looking to switch to reefer

With a reefer, you not only have ref Loads you can also haul Dry freight also. So you have a larger choices. But the biggest con of a reefer is Grocery warehouses, Lumpers and some will say having to listening to the Reefer running when you sleep. But the running Reefer put me to sleep when I stop to sleep.

Flat bed you had to secure with straps Reefer Load bar and close the door. Do not have to worry about tarping in 50mph winds or in snow or rain. And you will not be as dirty once your loaded or unloaded. Flatbed can be fun and rewarding by keeping in shape, Reefer will make you little lazier.

 

Everyone needs to eat right?

 

Everybody but a trucker. They expect us to starve.

 

Of course, but refrigerated food is a luxury not a necessity.

 

then how come we are all fat ?

 

I've never not been able to get a load running reefer. There's always something you can get whether it's dry or refrigerated. You MUST know produce seasonality to be successful even if you never haul produce. The rates go up in the area for any reefer load. I personally only layed over more than 24 hours twice in the past 3 years due to not having a load and both times were due to OS&D issues causing my planned load to cancel on a Saturday. You WILL sit at grocery warehouses and waiting on produce/meat/ other fresh product. Sometimes you can get paid, sometimes not. If you can sleep anytime you have the chance it's not such a big deal, if you can't sit for 10 hours waiting on produce and then run all night it can be a struggle. I've never pulled a flat so I can't really compare, this is just my perspective. People gotta eat and I hardly think fruits, veggies, milk and chicken are luxury items as someone above said.

 

They also need dry goods so that they can sell them and have money to buy refrigerated food. How did people eat before refrigeration 100 years ago? So what you are saying is that pulling a reefer is a guarantee to a big pay day? I haul motor oil in a tank and people gotta have that too. It pays more than hauling a reefer so explain that one.

 

I'll give you my .02:

I ran reefer for six months and had dry loads where we didn't run the reefer on two occasions. The loads were there running coast to coast but it took a couple a days in between even though we had the hours. You will deal with paying lumpers to offload, and deal with irregular hours as in running. Running reefer is not a daytime thing. Theres a reason a reason many companies use teams on reefer freight.

 

I've pulled van and reefer and in my case there was no difference in running hours. I had 2 pm appointments and 2 am appointments pulling both. Some of the worst experiences of my life were van related. In other words pulling a van trailer isn't a 9-5 Monday through Friday job and neither is a reefer. The real difference is whether or not the owner of the truck tolerates abuse of his equipments valuable time by hauling junk freight for junk customers. Or cultivates professional relationships with good customers.