The Seasonality of Shipping And its Effects

Comparing Apples and Oranges

With the exception of the fruit we carry in our lunch bags, there’s not a lot of fruit that comes in and out of the RBW warehouses.

Shipping, like so many businesses, has its seasons. Things pick up, for instance, in the months leading up to the holidays. There’s also an enormous demand for equipment and operators, particularly in the South, during the harvest seasons in Florida. And while were are not in the business of getting Tickle Me Elmo to Toys R Us or grapefruit to the local grocers, knowing that these things will draw from the same well of trucks and drivers that we need to get our job done requires significant advance planning.

Shipping, in fact, is a lot like the global economy. While the price of gas in England does not directly affect us as drivers, it does affect the price of crude. And while the need to get citrus from point A to point B does not affect our need to distribute golf car parts, it does affect the logistics of getting it done. Planning means more than knowing where to get trucks, it means knowing when.