Bulk Potato Load with Vent/Inspection Door Open?

BOL does not state to have the small inspection door open, but the guy who loaded me said to have it open while in transit because it helps with removing the heat from inside the trailer. This load was not pre-cooled. My reefer is throwing me an alarm code because it’s struggling to cool it down. The alarm says to report at the end of the day, but maybe there is an issue with the reefer refrigerant.

 

By vent holes you mean the four holes located on each corner of the trailer floor? My trailer only has one vent door, which is in the back. There is no vent door in the front by the reefer.

I reread the BOL, and found no instructions to leave the vent/inspection door open. There is a paper that came with the BOL titled “Trailer Inspection Form” where it says to “make sure all doors and door latches work properly to ensure a tight seal when closed.” Then there is another bullet point that says to “make sure door vents and reefers are set to instructions listed on BOLs,” but again the BOL makes no mention of leaving any vent/inspection door open while in transit. The only load I have ever hauled that required the vent door open was a full load of onions from Idaho, and the instructions were on the BOL along with our initials.

 

The BOL says 45 degrees for bulk red potatoes, which have absolutely no packaging at all. I have it on continuous. I’ve always used continuous for produce loads as the previous mega company I belonged to drilled it in our heads from day one. I later learned the reason produce loads require continuous setting is due to product “respiration,” which makes it more difficult to cool than a non-living load.

I currently have the temp set to 45. Should I change it to 35 until the temp lowers to 45? Does putting a lower setting like -10 really blasts the product with -10 cold air?

 

Yes, it was from a farm. This is my first time hauling a “bulk” potato load. My guess is that bulk in trucking usually means the load will come with no packaging or very minimal packaging like one big box per pallet. In my case of bulk potatoes, they just dumped the product on the floor. I think they will unload it by literally raising the trailer on a mechanical floor so the product will slide down to some conveyor belt or container. I remember watching a YouTube video of this type of unloading.