Who ships potatoes, and when do they book?

Commodity playbook

Who ships potatoes

Idaho sheds only, from a state association roster of 87 members. Washington, the Red River Valley, Wisconsin and Colorado have their own lists.

Ask for sales or the shipping desk. Fresh potatoes move through a grower-shipper who packs and sells, and that same desk usually tenders the truck. Processors are a separate business with separate freight: a shed sells cartons and poly bags to retail and foodservice, a processor buys raw product by the truckload for fries and dehydrated goods. Ask which side you have on the phone before you pitch.

Where it hauls

Idaho is the largest producing state and the Snake River Plain is the densest run of sheds in the country: Pingree, Aberdeen and Blackfoot in Bingham County, Rigby in Jefferson County, Paul and Rupert in Minidoka County, with Idaho Falls acting as the commercial centre. Washington's Columbia Basin, the Red River Valley on the Minnesota and North Dakota line, Wisconsin's central sands and Colorado's San Luis Valley are the other four that matter. The Idaho sheds to know:

How to open

The follow-up that gets a real answer is about winter: "Do you run protect-from-freeze loads, and from when?" A shed that runs winter freight remembers whoever handled it without a claim.

Qualifying questions

• Vented van or reefer? Both haul potatoes. They need air and a steady temperature rather than deep cold, so vented van works most of the year and reefer on heat covers the winter. Ask what the shed specs before you send equipment.
• When does protect from freeze start? Roughly November through March out of the northern sheds. A frozen load is a total loss and the claim is the whole trailer, so confirm the shed's switch date and whether they want a temperature recorder.
• Cartons, poly bags, or bulk? The pack changes the count, the weight and the unload. Storage packs replace field-run once the season settles. Ask before you quote, because a bulk load and a palletized carton load are not the same job.
• What is the gross weight? Potatoes are dense and it is easy to load heavy. Confirm the target gross and where the certified scale is, because a reweigh at the first scale house is nobody's idea of a good first load.
• How far ahead do you want trucks booked? Sheds run on short booking cycles, often the day before loading, with a hard cutoff time. Get each shed's cutoff and hit it. Missing it once is how a new carrier stops being called.

When to call

August and September, before the crop is dug. Once storage packs are moving, every shed has its regulars and a new call is quoting overflow. The advantage of a storage crop is that the relationship pays out for ten months rather than six weeks, which is exactly why the seat is worth more than a load.