President’s Letter

Food Shippers of America member companies are food manufacturers, distributors, wholesalers and retailers of food and beverage related product. The company’s core business is in manufacturing, distributing or acting as a wholesaler or retailer of food and beverage products with a minimum of 51% of the corporation’s gross annual revenue derived from being a manufacturer, distributor, wholesaler or retailer of these products.
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We are very excited to announce the inaugural publication of Food Shippers of America magazine.

 

You are cordially invited to attend the Food Shippers of America’s 2012 Annual Conference

Do you feel your supply chain is under attack? Do you find evidence that your past defenses are eroding or are underperforming and putting your plan and strategy a risk? Are you managing your capacity to the ebbs and flows created by driver shortages and an uneven economy? Do you need more tools in your arsenal? Then attend FSA 2012 Conference "What's in Your Logistics Bunker" and find out how to shore up your execution through new idea sharing, current and topical presentations/panels and benchmarking with your peers!
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Driver shortage reaches 188,000 By Mitch Mac Donald DC Velocity

Lana Batts, a partner in the transport advisory firm Transport Capital Partners, is a long-time observer of the transportation and logistics industry. Among other posts, she served as vice president of government affairs for the American Trucking Associations (ATA) in the 1980s and early 1990s and as president of the ATA's Interstate Truckload Carriers Conference from 1994 to 2000.
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Seven Steps to Prevent Cargo Theft and Protect the Supply Chain By Nick Erdmann, Transport Security, Inc

1. Screen Employees. Conduct a background check to screen all employees, but at minimum, drivers and warehouse employees as well as anyone who has access to shipment information and other logistics details. This is your first line of defense against employee theft and their potential involvement in cargo crimes.
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The upsides and downsides of logistics By Alice Fordham

An army marches on its stomach, none more so than the American army in its last two wars, as anyone knows who has eaten a lobster followed by Baskin-Robbins ice cream on a base in Iraq or Afghanistan.
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Olympic Food Logistics

The Freight Transport Association is warning that temperature controlled logistics providers need to be planning now with their customers to make sure that supplies continue during the Olympics. A recent FTA survey suggested that fewer than 5% of respondents felt totally prepared to deal with the inevitable disruption. Many claimed to have no knowledge of how the Olympic Route Network will operate, and were therefore unable to plan freight deliveries. Food companies and supermarkets are waiting for information from Transport for London about road closures which will affect cargo delivery routes. The FTA warned that logistics companies need to open discussions with their customers to find out what level of demand there will be.

 

U.S. August Consumer Price Index Report

Consumer Price Index - August 2011 The Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U) increased 0.4 percent in August on a seasonally adjusted basis, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Over the last 12 months, the all items index increased 3.8 percent before seasonal adjustment.
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PSP A NIGHTMARE for CARRIERS

Some of the research for this article was from writer and attorney Rob Moseley at CCJ Magazine. The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration's (FMCSA) Pre-Employment Screening Program (PSP) is in affect. PSP has been touted as an essential tool designed to help trucking companies make informed hiring decisions, which should lead to safer roads. CSA is mandated by Congress and play’s a central role in regulatory compliance. This legislation represents a combined effort to eliminate high-risk operators, and at the same time, raise the safety bar for the motor carrier industry.
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Wal-Mart Transportation's Rickey Oliver is 2011 National Driver of the Year

ARLINGTON, Va., Sept. 27, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Rickey Oliver, a Brookhaven, Miss.-based professional truck driver for Wal-Mart Transportation, has been named the American Trucking Associations 2011 National Truck Driver of the Year. The announcement came this weekend at the ATA Safety and Loss Prevention Management Council's National Conference in Albuquerque, N.M.
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Proposed truck-shift rule a concern By Erin Golden WORLD-HERALD STAFF WRITER

When she travels around the country to meetings of state trucking associations, American Trucking Associations Chairwoman Barbara Windsor usually knows what she's going to hear. Concerns about the economy and fuel prices are always hot topics. But truckers are grappling with a variety of other changes in the industry, from outfitting trucks to meet increasingly higher fuel standards to government proposals that could change when and how long they could be behind the wheel.
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Purfresh to Address Real-Time Informatics to Drive New Business Efficiencies Along the Fresh Produce Supply Chain at Cool Logistics 2011

FREMONT, CA, Sep 22, 2011 (MARKETWIRE via COMTEX) -- Purfresh, a leading provider of clean technologies that purify, protect and preserve the global food supply chain, today announced that David Bouchard, general manager for Purfresh, will present at Cool Logistics 2011, the global forum for perishable transport and logistics, to be held Sept. 26-28 in Antwerp, Belgium. Event details are as follows:
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The Roadblocks to an Effective American Transportation Policy By Annie White | Sep 19th, 2011

Amtrak is one of the many programs funded by the ground transportation bill. Last week, as President Obama began to wrangle support for his jobs bill, Congress quietly passed an extension to the Federal transportation and Federal Aviation Administration bills, averting potential shut downs and massive loss of funding. Congress had originally planned to pass a new highway bill this summer, but has so far been stalled by what appear to be irreconcilable differences between House Republicans and Senate Democrats.
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Kraft still expects split before end of 2012

CHICAGO -- Kraft Foods Inc. still expects to split itself into two publicly traded companies before the end of next year, the nation's largest food maker said Wednesday.

Kraft announced last month that one of the companies will focus on its international snack brands like Trident gum and Cadbury ( CBY - news - people ) chocolates and the other one will concentrate on its North American grocery business that includes Maxwell House coffee and Oscar Mayer meats.

Kraft is the latest in a string of U.S. companies including rival Sara Lee Corp. ( SLE - news - people ) to separate its business to cater to different niche markets. As companies increasingly look for ways to drive growth during a difficult economic environment, there's been a major shift from thinking bigger is always better to sharpening their strategy on smaller businesses that focus on a group of brands.

Kraft, which will present at the Barclays ( BCS - news - people ) Capital Back-to-School Consumer Conference on Wednesday, said the North American grocery business will also include its Philadelphia and namesake brands along with 17 others.

The snacks business expects to get more than 42 percent of its sales from developing markets, 36 percent from Western Europe and 22 percent from North America. Aside from Trident and Cadbury, brands will include Jacobs, LU, Milka, Nabisco, Oreo, Tang and nearly 46 others.