still balance the freshness of their product with when that product must be restocked? That's where one incurs less-than-truckload shipping costs - when your clients need more of your product, but not so much that it warrants the cost of using PHOTO: ADOBESTOCK 14 * AUGUST 2016 * commissary INSIDER an entire truck to get it there. Throw in the variable cost of gasoline and these stakes get higher or lower accordingly. And of course there's also the element of shelf-life to contend with - the shorter the shelf-life, the smaller your delivery range, and the more frequent those deliveries have to be. In the end it can turn out to be an expensive matter to deal with, because the less product you have moving out in those trucks, the more you're paying per pound to move them. By nature, LTL shipping takes longer to complete than full-truckload shipping, sometimes adding as many as 10 days to its transportation time, depending on other variables like inspections. So LTL shipping is all dependent on where you're located, how big of an operation you run, and the shelf-life of your product - but it's also something that everyone has to deal with the best they can. Since going from working primarily with

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