How to set up a green transport program with your carriers: interview with Deverl Maserang
Internal sustainability programs will only get you so far, says Deverl Maserang of Chiquita Brands. But bring your carriers into the effort, and you stand to make noteworthy gains.
Susan Lacefield has been working for supply chain publications since 1999. Before joining DC VELOCITY, she was an associate editor for Supply Chain Management Review and wrote for Logistics Management magazine. She holds a master's degree in English.
there's one thing that Deverl Maserang believes passionately, it's this: Distribution and supply chain management is all about relationships. If you're looking to improve performance in your distribution network, says Maserang, who is vice president of North America product supply and logistics for Chiquita Brands, you're not going to get very far on your own. For truly meaningful results, you have to work collaboratively with your carrier partners.
when the fresh fruit and vegetable company launched a fuel efficiency program in 2007, it was a given that Maserang and his team would enlist their carriers' help. At its carrier conference that year, Chiquita brought in industry experts to talk about today's eco imperatives as well as techniques for cutting an operation's carbon footprint. The company also urged its carriers to sign on with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) SmartWay Transport Program, a collaborative initiative between government and the freight sector to boost energy efficiency and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. In order to become a certified partner in the program, a carrier must agree to reduce emissions by a certain percentage each year.
The results have been impressive. Under Maserang's direction, Chiquita has cut CO2 emissions by 44 percent in its North American transportation/distribution network in just three years. At the same time, it has boosted fuel efficiency by 9 percent and reduced food miles (the distance food is transported from the place where it's grown to the point of consumption) by 8.3 percent.
Maserang, who previously held supply chain management positions at the information technology firm Freedom Pay and at Pepsi Bottling Group, joined Chiquita in 2003. He recently spoke with DC Velocity associate managing editor Susan Lacefield about the techniques Chiquita used to reduce its North American supply chain's carbon footprint.
Q: What led Chiquita to start looking at ways to boost fuel efficiency and sustainability in its transportation operations?
A: For decades now, Chiquita has looked for innovative ways to continue our efforts to be a good corporate citizen, especially regarding the environment. Even prior to the change in presidential administrations and the potential for a cap-and-trade policy, we were engaged in reducing our carbon footprint.
We also saw that fuel was not going to get any cheaper. If you remember back to the '06 to '08 time period, fuel was just going through the roof. We saw $4 dollar-plus diesel, almost $5 diesel. So we knew we were going in the right direction.
We're constantly looking for ways to drive efficiencies. That's partly because if you can drive efficiency, you can drive cost out, which is good for the customer and good for the carrier. But there's the sustainability side to consider as well. And that's more important because more people—at least from a consumer customer perspective—are focusing on food miles and on buying local. We just felt we needed to get as far ahead of that as possible to remain competitive in the market.
Q: How did Chiquita go about introducing its program to carriers? A: For the last 18 years, we've held annual carrier conferences, and we decided that would be the ideal opportunity to get the word out. So at our 2007 conference, we started encouraging carriers to participate in SmartWay.
Then, we set a goal of 100 percent SmartWay miles [freight miles logged by SmartWay-certified carriers] and using 100 percent SmartWay-certified carriers in the network. We also put out a challenge that year to push the network to work toward achieving 10 miles per gallon with the new engines that were coming out in 2010 [to meet the EPA's new stricter emission standards].
During the conference, we talked about some of the things that carriers should be doing. Obviously, you need to be thinking about single-wide tires [as opposed to using two thin tires]. We'd done our own internal application of single wides on about a thousand chassis that year, and we've seen a 0.3 to 0.5 mile-per-gallon differential. So we were trying do within our own network—our private fleet and dedicated operations—some of the same things we were asking all the common carriers to do.
We also installed cowlings, which are aerodynamic devices that you put on the roof of a truck, and freight wings, which go underneath the vehicle. We looked at some APU (auxiliary power unit) technology, which eliminates the need for drivers to keep their engines idling during long stops to provide heat, light, and power.
That's what we did at first. We measured ourselves so we'd have baseline numbers. Then, we started introducing small, incremental improvements. Each year since, we've gotten a little stronger.
