Overlooked Issues With Booze Transportation

At Top Shelf Logistics we specialize in booze transportation across the United States and throughout North America. While we do have this area of focus, we still offer full trucking services for a range of other products, but transporting beer, wine or spirits has its own particular set of issues that often make this is a much more complicated load.

Understanding where problems can occur in booze transportation is essential. Our team of logistics and supply chain experts know what to ask trucking companies and what to confirm before booking the company to handle your booze shipment.

Being proactive and knowing the issues that can so easily be overlooked will help every bottle of your shipment to arrive at the destination in the quality condition that keeps your retailers and customers happy.

Winter and Summer Temperature Control

One of the things our team is aware of is the need for temperature control in extremes, either hot or cold, when transporting any alcohol. This means we ensure the trucks hauling wine and beer in the summer are kept cool, and the trucks hauling any alcohol are kept at the correct temperature and above freezing in the winter.

There is also the need for this temperature control in the spring and fall as well, particularly when traveling across the country and through different temperature zones. A vineyard and winery in California may be sunny and warm, but traveling north or east can easily take the wine through freezing temperatures resulting in damaged product.

Legal Issues

Every state has different laws when it comes to booze transportation. Some require a permit just to drive through with the load while some only require a permit if you are delivering in the state.

Ensuring that every load we coordinate is on a truck with the correct permits for the entire trip from pick up to delivery is just one of the essential tasks we complete for every shipment.

Some Key Considerations With Beer Logistics

One of the most common mistakes that microbreweries or craft breweries make is to assume that doing everything on their own is more cost effective than working with specialized service providers.

A good example of this is using Top Shelf Logistics for your beer logisticsneeds. We specialize in all facets of your supply chain, ensuring that the product is transported in the most effective and efficient way. Our twenty-five plus years in the industry allow our team to anticipate possible challenges and create unique solutions to optimize your transportation and freight process.

There are several areas of beer logistics that a brewery often overlooks. In addition to rates and quality shipping services you also have to keep the following items in mind.

Growth Capacity

Hiring a local trucking service may be fine for the short term, but will they have the capability and capacity to keep pace with your expanding sales area and distribution needs? Oftentimes small local trucking companies will do their best to keep up, but they may simply be over-promising on what they can realistically, and reliability provide.
Remember, just a few late shipments or missed deliveries are going to have an impact on your business reputation among your customer base of retailers.

Getting to Market

Is your trucking service able to respond to changes in what your distributors and retailers require? As demand for your beer increases, the beer logistics challenges will also grow, requiring more time for your staff to try to coordinate shipments.

This where Top Shelf can save you time and money. We can work with your increasing shipping needs, coordinate LTL special shipments and make sure you can keep your customers happy.