UNFORTUNATELY, THEY LIKE THEIR MELONS MORE THAN THEY NEED YOUR WIDGETS!
Melons need trucks
Truck transportation capacity is a commodity, just like crude oil or pork bellies or foreign currency, bought and sold every day on the open market, and at any moment available only to the highest bidder. This is never so true as when an agricultural crop is ripe and must be harvested, and the harvest must be shipped to market, and the resulting demand for truck capacity far exceeds the normally available supply.
You need melons
Melons – onions – strawberries – lettuce – tree nuts: these and many other crops are harvested and shipped every year at the same time and from the same locations – it is called farming, the people who do it are called farmers, and the reason they do it is to feed you. And so when those watermelons are ripe and must be harvested and shipped before they over-ripen and turn to mush, and because it is June and you always look forward to fresh melon with breakfast in June, that load of melons suddenly becomes a valuable, time-sensitive commodity, and someone – maybe even you, and perhaps only for just a few moments – wants those melons more than they want your widgets.
Shipping prices skyrocket
And so to ensure that the melons will ship when they are ready to ship, and because you and your neighbours want and expect them, farmers are both willing and able to pay more to secure a truck to ship their melons than you normally pay to ship your widgets.
Widgets get squeezed
And because there are so many more melons than widgets that must be moved, the farmers are soon bidding up the truck price against each other, and you and your widgets are in danger of being left on the sidelines. The end result is that the additional demand drives up the price to secure a truck for both you and the farmer, sometimes to as much as 160% of its “normal” level.
Normalcy returns
After a few weeks or months, the harvest subsides, and prices gradually return to normal. But while the harvest is happening, and if you want both your widgets and your melons, then you will have to pay as much to ship your widgets to your customers as the farmers are willing to pay to ship their melons to your local supermarket. And when all of the melons are harvested and shipped, the price of shipping your widgets goes back down to where it was before the farmers needed shipping capacity to get your desert to you. At least, that is, until the next crop is ready for harvest.
Copper Run knows about this
It is a cycle that is predictably repeated, in time and space, every year. Copper Run has developed pricing models, based on more than 15 years of actual price history, that allow us to tell you, in advance, when these harvest-driven price increases will occur, and to provide an estimate of how much they will impact the price of moving widgets.
Copper Run’s PRODUCE PREMIUM solution: price control in melon season
We call it our “Produce Premium”.
- We give you a quotation that shows a base price that applies when there is no harvest;
- We tell you when the harvest will hit; and,
- We give you an estimate of the maximum percentage by which prices can be expected to increase as a result of the harvest.
Only pay what is necessary
And then we let you decide: when the harvest is on and prices are bumped up and you want to ship, we tell you today’s best price (which often varies significantly day-to-day, or even hour-to-hour) and, before we book a truck, we ask for your approval. But you will have only minutes to say yes or no. If you don’t want today’s best price, we won’t book the truck – you’ll have your melons, but you won’t have your widgets.
Price transparency and control
We give you price transparency, price predictability, and ultimate control. Which is exactly the way it should be. And Copper Run is able to provide this service because we are a boutique – knowledgeable, experienced and nimble.