FreightVine August 2015

Written by: Leonora Winegar and Jeffrey VanAbbema As we sit and review the current happenings within the Grand Rapids, MI (Spring Lake) office these past couple of months, a few thoughts come to mind: Nursery Season, Health & Beauty Aids and ALX Lund University. For those of you out there who have had the pleasure, the Nursery Season is a rollicking, “where-did-the-day-go”, three month-roller-coaster ride. Each day is a replay of yesterday’s sitcom episode, starting with the whiteboard of open loads and the ever-entertaining cast of characters calling in on them. These higher-maintenance loads always make for lively conversation as you explain the nursery requirements; yes it can go on a van (until it gets too hot), then it’s reefer only (because the plants might bake), but some are power only, or maybe the plants are on the floor, or maybe it’s a rack load. One-wayor round-trip shipments with one to multi drops of 20+ stops, driver unload, tailgate of plants, pulling racks to tail; leave racks and pick up racks; average 3 to 5 hours to load/unload, no detention (unless maybe I can get you detention). Oh, and by the way, the three inches of mud left in your trailer is our gift to you. These loads always present a challenge, but we manage to find carriers to do them, and at a decent profit margin for Allen Lund Company. It was a banner year for our “Ohio” nurseries. For the GR office the “Ohio” nurseries are defined as the nursery customers that span from points on the East Coast to Ohio; most lanes move from these points to other nurseries in the Midwest. It was also a good season for the Michigan nurseries—this year we added several new Michigan-based customers that had a good first spring shipping season, with a few that will carry into fall shipping. Not to be overlooked, strong and steady are HBA (Health & Beauty Aids) like hand sanitizer or lotion and OTC (Over the Counter) medications like cough syrup and generic pain relievers. I would venture to say that the majority of folks reading this article who shop at Wal-Mart, Kmart, Target, Walgreens, Costco, Rite-Aid, Family Dollar or Sam’s Club (and many more stores) have some of these very products in your home. With spring behind us we have our usual midsummer lull until both nursery and our other customers pick up again as we enter the fall. During this slow time we have each been taking the opportunity to focus on honing our system skills through Lund University. To date, several in