I-35 Laredo to Duluth: bulk bag freight lane

What moves on the I-35 lane

Who fills a bulk bag between Texas and Minnesota

The south end is limestone country. Quarries and cement plants around San Antonio, New Braunfels and Austin turn out aggregate, lime and cement additives, and the building trade in the I-35 cities uses them. These are heavy, abrasive, non-food loads, where a well-inspected used bag can do the job and a coated fabric keeps the fines in.

North of the Red River it turns to farms. Oklahoma and Kansas grow wheat and raise cattle, so flour, feed and mineral supplements move in bags. Iowa is corn and soybeans, with seed corn conditioning plants, ethanol plants that sell distillers grains, and fertilizer dealers on nearly every county road. Southern Minnesota is the same mix, and the Twin Cities add food processing.

Seed and anything a person or animal eats need clean, new bags. Many seed companies ask for a spout bottom so the planter tender fills from the bag without a knife, and a document pouch for the lot tag.

Border to Lake Superior: the crossings

Laredo sits on the Rio Grande across from Nuevo Laredo, and a great deal of Mexico truck trade crosses there. A northbound load on I-35 often starts as freight that a customs broker has just released. We plan the US leg once it has cleared and we know which yard it sits in.

The road splits twice. In Texas it becomes I-35E through Dallas and I-35W through Fort Worth, and in Minnesota I-35W runs through Minneapolis while I-35E runs through St. Paul, both crossing the Mississippi. Tell us which city the dock is in; a driver routed down the wrong branch loses time.

Between the two splits, I-35 crosses the Red River into Oklahoma, runs the Kansas Turnpike from the Oklahoma line through Wichita to Emporia, and crosses the Missouri River at Kansas City. The turnpike is a toll road, so it sits in the freight cost. At the north end the Port of Duluth-Superior, at the western tip of Lake Superior, ships iron ore and grain on the Great Lakes.

• I-10 at San Antonio, for the Gulf Coast.
• I-20 and I-30 in Dallas-Fort Worth.
• I-40 and I-44 at Oklahoma City.
• I-70 at Kansas City, east to St. Louis or west to Denver.
• I-80 at Des Moines, where the two interstates share a stretch around the north side of the city.
• I-90 at Albert Lea and I-94 in the Twin Cities.

Planting season and the LTL question

An Iowa seed dealer may want four pallets before spring, not a trailer. That is LTL: the bales go through a terminal, a smaller truck makes the farm-country delivery, and the receiver needs a dock, a forklift or a liftgate. A fertilizer blender or a feed mill that runs a bagging line all season is a truckload customer and pays less per bag for a full 53-foot trailer.

Rural stops change the plan. A farm lane with no dock, a gravel yard or a gate locked after hours all go in the request so the carrier sends the right equipment.

Filled bags of aggregate or lime are dense. A 3,000 lb SWL bag at 5:1 is tested to 3,000 x 5 = 15,000 lb, but the trailer's legal weight runs out long before its floor does, so we count by weight, not by bag.

Bag builds the I-35 trades ask for

Each trade on this road wants a different build. A ready-mix supplier in Austin bagging sand or a cement additive usually wants a four-panel or U-panel bag with a duffle top and a flat bottom, because the bag gets slit open over a mixer rather than metered. A Kansas flour mill wants clean, new, lined bags with a spout bottom tied off with a cord, so a mill hand controls the pour.

Iowa seed conditioners often ask for baffle bags. Sewn panels inside the corners hold the bag square, so it stands steadier in a warehouse and wastes less space beside its neighbours. Minnesota food processors may want a document pouch sewn on and a lot number on every label. Tell us which of these you run and we price the bag your plant actually uses, not a near match.

Booking a load on I-35

Send the bag spec from the label: SWL, safety factor, size, top and bottom, loops, coated or uncoated fabric, liner if any. Then the product, the ZIP, the receiving hours and whether there is a dock. For a pickup of empties, give the count, how they are bundled and what they held.

Last, give the date the bags have to be on the floor. We don't promise a window or a price before a carrier takes the load, but we will tell you which branch of the road it rides and what the trailer can hold.