PRO*ACT | Freight Cost Realities 2.0 

Nice job Pro*Act in explaining the current realities of the trucking industry. Our Double F Logistics company is a key enabler to Capitol City Produce having adequate inventory on hand to service our customers. The uncertainties in load times at each pick location is a primary reason for the difficulty in planning, with reasonable certainty, for a return delivery date and time for the products our customers need. As a result of the pick location loading delays, too frequently driver hours of service are consumed in a non-value added fashion leading to unplanned 34 hour restarts or 10 hour breaks just hours away from Baton Rouge. The delays in the final delivery to our distribution center often creates a situation where our receiving crew stays late to receive a truck which creates a 50% overtime premium cost to operations and also results in "short chases" in shipping for product that arrives after the shipping shift starts. Our delivery trucks then need to be pulled back into the dock to be loaded with the product order by customers but not available at the time of selection. These non-value added costs are part of the total supply chain costs resulting from the consumption of limited driver hours of service. Thank you for continuing to work on practices such as load consolidations to limit the number of picks required. Other solutions to expedite loading time would be helpful as well such as more pick locations offering appointment times, text messaging systems to drivers for changes in appointment times or product availability (so they can quickly plan alternate route sequencing), a quick service dock door at picks for small quantity pallet loads, electronic yard management systems for communications to drivers of loading door and loading status, etc. In the end, our customers must be confident in our on-time delivery of their full order at a reasonable cost. Any measures that increase the reliability of planning for the final delivery time of product to our distribution centers, respect the drivers limited hours that they have to earn a living, reduce total supply chain costs and increase the opportunity to fill our customers' total order, creates better Pro*Act companies. Thanks again for tackling a challenging opportunity.