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To decrease wait times for drivers, Cargill gets creative, using an extended hose to transport syrup from inside its corn milling terminal to trucks outside.

A Clever Solution for Faster Corn Syrup Loading

With an unconventional loading bay at its Washington corn milling terminal, Cargill helps customers cut transportation time and increase productivity. 

January 01, 2015

Truck drivers often lose time to busy traffic, difficult roads and long wait times at loading stations, but thanks to Cargill, a creative loading method is helping drivers stay on schedule. At the company’s corn milling terminal in Seattle, Washington, truck drivers can now pull up to the terminal and load high-fructose corn syrup directly into their vehicles, without delay. The new method enables them to quickly arrive and depart, delivering products to customers across the western United States and Canada.

Prior to the new method’s introduction in 2013, the loading process had its shortcomings. Cargill learned that some of its customers had to wait more than an hour for one of the two loading bays to become available before transferring syrup to their trucks, so the company began strategizing inventive ways to reduce congestion.

The swiftest and safest solution involved a branch off the main supply line, through which corn syrup could be loaded onto trucks waiting outside the terminal’s fence. Cargill’s solution, dubbed the “Third Bay,” was specially designed to serve customers like PepsiCo that met the conditions of a “72-hour truck trailer.” Because these tank trailers repeatedly carried the same products to the same facilities, they could be refilled as many times as possible within a three-day period without the need for washing. The more efficient process saved drivers up to four hours each day.

“Pepsi was, of course, thrilled—no more waiting in the street for an hour or so, and [they were able to move] quickly in and out without delay.”
— Kenneth Falcone, Seattle Corn Milling Terminal Manager, Cargill

The increased productivity led to an overwhelmingly positive response from PepsiCo, and Cargill has since opened the external line to more of its customers. Now, a longer roster of Cargill’s major corn syrup buyers, including The Coca-Cola Company, are able to load and transport product more quickly than ever before.