Probably the most impressive thing we've done is change the way we compensate carriers for fuel. A couple years back, we decided the only way we were ever going to drive the right behavior was to take a different approach to fuel surcharges. Basically, we pulled all costs related to fuel out of the base transportation rate. We then created a new fuel surcharge table for the carrier that incorporates all of the fuel costs that were previously embedded in the base rate. Doing it this way provides full transparency to all costs related to fuel. Bottom line: You cannot impact effectively what you cannot measure.
Q: Was there any grumbling from the carriers? A: Oh, sure. Some didn't understand it or didn't want to change because they had been using the fuel surcharge to their advantage. I would always tell them, "You know, guys, I'm with you when it comes to competing in other areas of the business. But when it comes to fuel, I want all of us to be competing together to reduce fuel consumption levels or to achieve the highest miles per gallon. Now's the time for all of us as an industry to look at fuel because we've got to figure out how to use as little of it as possible."
Q: What else have you done in the past year? A: We've outfitted vehicles in both our private and dedicated fleets with a simple device called an "Eco-flap." Instead of the traditional mud flap you see on tractors and trailers, the Eco-flap features an aerodynamic design that allows for optimal airflow through the flap but still protects the cars behind from rocks and such. You get a pretty interesting increase in fuel efficiency just from reducing rolling resistance and reducing drag in terms of the air that's being stopped by the truck, the tractor, the wheels, and the flaps.
We did two other major things this past year as well. First, we upgraded all of our reefer units and the gensets on our chassis. The genset is the unit that generates the electricity to power the reefer unit. That alone has saved us a tremendous amount of diesel.
Second, we installed more plug-ins for electrical reefer units. Normally, when you're hooked up to a truck, the refrigerated trailer runs off diesel. So we collaborated with a couple of our carriers on the West Coast, and we put electrical plug-ins at our dock doors. Then, we converted some of the fleet to get off of genset fuel and run those reefers on the electrical grid. So they plug into our facility when they're there, and that has had a dramatic impact as well. Taken together, these steps have yielded substantial results.
Q: What was the carriers' response to all of this? Were they willing to partner with you on these efforts? A: People ask me that question a lot. We've had an incredible response from our carrier community. I think it's because of the way we manage our carriers. We're not in this for the short run. We've always taken a long-term view. We don't expect that they are getting disproportionately wealthy, nor are we getting disproportionately advantaged.
As an example, when we got into 2009, we voluntarily elected to hold our rates intact through the balance of the year, because we knew that our carriers were having problems. Everyone else was going out to bid constantly. The carriers were seeing more bids in the market than they had ever seen. But we take a long-term view with our carriers.
That long-term view has enabled us to gain their cooperation because they're more willing to listen to us and try to make things happen. We are constantly putting ideas in front of them, and we listen to them when they have a great idea. It's a nice give and take in terms of trying to push the network to a new level.
Q: What kinds of results have you seen from your sustainability program? A: In our baseline year of 2007, 21 percent of our carriers were SmartWay-certified. We're now up to 88 percent. And in 2007, 75 percent of our miles were SmartWay miles. Now, that number is north of 95 percent.
Also, from 2007 to 2010, we reduced our CO2 emissions by 44 percent in our North America network. Plus, between 2009 and 2010, we improved our fuel efficiency by 9 percent. In addition to the fuel savings, we were able to reduce the total number of trucks. As a result, we consumed 17 percent fewer gallons of fuel in 2010 than we did in 2009. And we reduced our food miles by 8.3 percent.
Warehouse automation orders declined by 3% in 2024, according to a February report from market research firm Interact Analysis. The company said the decline was due to economic, political, and market-specific challenges, including persistently high interest rates in many regions and the residual effects of an oversupply of warehouses built during the Covid-19 pandemic.
The research also found that increasing competition from Chinese vendors is expected to drive down prices and slow revenue growth over the report’s forecast period to 2030.
