How does one go about shipping drinks around the country to various distributors? I'm just wondering how much of the cost of drinks is made up of shipping charges. As far as I can tell, drinks are shipped from a brewery to warehouses around the country (or maybe one centralized one) and then shipped out from there. But this seems like you'd be paying $300 or $400 per pallet to get it from these warehouses to distributors... How does this work?

Cheers

if you're big enough, like miller or budweiser, you simply contract out the trucking. some still use rail car. that is, by defintion the cheapest way to send pallets. but you have to send several rail cars and your warehouse must be on rail lines or else you need trucks anyway

call major trucking firms to check their prices. mostly, you'll need to know how much you are sending, whether it's TruckLoad (TL) or LessThantruckLoad or LTL.

that will determine cost.

truck load from the west coast to the east coast is running about 6,000. truckload from eastcoast to the west coast is about half that. shipping out of chicago is like pulling teeth. Shipping by rail is by far the cheapest however like run has mentioned your warehouse must be rail severved.There is also the option of piggy back rail(where they bring a container to you take it to rail and do the same to your customer)this option is also cheaper than trucking but it takes a little long to get to your destination

why is it so expensive shipping out of chicago? i thought it was a transportation hub?

I guess the next question is whether there are people who specialize in LTL shipping of beverages to distributors. Not that most sodas need to be refrigerated, but I'm sure that there are freight companies that expect to make multiple stops and take a longer time. Yes? No?

oh yes. they all will, we're just saying, it'll take more money

just go hire some small children to drive some beat up ol' rickety van and fill it w/your drink and give them directions and then pay them in soda and candy.

Yes Chicago is the transportation hub however for every truck that goes into Chicago there are six loads comming back out, so the trucks get to name thier price
Not many beverages are delivered chilled but some are

coors is.