It’s not news that loads are down everywhere, nor that truck and trailer sales are even “downer.” Nobody’s buying new vehicles when they can’t fill their old ones.

But it is news if a company invests twenty million dollars in new vehicles when the industry is still trying to haul itself out of the biggest ditch since the Great Depression. And that’s what NRS (National Retail Systems) paid this summer for 200 trailers at a cool $100,000 each.

And we do mean cool. NRS’s purchase was refrigerated trailers. Two hundred may sound like a lot, but when you own 12,000 regular ones, it’s just a hedge, not even a big one. However, the move into reefing has turned out handsomely for the 56-year old freight giant, which is likely expand in that sector.

You see, reefer traffic is a steady business, even in hard times. Consumers cut back on discretionary spending, but not on essentials like food. They may buy cheaper food, but whether it’s sirloin or hamburger, it all has to travel, and cheap cuts weigh just as much as choice ones.

Of course refrigerated containers are expensive to buy and maintain, and a breakdown in the cooling system can wipe out your entire cargo in hours. On the other hand, if you can afford even just a small fleet, you’ll have reliable loads.

NRS’s interest in reefers began when a major pharmaceutical company needed a long distance carrier with sophisticated security. (A single pallet of pharmaceuticals can be worth half a million or more.) Security happens to be a near-obsession at NRS and the drug maker was quickly sold.

The arrangement worked out well, except in one respect. The pharmaceutical company was on the East Coast; it’s distributor was on the West Coast. As Larry Ravinett, NRS’s Senior Vice-President of Logistics, said in a recent article in the Journal of Commerce Magazine, “There are no pharmaceuticals coming back from California.” NRS’s pricey temperature-controlled vehicles were coming back empty – though not for long. California has, as Ravinett says, “tons of produce” that needed refrigerated shipping. “We discovered that moving a load of fruit west to east could get us $3,000 to $4,000.”

Let’s see, $4,000 x 200 trailers equals… well, do the math. Works out pretty nicely, doesn’t it? Ravinett is pleased. “I’ve seen some of our competitors getting into flatbeds to haul rougher stuff like lumber for Home Depot. We’d rather stay in the high-end if we can.”

With shrewd management like this, it’s not likely you’ll see many lumber-laden NRS flatbeds on the road. Keep eating, America. Every bite keeps a reefer on the road, and that’s one job you can’t outsource.

This story was drawn from articles in The Journal of Commerce Magazine, June 8^th and 29^th and Business Week, May 7

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