Global macro-economic factors such as high interest rates, political uncertainty around elections, and the Chinese real estate crisis have “significantly impacted sales cycles, slowing the pace of orders,” according to the report.
Despite the decline, analysts said growth is expected to pick up from 2025, which they said they anticipate will mark a year of slow recovery for the sector. Pre-pandemic growth levels are expected to return in 2026, with long-term expansion projected at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 8% between 2024 and 2030.
The analysis also found two market segments that are bucking the trend: durable manufacturing and food & beverage industries continued to spend on automation during the downturn. Warehouse automation revenues in food & beverage, in particular, were bolstered by cold-chain automation, as well as by large-scale projects from consumer-packaged goods (CPG) manufacturers. The sectors registered the highest growth in warehouse automation revenues between 2022 and 2024, with increases of 11% (durable manufacturing) and 10% (food & beverage), according to the research.
The Swedish supply chain software company Kodiak Hub is expanding into the U.S. market, backed by a $6 million venture capital boost for its supplier relationship management (SRM) platform.
The Stockholm-based company says its move could help U.S. companies build resilient, sustainable supply chains amid growing pressure from regulatory changes, emerging tariffs, and increasing demands for supply chain transparency.
According to the company, its platform gives procurement teams a 360-degree view of supplier risk, resiliency, and performance, helping them to make smarter decisions faster. Kodiak Hub says its artificial intelligence (AI) based tech has helped users to reduce supplier onboarding times by 80%, improve supplier engagement by 90%, achieve 7-10% cost savings on total spend, and save approximately 10 hours per week by automating certain SRM tasks.
The Swedish venture capital firm Oxx had a similar message when it announced in November that it would back Kodiak Hub with new funding. Oxx says that Kodiak Hub is a better tool for chief procurement officers (CPOs) and strategic sourcing managers than existing software platforms like Excel sheets, enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems, or Procure-to-Pay suites.
“As demand for transparency and fair-trade practices grows, organizations must strengthen their supply chains to protect their reputation, profitability, and long-term trust,” Malin Schmidt, founder & CEO of Kodiak Hub, said in a release. “By embedding AI-driven insights directly into procurement workflows, our platform helps procurement teams anticipate these risks and unlock major opportunities for growth.”
Here's our monthly roundup of some of the charitable works and donations by companies in the material handling and logistics space.
For the sixth consecutive year, dedicated contract carriage and freight management services provider Transervice Logistics Inc. collected books, CDs, DVDs, and magazines for Book Fairies, a nonprofit book donation organization in the New York Tri-State area. Transervice employees broke their own in-house record last year by donating 13 boxes of print and video assets to children in under-resourced communities on Long Island and the five boroughs of New York City.
Logistics real estate investment and development firm Dermody Properties has recognized eight community organizations in markets where it operates with its 2024 Annual Thanksgiving Capstone awards. The organizations, which included food banks and disaster relief agencies, received a combined $85,000 in awards ranging from $5,000 to $25,000.
Prime Inc. truck driver Dee Sova has donated $5,000 to Harmony House, an organization that provides shelter and support services to domestic violence survivors in Springfield, Missouri. The donation follows Sova's selection as the 2024 recipient of the Trucking Cares Foundation's John Lex Premier Achievement Award, which was accompanied by a $5,000 check to be given in her name to a charity of her choice.
Employees of dedicated contract carrier Lily Transportation donated dog food and supplies to a local animal shelter at a holiday event held at the company's Fort Worth, Texas, location. The event, which benefited City of Saginaw (Texas) Animal Services, was coordinated by "Lily Paws," a dedicated committee within Lily Transportation that focuses on improving the lives of shelter dogs nationwide.
Freight transportation conglomerate Averitt has continued its support of military service members by participating in the "10,000 for the Troops" card collection program organized by radio station New Country 96.3 KSCS in Dallas/Fort Worth. In 2024, Averitt associates collected and shipped more than 18,000 holiday cards to troops overseas. Contributions included cards from 17 different Averitt facilities, primarily in Texas, along with 4,000 cards from the company's corporate office in Cookeville, Tennessee.
