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LD Logistics sees advantages in Hunts Point location

Shipments to the Hunts Point Terminal Produce Market and the surrounding Bronx, NY, area account for about 25 percent of the transportation business that LD Logistics arranges, which is where the firm is located.

The logistics of those particular shipments does give the company a little bit of an advantage and the opportunity to meet face to face with many of the drivers that it works with. “When they are delivering to the market or elsewhere in the Bronx, we do tell the driver to come on up to the office to do the paperwork,” said Lance Ditcher, president of the company that derives its name from his initials. “It gives us a chance to meet them and talk to them.”

The firm was formed eight or nine years ago to be a third-party provider of transportation to the produce industry, and it has stayed true to that mission. “Produce represents about 90 percent of what we do,” he said. “That percentage has remained pretty much steady since we started. Produce is what we want to do.”

The firm is asset free as it does not own or lease equipment. LD Logistics specializes in hauls to the Northeast and the Southeast from the major agricultural production areas in the country, including California, Arizona, Washington, Idaho, Oregon, Texas and Florida. Ditcher said he is especially well connected on the long hauls from West to East. “We work Florida as well but we do more business out West,” he said.

The company did experiment with a couple of satellite offices in Florida and New Jersey, but Ditcher discovered it worked better to have the entire staff under one roof. That gave him greater control over costs and the workload.

Talking about the transportation situation in August, he had a few minutes to relax as the shortage situation that was evident earlier in the summer had eased off. Early summer rates were as high as they had ever been, which was the result of a shortage of trucks and caused logistics firms like LD to work overtime to find equipment.

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