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Clean Trailers: A Food Shipper’s Dream!

Updated: 3 days ago

There is an elephant in the room.  


While I know it is true here in the Salinas Valley and Yuma, it’s likely a lurking problem at many food shipping companies. With some focus and a few protocol changes, we could turn a shipper’s loading nightmares into pleasant days of seamless shipping.  


Maybe this is a dream or wishful thinking. But there are some urgent and mostly straightforward adjustments we can all make in the food supply chain to help out the companies shipping their own and other customers’ food products.


“It’s like it’s the best kept secret in the produce industry.”  

This was a comment from a senior trucking company manager who told me that no one wants to talk about inconsistent trailer sanitation standards (i.e., an adequate washout) even though unclean trailers have a tangible negative impact on shipping and receiving schedules.


His frustration was directed towards the shippers. But after several years of listening to people working in the fresh produce industry and observing the patterns and habits of truck drivers loading fresh product, we see the problem differently.  


The shippers cannot be ‘left holding the bag.’  

Dirty trailer.

Every day, shippers are put in the familiar but miserable position of deciding whether a trailer is clean enough to load fresh food.  When the trailer must be rejected for unsanitary conditions, the shippers absorb the costs in time and money to manage the delays and changes in product shipments.


How do we (Healthy Trailer) know we’re right about this problem?


  • Truck drivers who prefer clean trailers before they load fresh vegetables tell us which shippers care and will reject trailers for anything they see or smell that indicates unsanitary trailer conditions.  


  • Truck drivers who don’t clean their trailers before they load fresh veg and then get their trailers rejected show up at our site mad and complain that the shipper has ‘never said anything before’ about needing clean trailers.


  • Shippers tell us that they are spending time and money on problems that would almost disappear if the stakeholders could create a bi-lateral solution (i.e., shipper-buyer standard) or, better yet, a tri-lateral option (i.e., shipper-buyer-trucking company.) 


How Did we get here?

There are two possible reasons why the shippers are the stakeholders tasked with being Safe Food Transportation gatekeepers.  


One is that the supply chain stakeholders deflect their responsibility for managing this critical food safety step, and second, loading delays based on a dirty trailer incident are not officially tracked, so solving this problem is not a priority.


Reason 1: Finger pointing and no standard


Let’s look at the ‘responsibility’ issue by considering the current mindset of the food and transportation industries.  


I think you will see that everybody wants a standard.  But we need a better understanding of what that standard should be and a plan to apply it fairly and consistently.


Truck drivers say it’s the shipper’s fault because the dockside ‘clean and sanitary’ standards are inconsistent.


Trucking companies say it’s their customer’s fault because they don’t give them ‘clean and sanitary’ requirements.


Buyers say it’s the shipper’s fault because the shipper’s inspectors are the people who see the condition of the trailers before loading.


And what do the shippers say?


Shippers can legitimately point to all three of the above stakeholders for causing time delays and creating confusion and friction that results from unsanitary trailers.


  • Drivers should know better than to arrive at their facility with a dirty trailer.


  • Trucking companies (dispatchers, driver managers, customer service reps, operations managers) at many companies don’t support or educate their drivers about trailer sanitation or their customers’ trailer requirements.


  • Buyers don’t want to interfere with their trucking supplier’s logistics/transportation programs. This may be the biggest obstacle to the trailer sanitation process.  It’s similar to a ‘let sleeping dogs lie’ attitude.


Truck loading at a shipping dock.


They all say it’s the regulators' fault (FDA) because they either don’t want to enforce FSMA transportation or don’t know how to enforce this food safety regulation.


While there are negative consequences for all these stakeholders in the food supply chain when a driver checks in at a shipping facility with a dirty trailer, the shipper is the primary stakeholder stuck with the time, expense, and sometimes reputation losses.


This problem has been trending for a few years, primarily because of general food safety concerns throughout the supply chain. While most companies are similar in that they expect and think drivers clean trailers before loading food, they don’t have clear specifications about trailer sanitation that they communicate and monitor with their suppliers.


When I ask buyers about their trailer sanitation programs, they quickly point out that they have provided their vendors with specifications in their supplier contracts.  But they are referring to the FSMA legal language and boilerplate text that has been incorporated into their contracts, not specifications that adequately describe their expectations about how, when, and why trailers should be cleaned.  


Nor do they regularly require any proof of contract compliance.  


The frequency of drivers showing up with questionable trailers shows that these contracts are not the equivalent of a solid food safety transportation plan.


As many FSMA stakeholders quickly point out, the FDA does not enforce safe food transportation practices. The unfortunate result of these unenforced and ‘gray’ standards is that truck drivers make their own decisions about whether or not to clean their trailers because there are no specified and monitored shipper, customer, or trucking company protocols about trailer sanitation.


