What we can learn from Jeremy Clarkson about transporting your farm produce?
When it comes to entertainment, Jeremy Clarkson knows how to engage with television viewers - and one of the reasons why many people find him entertaining is his ability to, if we can be blunt, mess things up!
In the most recent Jeremy Clarksons Amazon Prime series Clarksons Farm, he lives up to those expectations while providing some valuable insights into the challenges of farming, as well as transport and logistics.
If you have seen Jeremy Clarksons Farm series on TV, you might recall in the last episode of season 1 (season 1, episode 8) when Clarkson realises he doesn’t have enough storage for the grain he is harvesting. To solve this issue, he mistakenly books a single lorry to take away his harvest when in reality it should have been more like 20 lorries.
His lack of awareness of how much capacity he has versus how much he would need was compounded by his lack of understanding of how much capacity each lorry had.
Of course, this is just one of many errors Clarkson had made in terms of transport and logistics for farm produce and harvests and the issue was exacerbated by the fact that he hadn’t prepared enough storage space to store his freshly cut harvest. Lorry hire for farms is time sensitive and we understand the need for fast response logistics at harvest time.
If he had planned ahead then the more space he would have created, the less urgent it was to organise immediate transportation of his harvest.
What can we learn from this?
Whether you are in farming, retail or manufacturing, the principles of well organised transport and logistics are the same. Plan ahead, ensure you have capacity and organise efficient logistics. Let’s understand these in a bit more details:
Plan ahead
Make sure you understand the timelines for production and transportation. If you plan ahead and understand the requirements for transporting and storing retail, food and farm products then it’s easier to get the rest of the process right.
Ensure you have capacity
Ensure that you have storage capacity in the right location - and not just storage, but the right type of storage. Fresh or frozen produce needs to be stored at the right temperature and in Jeremy Clarskons farm example, the quick-fix storage he used was outdoors, risking his harvest becoming damaged by rain.
At Broughton Transport, we provide flexible storage solutions to suit your needs. You only pay for the storage space you need and if you require extra storage space then we can help.
Organise your logistics
Not having transport available when you need it most can cause a considerable bottle neck in the production and fulfilment process. Clarkson may have needed 20 lorries, but he struggled to order one urgently.
Working closely with a transport and logistics partner helps to ensure that you plan ahead correctly and have the right storage and transportation available at the right time.
Clarkson’s Farm was filmed to provide entertainment, but the transport and logistics issues faced by Jeremy Clarkson are a reflection of the tough challenges many businesses face on a daily basis.
Need help?
The big lesson is that you must plan ahead, organise your logistics and make sure you have storage and if not contact us! We would be happy to discuss your requirements with you to ensure that your business processes run smoothly. Call us today.
Get in touch today by calling 01225 700657 for a harvest time lorry hire and storage to understand more.
