They buzz, they sting but someone has to move these pollinators across the country

Marketplace Morning Report’s “What’s That Like?” series is exploring the odd, unusual and downright weird jobs that help prop up our economy.

Several times a year, millions of honeybees are transported back and forth across the country to help pollinate the nation’s crops.

Bee colonies are loaded up onto flatbed semi-trucks, covered in special netting and driven thousands of miles across the country by experienced truck drivers. Let’s just say, the job isn’t for everyone…

Delfino Mendoza is a truck driver for the Houston-based freight company, Loop Logistics. He’s been a flatbed truck driver for about seven years and has been transporting millions of bees across the country for nearly as long.

This fall, he’s hitting the road hard in order to move commercial bees from the Midwest to states like California, Idaho, Oklahoma and Texas. We caught up with him just before his busy season, while on a break between loads just outside of Rugby, North Dakota.

To learn more about what it’s like to drive this buzzy livestock across the country, click the audio player above.