Issue # 2- Missing Data points


It’s normal to assume something is or is not a problem when we don’t have metrics or data supporting our assumptions. We find this to be true here at Healthy Trailer when we talk about the number of times a specific component fails or whether or not a driver is new or a ‘regular.’ Collecting information that we can evaluate clears these uncertainties.


So, what metrics can we use to determine the effects of dirty trailers on our operations?


You can measure:


  1. Actual occurrences broken out by category (blood, old veg product, packaging, dirt, etc);

  2. Frequency of occurrences per week;

  3. The total time it takes to resolve the problem (from rejection time to load time)

  4. Employee wages spent on resolving the problem; 

  5. Contracted carrier vs brokered carrier;

  6. Customer/buyer related occurrences; and

  7. Specific trucking company occurrences.


These are just ideas, but a good place to start. Once you get a month’s worth of data, then you take a closer look at why certain numbers are higher than others. You may find that one particular buying customer has booked loads with carriers that are new to fresh vegetable shipping or have untrained drivers.  


Fixing the problems starts with the metrics.


Consequences of Shipper’s Pain


The full impact on a shipper’s operations when drivers arrive with dirty trailers is worthy of a separate article. Frequent disruptions, even a few per day, can add costs and general disruptions to shipping schedules.  


Before we turn to solutions and actions that can improve this situation, what can’t be overstated is ignoring and neglecting the daily pressure on this particular stakeholder in the food supply chain, which not only unfairly burdens their business but also weakens everyone’s potential for keeping food safe during transportation.  


Our food transportation efforts and programs will grow and improve directly to how we support and serve the shippers managing driver preferences and decisions about trailer sanitation.


Dirty trailer with spinach on the ground.

How do we fix this?


Some shippers believe (again, basing our comments on what we are often told) that the people who get mad at them have the best and most available opportunities to change these uncomfortable, time-consuming, and expensive outcomes.


Our employees probably get tired of my little ‘buzzwords’ that remind us about our attitudes and behaviors, but they can’t deny (although they may want to) that they do help.  


One of them is ‘Boost, not Blame.’  When things fail, get frustrating, or break down, whatever the unpleasant result is, a natural response is to blame someone else for the consequences. We’ve had our share of unfortunate outcomes, and sometimes it was because of an employee's wrong decision, performance, or attitude. Mine included!


But blaming doesn’t ever change the situation or make the problem go away. It’s more like a creepy Band-Aid than a good corrective surgery.

Boosting, on the other hand, requires the team to come alongside and help.  It takes a positive mindset to see a problem and create a positive solution that includes ourselves actively changing the situation for the better.


First, as an industry, all stakeholders can choose metrics that they can use internally in their companies and externally as they interact with their business partners. We always suggest starting on a small scale and growing from there.  


Buyers know who their weakest links are in their transportation programs. Measure your ‘hunches’ and then present your information to them with ideas on how they could (and should) improve. Then, measure their responses in terms of how they meet your expectations.


There have been quite a few trucking companies that have expressed frustration over inconsistent customer trailer sanitation requirements. The company signs freight contracts, but the buying company indicates that the contract language is a formality when they need clarification for trailer cleaning protocols. However, the customer isn’t so patient when a driver gets delayed because the trailer is too dirty to load. The missing standard will cause problems.


As a carrier, if your buyer is vague, you can include your protocols with your contract, including your trailer sanitation procedures. As an extra step in showing your safe food transportation commitments, you should choose a few metrics to monitor. Use your good numbers to show compliance and your ‘needs improvement’ numbers to improve.


Lastly, shippers. Healthy Trailer hears about the drama you endure at your facilities. We know about some of these drivers who are super sloppy and very unsanitary. We are trying to help you.


But there are a few things that you can do to help yourself.


1. Post a sign, if you haven’t already, that says,


‘Please arrive for your appointment with a clean and sanitized trailer. Have your receipt ready at check-in. No exceptions. Thank you!


2. Start asking for washout documentation.  Receipts or a ‘Clean Certificate’ like Healthy Trailer gives to each driver.


3. Begin to follow through. Begin. Everybody needs time to adjust, but word travels in the driver world. Encourage that! Tell drivers to tell their dispatchers and other drivers.

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4. Start tracking the companies that are getting rejected or not following through with your clean trailer requirement.  Also, tracking this information might help your customers find out something they would like to know about who is picking up their freight.  


5. I hate to use the ‘F’ word, but at some point, a fine might persuade some drivers and their trucking companies to take you seriously. 


6. Communicate some of these changes to your buyers so they know what to expect and can pass the information to their transportation vendors.


Start eating


There is an elephant in the room, but we all know we can’t eat an elephant all at once.


The unsanitary trailer problem affects everybody working in the fresh produce supply chain.  And yet, things will certainly change with slight shifts in our mindsets and small steps toward improvements.





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