Posted:  08 Feb 2012 16:12
Registered User Currently Offline Join Date: Aug 2011	Posts:  64 Reputation:  6 User Rank: 2 - Sprout
Currently, Avon Valley Floral (from Nova Scotia) are the only suppliers of interior plants that ship to Newfoundland in a heated truck.  Is there anyone else out there who would be willing to ship heated?  I'd appreciate any feedback.

Posted:  10 Feb 2012 16:53
Registered User Currently Offline Join Date: Jan 2011	Posts:  798 Reputation:  43 User Rank: 10 - Blossom
I'd be interested why a shipper wouldn't just put a propane unit heater in their truck's cargo box.  We have several here in NJ at our facility for that purpose.  Our trucks have integral cargo box heaters that run off the engine cooling system, but we have the propane heaters as backup or for VERY cold snaps. Clem

Posted:  14 Feb 2012 03:10
Registered User Currently Offline Join Date: Aug 2011	Posts:  64 Reputation:  6 User Rank: 2 - Sprout
I was speaking with my boss about this just today and he said the issue isn't so much with the supplier (but we would drop them in a heartbeat), the issue is with finding someone to ship in a heated truck that will guarantee the plants.  Right now, Avon Valley ships through Altimax.  They ship to the island on a regular basis, but they're the only one.  No one else ships here regularly that we can hitch a ride with.  And if we did, they still wouldn't guarantee the plants. Altimax have left our plants in their cold warehouse for three days, and all sorts of stupid things.  Of course the plants died, but they did guarantee them. We'd fly the product in, but we'd have to raise our prices, and it's difficult enough now to sell interior plants to people. I just thought it wouldn't hurt to ask on here.  Maybe it'll work.  If not, we'll just continue to power through it. Thanks for the response though.

Posted:  16 Feb 2012 01:51
Registered User Currently Offline Join Date: Jan 2011	Posts:  798 Reputation:  43 User Rank: 10 - Blossom
So I take it there isn't a dedicated foliage carrier in your neck of the woods.  But any foliage supplier who won't guarantee safe delivery of their own product is simply not professional.  We receive shipments of flowering plants like Kalanchoe, Cyclamen, Anthurium, Clivia, etc. from growers in cold areas of Canada and upstate New York, and all of them have their own heated trucks/trailers or hire carriers who do. Maybe you need to sit down with these folks and have a heart-to-heart with them...how in the world can florists and other plant sellers do business if they can't be assured of safe delivery by their vendors?  And what's to stop you from refusing delivery if, on inspection, you find that the goods are damaged in any way?  How do they force you to accept a frozen delivery of plants??? Clem

Posted:  16 Feb 2012 03:57
Registered User Currently Offline Join Date: Aug 2011	Posts:  64 Reputation:  6 User Rank: 2 - Sprout
Other than altimax, no one else will deliver ground shipment.  Air Canada will fly in cut flowers, and potted plants if we wanted, but, again, the freight would drive the price up. I'd have to ask my boss to expand upon the answers to your questions, as he's the one who deals with this stuff, but cut flowers can be winter wrapped (doesn't always work, but it definitely helps).  I don't know if there's any guarantee on that, but I can ask and find out. With regards to potted plants, we don't refuse delivery.  We have 48 hours to claim any damaged goods, so we'll unpack them, give them a look over, and after a day in the greenhouse we'll know if frost has gotten to them or not.  And if it has, we just compost them. The same goes for a shipment of cut flowers.  They're unpacked and if they're damaged, they're dumped.

Posted:  17 Feb 2012 02:04
Registered User Currently Offline Join Date: Jan 2011	Posts:  798 Reputation:  43 User Rank: 10 - Blossom
Seems quite a depressing scenario.  I understand that some areas of the USA and Canada may be subject to extremes in temperature and snowfall, but it IS 2012 after all, and we DO possess the technology (have for decades!) to ensure safe shipment of live tropical plants in trucks.  That said, maybe the carriers just don't see any profit in it and are trying in their charming and subtle-as-a-flying-mallet way to discourage it.  That's a function of being in a tiny portion of a relatively smallish industry in a relatively sparsely-populated locale, I guess.  Clem

Posted:  17 Feb 2012 16:40
Registered User Currently Offline Join Date: Aug 2011	Posts:  64 Reputation:  6 User Rank: 2 - Sprout
You got it.  There's no money in it for them, so they don't even bother. This province roughly has a population of a little more than 500,000, with St. John's comprising about 20% of that population.  It's not a large market for interiorplantscaping, but our offshore oil will bring in more people and business over the next 10 years. Fingers crossed!

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