Mother Nature’s Demands Shape Ag Hauler’s Agenda

PLANT CITY, Fla. — Hours of service takes on a whole new meaning to people like Rodger Blanco and Rodney Garrison.

Blanco is the owner of Ag-Mart Produce, a strawberry and tomato grower based in Plant City. Garrison is his maintenance and transportation supervisor, the man charged with keeping Ag-Mart’s fleet of 12 light-duty pickups and sport utility vehicles, 10 medium-duty trucks and three leased tractor-trailers up and running.

Long hours are the rule, not the exception, for both men and their equipment, said Garrison.

“I generally work anywhere from a 12- to 18-hour day almost every day,” he said. “You have to know what three different truck drivers are doing, where they are going, what two or three different farm managers are doing, whether they need a flatbed or reefer truck, and much more. It can be a long day out here.”

Ag-Mart’s field hands pick crops from dawn to dusk, seven days a week, for months on end. The lights at the company’s packing and warehouse facility burn late into the night, sometimes until 3 a.m., as trucks rumble in to pick-up the fragile and highly-perishable goods for transport.

The time limits Mother Nature places on her wares drive many of the differences between trucking companies that haul agricultural goods and those that carry general freight, affecting hours-of-service rules, driver retention, even equipment specifications.

For the full story, see the June 14 print edition of Transport Topics. Subscribe today.

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