Perishable Freight / Perishable Shipping

Perishable freight is any shipment where the product has a defined expiration window and where delays or mishandling directly result in spoilage, waste, or safety risk. This includes fresh produce, proteins, dairy, baked goods, frozen meals, floral products, and certain pharmaceuticals or biologics. Unlike general freight, where a one-day delay is an inconvenience, a one-day delay on perishable freight can mean a total loss.

Shipping perishable goods requires coordination across several dimensions simultaneously. The carrier must have appropriate temperature-controlled equipment – reefer trailers with functioning units set to the correct temperature. Loading must happen within defined windows to minimize time at ambient temperatures. Transit time must align with the product's remaining shelf life, and the receiving facility must be scheduled to accept the load promptly on arrival. Every handoff – from production to warehouse to carrier to consignee – is a point where the cold chain can break.

The financial impact of getting perishable freight wrong is outsized. Spoiled product can't be resold, and the shipper typically absorbs the full cost of goods plus freight. Claims on perishable loads are notoriously difficult to recover because proving exactly when and where a temperature excursion occurred requires continuous monitoring data. Beyond direct costs, repeated delivery failures erode customer trust and can trigger retailer penalties or lost accounts.

Successful perishable shipping depends on proactive exception management – knowing a load is running late or a reefer unit is malfunctioning while there's still time to intervene, rather than discovering the problem at delivery.