Category: Trading Assistance

If you're a carrier and you think you've been rejected wrongly, we advice the following steps.

In this article, we look past the “finger pointing” stage and discuss how Blue Book assesses damages when the carrier is found to be responsible for the losses in question.

Under the common law of common carriage, carriers often have to prove freedom from negligence and shipper error to avoid responsibility for claims involving fresh produce.

Given the perishability of the strawberries and the number of truckloads shipped, it’s no surprise that Blue Book Services receives a number of claims involving strawberries each year. But in 2022, we seemed to have an unusually high number.

The Problem: Buyer attempting to hold seller to last week’s offer. The Key Point: If not expressly defined, the seller’s offer is good for a “reasonable time.”

Temperature control issues are an everyday fact of life in the fresh produce industry for vendors and carriers alike.

Blue Book's Vice President of Trading Assistance Doug Nelson joined Freight 360's Nate Cross and Benjamin Kowalski on their podcast to talk about produce trading and transportation guidelines, what happens when loads are rejected, salvage values, and some general produce tips for transportation professionals.

Blue Book Services has provided trading guidelines and best practices throughout its long history. Today, the Trading Assistance team provides collection and dispute resolution services tailored to the fresh produce industry, and helps you evaluate the creditworthiness of trading and transportation partners.

“Did the shipper provide product that would arrive at the contract destination without abnormal deterioration under normal transportation conditions as required by the warranty of suitable shipping condition promulgated under the Perishable Agricultural Commodities Act?”

If a carrier cannot warrant that air temperatures in the trailer will be maintained at the instructed temperature, the carrier should refuse to take the shipment.