Plant Support

In the past 10 years, the growth of food processing and CPG manufacturing within a 150-mile radius of Atlanta has accelerated as more processors and manufacturers discover the advantages offered within this radius. With the second busiest container port on the east coast, a confluence of interstate highways radiating through Atlanta, a pro-growth strategy in both state and local governments, and an educated and growing workforce, businesses looking to expand production or relocate existing production are coming to or near north Georgia.

To service those plants with either or both inbound raw materials and packaging or outbound finished products, Colonial has invested in both tractors and trailers to move products to/from plants to their next stop in the supply chain. Many processors and manufacturers have taken advantage of Colonial’s plant support services to bring raw materials to the plant to return with finished products to Atlanta Bonded Warehouse for cross-dock, intermediate storage, co-packaging, or order selection. These finished orders are then loaded on Colonial trailers. Colonial has the drivers, the assets, and the expertise to coordinate these moves and services to keep your plants running efficiently and help you focus on production and not coordinating logistics.

Learn more about plant support services with Atlanta Bonded Warehouse.

Frequently Asked Questions

  • What is a dry trailer or van?

    Unlike refrigerated (reefer) transportation, dry trailers or vans are not insulated or temperature controlled. Trailer lengths are the same as refrigerated trailers, but their cubic capacity is typically greater (for the same length trailer) since their interior capacity is not reduced by insulated walls and floors and refrigeration equipment.

  • What does it mean to have a food-grade trailer or truck?

    Food-grade trailers are designed and maintained to maintain product integrity, quality, and safety. The FDA’s Sanitary Transportation rule governs food-grade transportation in the United States. This rule aims to prevent poor practices that create food safety risks during transportation that can lead to foodborne illnesses – such as improper refrigeration, contamination by non-food items, or cross-contamination. This rule applies to all shippers, receivers, loaders, and carriers transporting food in the United States.

  • What are Colonial Cartage’s refrigerated shipping temperatures?

    Colonial Cartage offers refrigerated shipping for temperature-sensitive, food-grade, or CPG products requiring transport at mid-temperature ranges (60°F–70°F) and dry shipping for products needing transport at ambient temperature ranges (40°F–90°F).

  • What do you mean by appointing, load-planning and sequencing?

    Colonial Cartage’s transportation management team handles the appointing, load-planning, dispatching, routing, and delivery services for our warehousing and pool customers.

    • The appointing process entails confirming with the receivers (retailers, wholesalers, or distributors) the suitable date(s) and time(s) for delivering our clients’ consolidated LTL shipments.
    • For less-than-truckload (LTL) shipments, load-planning consolidates orders of different sizes from different shippers headed to the same destination into one trailer to maximize its payload capacity. Load planning helps improve operational efficiencies and lowers costs by spreading the stop fee or the cost of the truckload across multiple shippers for that stop or destination. That said, Colonial Cartage does not trap freight or wait for a full truckload to build more profitable loads for itself. Colonial ships per our weekly sailing schedule.
    • Load sequencing ensures that cargo is loaded into the trailer in the reverse order of the drop sequence of the orders.
  • What is the difference between LTL and TL shipping?

    LTL refers to orders of less-than-truckload quantity typically co-mingled with other similar-sized shipments headed for the same destination. LTL orders can weigh from 150 pounds to 15,000 pounds.

    Truckload (TL) shipping is for larger orders that require all or most of the trailer’s capacity. However, in certain circumstances, usually dictated by the receiver or for shippers to avoid compliance issues, shippers will ship LTL orders by themselves as TL to expedite delivery. TL orders can weigh up to 44,000 pounds.

  • What LTL and TL transportation services does Colonial Cartage offer?

    Colonial Cartage offers food-grade, dry, and temperature-controlled, less-than-truckload (LTL) and truckload (TL) distribution services for consumer packaged goods (CPG) manufacturers and food and beverage processors. Colonial services a 26-state area including the Southeast, Southwest, Midwest, and the Great Plains.

    Our local plant transportation services operate within 150 miles of Atlanta and include inbound shipping to our clients’ plants and facilities and outbound shipping to their warehouses or retail and food service clients.

  • What are your LTL plant support services?

    Colonial Cartage’s plant support services include shipping raw materials, work-in-process, and packaging to our clients’ plants/facilities and returning their finished products to their next stop in the supply chain (warehouses, retailers, distributors/wholesalers). Frequently, inbounds to the plants and returns are both serviced by Atlanta Bonded Warehouse distribution facilities.

    Many of our plant support clients also choose to use cross-docking, intermediate storage, co-packaging, and other third-party logistics (3PL) services offered by our sister company, Atlanta Bonded Warehouse.

  • How large is Colonial’s LTL and TL fleet?

    Colonial Cartage is an asset-based carrier with more than 70 power units and 220 refrigerated and dry trailers. All equipment is food-grade and uses electronic logging devices (ELDs) for drivers and GPS systems for tracking equipment.


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