A container of Peruvian grapes sat in cold treatment for two weeks before it ever touched a crane at Port Everglades. The treatment schedule, the pulp temperature logs, the USDA inspection sign-off all happened before the box cleared customs. Then it lands in your lap for a 40-minute drive to a Doral cold storage facility, and the chain of custody is still your problem if the reefer unit fails on I-95.
Why Port Everglades Carries So Much Perishable Cargo
Port Everglades handles close to half of all refrigerated ocean cargo entering Florida, and most of it comes from Central and South America. Grapes and citrus from Peru, apples and pears from Argentina, bananas and produce from the Caribbean corridor: the port built its reefer plug capacity and APHIS relationships around exactly this trade, and the volume keeps climbing every season.
Transit times from the origin ports are part of why South Florida wins this cargo over Northern gateways. A container out of Callao, Peru runs about 11 days to South Florida. From there, Atlanta is 48 hours by truck, and 70% of the US population sits within 96 hours. Shipping the same fruit through a Northern port adds days the shelf life can't always absorb.
What APHIS Cold Treatment Actually Requires
Cold treatment is a phytosanitary measure, not a food safety rule. USDA's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service uses sustained cold temperatures to kill fruit fly larvae and other pests before fruit from certain countries can legally enter the US. It's a separate regulatory track from FDA's food safety rules, run by a different agency with its own inspectors and its own paperwork.
The standard schedule for citrus and grapes runs the fruit's core pulp temperature at or below 34°F for 14 straight days, with readings logged at least once per hour and no more than a 0.7°F swing between consecutive readings. Treatment can happen in transit on the vessel, or it can continue after discharge at a certified facility. Since November 2025, POMTOC at PortMiami has been the only South Florida terminal authorized to complete that extended on-site continuation for cargo from Argentina, Peru, and Uruguay. Port Everglades cargo on that same treatment track typically completes cold treatment before or during the voyage rather than at the dock.
None of this is a drayage company's job to manage. But it's the reason a reefer load can sit at the terminal longer than a dry container, and why the paperwork that clears customs has to match the paperwork a driver is handed at pickup. A mismatch between the treatment certificate and what's on the bill of lading holds the container at the gate, not on the road.
Chain of Custody From Vessel to Warehouse Door
Once a reefer container clears cold treatment and customs, the compliance burden shifts from "did this fruit meet the pest-kill schedule" to "did the cold chain stay unbroken from that point forward." That second question is where drayage carriers actually carry risk, because nobody else touches the box between the terminal and the warehouse door.
A continuous cold chain means the reefer unit runs the whole way and the setpoint never gets bumped. Any gap, whether it's a genset swap, extended dwell at the chassis yard, or a mechanical breakdown, gets documented with exact times. Importers and their insurers expect a data logger readout with no unexplained excursions. If something did go wrong, they want to know precisely when and for how long.
- Confirm the reefer setpoint against the bill of lading before pulling out of the terminal, not after arriving at the warehouse.
- Keep the container running continuously; don't let a driver "save fuel" by shutting the unit down during a short stop.
- Log genset swaps with exact timestamps if the move requires one, since that's a known gap point insurers will ask about.
- Photograph the door seal at pickup and again at delivery, matching the seal number against the bill of lading both times.
What Goes Wrong on the Drayage Leg
Most cold-chain claims on this cargo don't trace back to the vessel or the terminal. They trace back to the hour or two the container sat with a driver who didn't catch a problem early enough. A reefer unit alarm that gets ignored for forty minutes on I-95 can cost more in rejected cargo than the entire drayage invoice.
Detention adds a second layer of risk specific to perishables. A dry container sitting an extra day at a warehouse is an inconvenience and a fee. A reefer container sitting an extra day is a fee plus a real chance the fruit doesn't meet grade by the time someone finally unloads it, regardless of what the temperature log shows.
Documentation Drivers and Dispatchers Need in Hand
A driver picking up perishable cargo at Port Everglades should leave the terminal with more paper than a standard drayage run. Dispatchers who treat the pickup like any other load are the ones who end up on the phone with an angry importer explaining why nobody can produce a temperature log.
- Bill of lading showing the required reefer setpoint and commodity details.
- USDA/APHIS clearance documentation confirming cold treatment and inspection are complete, where applicable to the shipment.
- Reefer data logger printout or digital export capability at delivery, not just a dashboard reading.
- Seal number recorded at pickup, matched against the bill of lading and checked again at delivery.
- Confirmed warehouse appointment time, since most cold storage receivers in South Florida run tight dock schedules during peak citrus and grape season.
Working With a Carrier That Actually Knows This Cargo
Ask a carrier how they handle a reefer alarm at 2 a.m. on a Saturday. The answer tells you more than any sales pitch about whether they understand cold-chain drayage. A carrier running mixed freight and treating reefer loads as an occasional add-on usually doesn't have a real answer. A carrier that moves perishables out of Port Everglades regularly has a dispatcher watching the telematics feed and a response plan that doesn't depend on someone noticing the alarm on their own.
Seasonal volume matters too. Grape and citrus season brings a spike in reefer demand that outpaces plug capacity at some terminals, and carriers without established relationships end up waiting longer for equipment. If your supply chain depends on this corridor, the carrier's experience with the specific terminal and the specific commodity matters more than their rate sheet.