Why does my reefer have to be at -10?

Not quite right. I'm a company reefer driver, about once an hour the trailer sends its temp to the company. If the temp is outside the expected range for the load, we get error messages sent to us to check out what's going on and send back a reefer status message. Problem is, often what they show for the temp is not what the BOL specifies. So, I have to send them a pic of the BOL so they can adjust it in their system and I stop getting the errors. FYI, I have gone round and round and round about the fact I have to send them a pic of the BOL. They simply aren't allowed to take my word for it. It is the biggest insult to my intelligence feeling. For Christ sake, I was a physics major in college, got through 3 semesters of University calculus, worked as an HVAC tech for a couple years even. It always seriously eerks me they won’t trust me to read a simple temp setting on a BOL.
Anyway, back to the reply. The company doesn't have a way to change the reefer settings remotely, the drivers have to do that. But, they do have some parameter control. Some temp settings (35 is one) will only run in continuous mode and won’t let you change it to cycles mode. As I understand it, that is set up by the company and programmed into the reefer firmware.
As a company driver, I don't pay for the fuel so I set it where it states. Some BOLs specify that temp must not get above 0. I usually set it to -10 when that's what it shows to ensure it doesn't swing close to 0 and also if a problem develops, I'll have a smidgen more time to fix the problem before it effects the load.

 

Good info there, and that's factual. I forgot to put it on continuous once, and I got down the road and they changed it for me. The shop can troubleshoot and diagnose reefer issues the same way.

 

I wouldn't necessary say so....certaij types of ice cream is often times ran colder than that. Different foods require different temps for reason unbeknownst to us. Any temp control product may have different ingredients in which the temp being just a little off, will destroy the whole load.

 

Most experienced reefer people know when a shipper puts out of range product on the trailer just by what the unit does after closing the doors depending on ambient temp .
If it doesent settle down after a few hours I know .

 

How do you pulp something that’s boxed? Open the box ? Asking for a friend…….

 

Had a shipper that was doing that with bread. Loading it on hot pallets and a 15° pulp. Then wanting it run at -10°. Uh, no.

The unit was never shutting off.

 

Infrared thermometer or open a box... depends on what it is.

In the case of the shipper who was loading hot bread, they used crap quality recycled cardboard boxes and a lot of them would split open just loading it. Receivers never complained so I quit #####ing about it.

 

Running higher temp's can dis-color the product.

 

How much fuel does a reefer unit burn in a given day/hour?