When is Florida produce season?

Broadly the cooler months, from late autumn through spring, which is when Florida supplies vegetables, citrus, tomatoes and strawberries while most other regions are out of season. Exact timing moves year to year with the weather and by commodity, so treat it as a window rather than a date.

Why are rates out of Florida low?

Geography. It is a peninsula with one road direction out and far more consumer freight arriving than manufactured freight leaving, so there are usually more empty trucks looking to get north than there are loads going that way. Produce season is the main exception, and it is a real one.

Do you dispatch port and drayage work in Florida?

Talk to us about it. Jacksonville, Miami, Port Everglades and Tampa all move container freight, and port work has its own appointment systems, chassis arrangements and credential requirements that are worth discussing against your specific setup before committing.

What happens during hurricane season?

Schedules get disrupted and routes close, and there is genuine recovery and relief freight afterwards. We will not route you into a closure, and we will tell you plainly when a committed appointment is no longer realistic rather than letting you find out at the gate.

Truck Dispatch Service in Florida

Truck dispatch service in Florida

Florida is the best inbound market in the country and one of the hardest to leave. Dispatching here is mostly about the load out, not the load in.

Produce seasonPortsBackhaul

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The one thing that decides a Florida run

Florida is a peninsula with roughly twenty-three million residents and a very large number of visitors, and almost everything they consume is trucked in. That makes inbound freight plentiful and inbound rates competitive. The problem is the other direction: there is far less manufactured goods leaving than there is consumer freight arriving, and there is only one way out by road.

The practical result is a market where the rate in looks good and the rate out does not, and where carriers who judged the load on the inbound leg alone find the week disappointing. Florida is the clearest example in the country of why a load has to be judged on the round trip.

That is not an argument against running it. Winter produce, the ports and seasonal demand can make Florida one of the better markets on the map. It is an argument for knowing what you are going to do next before you accept the load that takes you down there.

What actually moves in Florida

Four distinct markets, on different calendars.

Winter produce. Florida supplies much of the country’s fresh vegetables, citrus, tomatoes and strawberries through the cooler months, roughly late autumn into spring, while most other growing regions are out. This is the strongest outbound freight the state has, and it is the reason reefers reposition here.
Ports. Jacksonville, Miami, Port Everglades and Tampa all move containers, and Miami in particular is a gateway for trade with Latin America and the Caribbean. Drayage and port work is its own discipline with its own appointment systems.
Consumer and construction inbound. Food, retail goods and building materials arriving for a growing population — steady, year-round, and the reason inbound capacity is always competitive.
Hospitality and seasonal demand. Tourism and the winter influx of seasonal residents lift consumer freight from roughly November through March, which tightens inbound and does nothing for outbound.

The Florida-specific things that catch carriers out

None of these are secrets. They catch people anyway, because they are not obvious until the second trip.

The backhaul. Plan it before you commit to the inbound. A cheap load out of Florida is often still better than deadheading to Georgia to find one — but that is a decision to make deliberately, not at a truck stop on the last day.
Agricultural inspection. Florida operates agricultural inspection stations on inbound routes, and produce moving out carries its own documentation expectations.
Hurricane season runs from June through November. It disrupts schedules and closes routes, and it also creates genuine disaster and recovery freight. Both are real; neither is something to plan a year around.
The peninsula has limited road exits. I-95 up the east coast, I-75 up the west, and I-10 across the panhandle. A closure matters more here than it does in a state with alternatives.
The I-4 corridor between Tampa and Orlando is among the more congested stretches in the south-east, and an appointment that assumes free-flowing traffic will be missed.
South Florida distances deceive. Miami to the Georgia line is most of a driving day, so "in Florida" can still be a long run.

Which equipment works in Florida

Reefer

The strongest fit in winter. Produce season gives a reefer genuine outbound freight when the rest of the market has little, which is exactly when it matters.

Dry van

Plenty of inbound, thinner outbound. Works well on repeat lanes and for carriers who have worked out their backhaul rather than hoping for one.

Flatbed

Construction and building materials, plus port and project freight. Florida builds year round, which makes open deck less seasonal here than further north.

Hotshot

Construction, agriculture and marine support. The distances inside the state suit a smaller setup, and urgent freight is well paid when a 53 ft trailer cannot get there.

How we dispatch in Florida

Tell us about the truck

Equipment, home base, the lanes you like and the ones you will not run. We set up your carrier packet once and reuse it.

We find the freight

We work the outbound before you have delivered the inbound. In a market with this much freight going one way, that is the whole job — and in produce season it means knowing which growing regions are running this fortnight, not last year.

We negotiate and book

We call the broker, push the rate, confirm the details and send you the rate confirmation. You approve every load before it is booked — there is no forced dispatch.

You drive, we chase the paperwork

Check calls, lumper receipts, detention claims and the invoice packet. You send the signed BOL; we handle the rest.

What it costs

Dispatching is charged as a percentage of the linehaul, agreed before you take your first load, and there is no long-term contract to sign. Ask a dispatcher for the current rate.

No charge while the truck is not running, and no sign-up fee.

Where to go next

Dispatching for 53 ft dry vansThe most common trailer on the road, and the deepest freight pool.Reefer dispatchTemperature-controlled freight, produce season and FSMA paperwork.Open-deck freight dispatchingSteel, lumber, machinery — and the securement that comes with them.Power only dispatchYour tractor, their trailer. Drop and hook without buying a box.Box truck loads and ratesStraight trucks, final mile and freight that does not need a 53-footer.Hotshot dispatchClass 3 to 5 with a gooseneck, running expedited and partial loads.Truck dispatch in TexasThe other end of a great many Florida lanes.Truck dispatch in CaliforniaThe other big produce market, on an opposite calendar.Which trailer should you run?Dry van, reefer, flatbed, power only, box truck and hotshot, side by side.Dedicated lanesRepeat, consistent freight — a steady week beats one good rate.Spot or contract?When each one pays better, judged against your own cost per mile.Work out your cost per mileWork out your break-even rate before you judge any load.Truck dispatch servicesEverything we handle, from finding the load to chasing the invoice.Dispatching a single truckHow we work for a single truck, and what you keep control of.Trucking glossaryThe words used around a load, explained without jargon.Writing on the business of truckingDeadhead, detention and finding loads — the business of running a truck.

FAQ

Questions carriers ask

It is a strong inbound market and a difficult outbound one. Plenty of freight goes into Florida and comparatively little manufactured goods comes out, so rates leaving are usually softer than rates arriving. Carriers who plan the backhaul before taking the inbound do well; those who do not often find the round trip disappointing.

Put your truck to work

Send your MC and DOT numbers and a dispatcher will call you within one business day.

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