Shipping to grocery and foodservice distribution centers poses a long list of challenges, including hitting delivery windows, managing lumper fees, maintaining delivery agreements, and having a carrier with the proper handling procedures to ensure your product’s integrity.
In short, keeping Americans well fed and maintaining our access to a wide variety of food and food-related products presents logistical challenges, unlike any other industry. This often translates to much clerical work for the shipper to ensure your product shows up on time and in full.
Shippers need a carrier with a proven track record in navigating these waters, one with the scale, relationships, experience, and reputation of delivering to grocery distributors.
For decades, Old Dominion has forged relationships with major distributors with a unique solution to alleviate the complexities of the receiving process. As OD has grown into a nationwide carrier, so have our partnerships with hundreds of distributors throughout the United States. If history is a predictor, our system for dealing with distributors will continue to positively affect the total landed cost for both the vendor and the distributor.
Key Features of our Grocery Distribution Program Include:
1.) Preferred carrier status with most major grocery and foodservice distributors, meaning your customer trusts and relies upon OD as an inbound carrier.
2.) OD’s experience and relationship with the distributor means we understand their specific receiving needs, delivery and operational requirements, scheduling parameters, and (most importantly) routing instructions.
3.) Complete online door to door visibility of your shipments with an OD Solutions Specialist to help you along the way.
4.) No guesswork on lumper fees. All your shipping costs are on your invoice, including a flat lumper fee per hundredweight.
5.) Flexibility wherever you need it, for you and your grocery or foodservice customer. OD has the operational capacity and flexibility to accommodate requests such as a dropped trailer agreement and the flexibility and scale to meet their receiving requirements.
Perhaps the program’s most important part is OD’s consistently high-performance marks in delivering to foodservice companies. Our on-time and claims rates are industry leading all while helping defend shippers’ profits with tools like our Chargeback Research Tool and real-time visibility. Couple that with a customer service team with years of experience in this industry, OD provides the best solution for getting your product to the distribution center. It’s why OD has been named to the Food Shippers of America’s 2023 Top Food Chain Providers list for quality service.
Consider OD’s partnership with one of the largest foodservice distributors in the US with more than 2,000 grocery stores and tens of distribution centers nationwide.
Without a doubt, the improved efficiency, the seamless integration, and the reduction in total dwell time has made a significantly positive impact on our overall profitability. The overall improved flexibility the program has provided has created a receiving process that we will not change.
If you are interested in learning more about how you can benefit from the features, functions, and benefits of Old Dominion’s Grocery and Foodservice Distribution Program, please reach out to consolidation@odfl.com. Your message will be relayed to an OD National Account Executive in your area.
Contact us by email or simply call 1-800-235-5569 to be connected to an Old Dominion customer service representative.