“Air freight’s a tough thing,” said Nathan Moulton, Director of rail freight for the State of Maine, speaking to the problem of shipping lobster, one of Maine’s prime products and one that must arrive alive.
No wide-bodied planes fly out of Boston. They fly out of the more densely populated East Coast cities of New York, Newark, Philadelphia and Washington, D.C., and that’s where Maine and other New England dealers must truck their live, highly perishable product to reach freight planes.
That lobster dealers can’t fly their product from Maine frustrates every one who ships out of state, but none more than Portland dealer Peter McAleney, of New Meadows Lobster. His answer to why the state can’t manage to fly freight from Bangor and Portland is to say that Maine only has two major roads and they both go from North to South. “We don’t even have east-west highways,” he said. “It’s pathetic.” The airports have the runways to handle 747s, but he said, “We don’t have the transportation out of them. We can’t get a [human] body up here. You have to get a special truck to go down to Boston, pick it up and bring it back.” He went on, “It’s not just bodies: it’s flowers, fish, it’s everything.”
Jeffrey Monroe, transportation director for the City of Portland, stated that Portland handles 45 million pounds of air freight a year and, to the problem of shipping live lobster, said, “If there was sufficient, steady quantity available, you could find a carrier that would handle the product. That’s really the key — it can’t be the type of cargo that’s good this month, but not next month; obviously, we can only serve the domestic market.”
Dealers sending smaller packages to retail customers can ship by the specialized shippers: DHL, Federal Express or United Parcel Service. Although those companies charge more for their overnight service than commercial airlines, the dealer can pass the cost directly to the customer. Wholesale dealers cannot, and it’s not cost-effective. Lobster exporter Mark Barlow, of Island Lobster, in Kittery, said what might cost sixty to eighty cents per pound to ship to San Francisco by commercial airlines might cost two dollars by Fed Ex.
Although wholesale dealers can ship large amounts of lobster in individual boxes that travel loose in the hold of the narrow-bodied passenger planes, shipping in boxes is not as safe as shipping in containers designed for the wide bodies of freight planes. Dealer Lee Smith, of Boston Lobster, attributes the lack of freight planes partly to the aftermath of 9/11, when air travel slowed dramatically. The airlines, facing bankruptcy, downsized their planes and sought fuel-efficient flights. “When the price of oil went up,” he said, “Delta eliminated the wide [bodied planes].
“Delta had been hurting for many years,” Smith went on. “They were the big supplier to California. The business with the airlines is very symbiotic: we need them, they need us.” “We have to play their game,” Smith said. “We must do what they tell us. We get to the airport early to meet their truck. American Airlines drives a truck down to JFK to fly them. It has to do with the container, the size that fits in the wide body.”
According to John Petersdorf, head of sales for William Atwood Lobster Company, of Spruce Head, one European airline, Alitalia, flies in and out of Logan and carries shipments of lobster from Boston to Europe. Atwood’s ships lobsters to JFK twice a week and to Logan usually twice daily. Exporter Barlow said his company trucks lobster to Logan four times daily.
The aggravation has led some dealers to stop shipping by air. Kenneth Hutchinson, of Port Lobster, in Kennebunk, said he backed off when the rules changed after 9/11. Dealer Sid Look of O. W. and B. S. Look Lobster, in Jonesport, stopped eight or nine years ago after the law changed and dealers had to be certified to do what Look said he’d been doing for 15 years. “We were so far from the airport in Boston — 300 miles — by the time we put them on a truck and ran them all the way down there, if they missed the flight, we had to come all the way back.” He and others also had problems with airlines bumping containers.
Because the use of narrow-bodied planes has reduced the ability to ship from Boston and because the containers belong to the airlines (which sometimes charge if they’re not returned in four days) wholesalers have increasingly taken to building wooden insulated skids or pallets 40 by 48 by 60 inches tall around 50 to 60 wax boxes, each box holding 17 to 22 lbs. of lobster. The skids are easier to handle and don’t need to be returned. Wholesalers are increasingly hiring freight forwarders, the equivalent of travel agents for lobster, to handle the logistical challenges of shipping the lobster here and abroad.
Freight-forwarder John Kingsley works for OceanAir, in Revere, MA., one of the companies that take some of the aggravation of shipping off dealers’ shoulders. Kingsley said freight-forwarders truck the lobsters from Boston. “We’ll go to other airports where the larger aircraft exist and we buy air-freight space in volume on aircraft.”
Despite appearances, commercial airlines don’t set out to irritate lobster dealers. As Petersdorf explained. “They’re not in the freight business, they’re moving people and luggage, so as time goes on, it’s going to become more of the challenge. It may force the hands of lobster shippers to look to the specialized shippers. “In time,” he said, “it may be the only option.