Snack Food & Wholesale Bakery - November 2008 - (Page 43)

the majority of Bush Truck Leasing’s customer base, have sparked the move toward larger route trucks. In addition to providing ﬁnancing for trucks, Bush provides territory ﬁnancing, health care beneﬁts, truck maintenance, tax and bookkeeping and other services. It’s like a group insurer providing volume discounting for the self-employed. “Instead of one company with 1,000 trucks, we’re dealing with 1,000 owners with 1,000 trucks,” Bush explains. “We try to hold down the costs for the individual distributor. We try to keep his truck costs low and his maintenance cost low because he can’t afford to break down. We put together a program to make him more successful.” Thinking Small To lower costs, other bakers and snack food distributors are looking into alternatives, and not necessarily biofuels, compressed natural gas, propane or battery-powered hybrid technology. Rather, the most common alternative for trucks distributing snacks and baked goods is much more prevalent. “There’s a push toward more gasoline engines because of the fuel costs,” notes Bob Besse, director of marketing and product planning at Supreme Corp., Goshen, Ind. That’s because gas is cheaper than diesel, he adds. Depending on the region of the country, a gallon of gas can be anywhere from 60 cents up to $1 gallon cheaper than diesel, resulting in tens of thousands of dollars in annual savings for the typical route truck driver. Besse adds that Supreme Corp., which manufactures specialized commercial vehicles and truck bodies, has seen a move toward smaller vehicles, especially among intermediate wholesalers and regional businesses in congested areas like Chicago, Boston or New York City. “We are seeing smaller routes in urban areas,” Besse says. “They’re looking for more efﬁcient vehicles to go out there instead of the traditional cargo van that they have been using in the past.” Speciﬁcally, he notes, they’re scouting out vehicles that can scoot around streets and in and out of tight parking places and garages. It could be an Izuzu low cab-forward chassis with a body on it and a side door on the curbside to get in and out of stops quickly. Or, Besse says, bakers are checking out a cutaway chassis option. “These are the chassis based on a Ford or General Motors cargo van, but we put a body on the back so that they can get to the rear of the vehicle from the cab,” he says. “We continue to see those being popular because most of the cutaways have gas engines.” Besse even has seen some businesses toying with 10- to 12-ft. insulated vans such as the Spartan MX to keep products cool. Typically, these companies are bakeries that have branched out and become commissaries that provide sandwiches and other prepared foods in addition to their core product lines. To survive in today’s economy, companies need to steer their businesses in new directions. Taking the road less traveled can result in big savings in the long run. SF&WB Editor’s Note: For more information on transportation and distribution, please visit www.snackandbakery.com and, while you’re at it, check out SF&WB’s new digital edition. www.snackandbakery.com NOVEMBER 2008 - Snack Food & Wholesale Bakery 43 http://www.snackandbakery.com http://www.snackandbakery.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Snack Food & Wholesale Bakery - November 2008

Snack Food & Wholesale Bakery - November 2008 Contents Editor’s Note Cover Story: The Comeback King Royal Treatment Let Freedom Ring New Products The Heat is On Engineering Management Going in New Directions Warm Up with Cold Treats The Final Word

Snack Food & Wholesale Bakery - November 2008

For optimal viewing of this digital publication, please enable JavaScript and then refresh the page. If you would like to try to load the digital publication without using Flash Player detection, please click here.