Dive Brief:
- Crete Carrier Corp. is already handling holiday shipments as retail customers build up inventories for peak season, President and COO Tim Aschoff said in a video on LinkedIn last week.
- Shaffer Trucking, a Crete Carrier reefer subsidiary, is in the heart of Halloween candy shipments, and drivers are hauling Christmas freight to distribution centers and store backrooms, Aschoff said.
- “Holiday season is near,” Aschoff said, noting that a major retail customer is “actually increasing their projections for their business this holiday season.”
Dive Insight:
Retail demand outperformed sluggish industrial volumes in Q2 among major LTL carriers.
The Nebraska-based truckload carrier and its reefer subsidiary seeing growing retail shipments is a positive indication about retailers’ hopes for holiday consumer spending.
“The holiday season is near and dear to us, because it creates a lot of freight, and we’re starting to see that move,” Aschoff said.
Shaffer has been hauling refrigerated Halloween candy for a while now, both this year and historically.
The Hershey Co. was Shaffer’s original customer, and the carrier has been shipping chocolate since its first run in 1937, according to the Crete Carrier website.
Acquired by Crete Carrier in 1974, Shaffer has one of the largest reefer fleets in the country, offering national, regional and local service with more than 1,100 tractors and more then 2,800 trailers. Crete Carrier has more than 5,000 tractors and 13,000 trailers.
The retail giant customer, which Aschoff did not name but described as one of Crete Carrier’s largest accounts, told the carrier “they’re feeling really good” about boosting the holiday projections, he said.
“Should be a good sign of freight for us,” he said.
