TriRinse offers cost-savings for your seed box freight without upfront investment
Freight remains one of the most expensive costs of managing a seed box fleet.
But the seed box is the safest, most reliable and most preferred package for handling and delivering seed. So shipping is just part of the cost of doing business, right? Yes, and options exist to reduce freight expenses.
Capacity in a standard trailer is limited to 44 boxes. The industry standard seed box is just a bit too tall to load three high in a standard trailer.
For seed box fleet owners and managers, one solution is to purchase boxes that can be stacked three high in a standard trailer. It’s an attractive and popular choice; but requires significant capital expense and increases your supply chain complexity.
What if there was another option that didn’t require purchasing a new fleet of boxes and segregating your new and existing fleet—an option that optimizes current assets and maintains supply chain simplicity.
Solution
TriRinse provides “jumbo” trailers for several customers. These custom-made trailers offer additional height to hold up to 62 seed boxes.
We recently analyzed freight costs using our jumbo trailer versus a standard trailer. We found our customer saved nearly 30% by using our trailer.
For Customer A, we used the jumbo trailer to shuttle boxes from our facility in Belmond, Iowa, to another TriRinse location in Ackely, Iowa, 50 miles away. Our jumbo trailer made 55 trips in 18 days delivering 3,410 boxes – 62 boxes per delivery with lids on the box. At an average cost of $3.06 per mile for freight, the additional trailers would have cost 29.5% more.
Freight savings may be the primary driver, but also consider the time saved with fewer loads. Using one standard trailer, fulfilling Customer A’s order would have taken 23 more trips and an additional 8 business days. More boxes with fewer trucks means you can meet tighter deadlines faster than with standard loads.
Here’s the kicker, though: To achieve 29.5% freight savings with a seed box that stacks three high in standard trailer, Customer A would need to invest more than $2,064,000 in its seed box fleet.
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Challenge: |
Determine the most cost-efficient method of shipping 3,410 industry standard seed boxes from Ackley, Iowa, to Belmond, Iowa. |
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Standard Trailer |
Jumbo Trailer |
Standard Trailer w/Three-High Box |
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Seed Box Capacity |
44 |
62 |
66 |
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Trips Required |
78 |
55 |
52 |
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Freight Cost* ($) |
$11,934 |
$8,415 |
$7,965 |
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Savings (%) |
N/A |
30% |
35% |
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Capital Expense** |
$0.00 |
$0.00 |
$2,064,000 |
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*Estimated based on current average freight costs of $3.06 per mile. **Assumes a current asset must be replaced to achieve savings with three-high box. |
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Recommendation
The jumbo trailer proves most effective and efficient moving boxes on dedicated shuttle runs between facilities. The cost efficiency really shines when customers consider the additional capital expense of purchasing new boxes.
Our jumbo trailers optimize freight regardless of the seed box brand or style; therefore, customers can extend the lifecycle of their existing fleet, have faster and greater opportunity to reap freight savings and maintain a single-stream seed box fleet.
When you optimize the trailer, not the box, the savings become apparent and vast quickly. Don’t overlook a simple solution for an expensive gadget.
TriRinse owns and operates eight jumbo trailers. We deploy them to our customers for strategic point-to-point deliveries to maximize their freight savings. We’d welcome the opportunity to show you how our jumbo trailers can save you nearly 30% on your freight without committing to greater supply chain complexity or significant capital expenditures to purchase a new seed box fleet.