Electric vehicle (EV) sales have seen slow and steady growth, as the vehicles continue to gain converts among consumers and delivery fleet operators alike. But a consistent frustration for drivers has been pulling up to a charging station only to find that the charger has been intentionally broken or disabled.
To address that threat, the EV charging solution provider ChargePoint has launched two products to combat charger vandalism.
The first is a cut-resistant charging cable that's designed to deter theft. The cable, which incorporates what the manufacturer calls "novel cut-resistant materials," is substantially more difficult for would-be vandals to cut but is still flexible enough for drivers to maneuver comfortably, the California firm said. ChargePoint intends to make its cut-resistant cables available for all of its commercial and fleet charging stations, and, starting in the middle of the year, will license the cable design to other charging station manufacturers as part of an industrywide effort to combat cable theft and vandalism.
The second product, ChargePoint Protect, is an alarm system that detects charging cable tampering in real time and literally sounds the alarm using the charger's existing speakers, screens, and lighting system. It also sends SMS or email messages to ChargePoint customers notifying them that the system's alarm has been triggered.
ChargePoint says it expects these two new solutions, when combined, will benefit charging station owners by reducing station repair costs associated with vandalism and EV drivers by ensuring they can trust charging stations to work when and where they need them.
New Jersey is home to the most congested freight bottleneck in the country for the seventh straight year, according to research from the American Transportation Research Institute (ATRI), released today.
ATRI’s annual list of the Top 100 Truck Bottlenecks aims to highlight the nation’s most congested highways and help local, state, and federal governments target funding to areas most in need of relief. The data show ways to reduce chokepoints, lower emissions, and drive economic growth, according to the researchers.
The 2025 Top Truck Bottleneck List measures the level of truck-involved congestion at more than 325 locations on the national highway system. The analysis is based on an extensive database of freight truck GPS data and uses several customized software applications and analysis methods, along with terabytes of data from trucking operations, to produce a congestion impact ranking for each location. The bottleneck locations detailed in the latest ATRI list represent the top 100 congested locations, although ATRI continuously monitors more than 325 freight-critical locations, the group said.
For the seventh straight year, the intersection of I-95 and State Route 4 near the George Washington Bridge in Fort Lee, New Jersey, is the top freight bottleneck in the country. The remaining top 10 bottlenecks include: Chicago, I-294 at I-290/I-88; Houston, I-45 at I-69/US 59; Atlanta, I-285 at I-85 (North); Nashville: I-24/I-40 at I-440 (East); Atlanta: I-75 at I-285 (North); Los Angeles, SR 60 at SR 57; Cincinnati, I-71 at I-75; Houston, I-10 at I-45; and Atlanta, I-20 at I-285 (West).
ATRI’s analysis, which utilized data from 2024, found that traffic conditions continue to deteriorate from recent years, partly due to work zones resulting from increased infrastructure investment. Average rush hour truck speeds were 34.2 miles per hour (MPH), down 3% from the previous year. Among the top 10 locations, average rush hour truck speeds were 29.7 MPH.
In addition to squandering time and money, these delays also waste fuel—with trucks burning an estimated 6.4 billion gallons of diesel fuel and producing more than 65 million metric tons of additional carbon emissions while stuck in traffic jams, according to ATRI.
On a positive note, ATRI said its analysis helps quantify the value of infrastructure investment, pointing to improvements at Chicago’s Jane Byrne Interchange as an example. Once the number one truck bottleneck in the country for three years in a row, the recently constructed interchange saw rush hour truck speeds improve by nearly 25% after construction was completed, according to the report.
“Delays inflicted on truckers by congestion are the equivalent of 436,000 drivers sitting idle for an entire year,” ATRI President and COO Rebecca Brewster said in a statement announcing the findings. “These metrics are getting worse, but the good news is that states do not need to accept the status quo. Illinois was once home to the top bottleneck in the country, but following a sustained effort to expand capacity, the Jane Byrne Interchange in Chicago no longer ranks in the top 10. This data gives policymakers a road map to reduce chokepoints, lower emissions, and drive economic growth.”