Reefer question

I picked up a load of beef trimmings yesterday morning. Required to be run at 23* continuous.

They even required that I send a picture of the reefer screen showing the empty reefer setpoint at 23 and the box temp at 23 before they'd send me the pickup number.

No problem. Empty trailer box temp matched the setpoint.

But after being loaded, all day the box temp shows 6 degrees warmer than the setpoint. There are no alarms. So at 23 setpoint the box temp shows 29.

I moved the setpoint to 22 and the box temp moved to 28.

I moved the setpoint to 19 and the box temp shows 25.

After a full 600+ mile day the box temp still shows 6 degrees warmer than setpoint.

I set it at 17 before I went to bed and will check it again shortly.

Any idea what's going on?

 

Was loaded warm(fresh), they want it semi-frozen when they get it so it's easier to work it.

 

Yes. I deliver Tuesday morning. Do you think the product will chill to the point that the box temp and the setpoint match?

I'm guessing this beef takes a long time to chill. I'm not accustomed to hauling beef. Most products seem to chill to temp very quickly, or are pre-chilled before loading.

 

Just keep it on the temp they said. Who's it going to?

 

Golden West

 

Just keep it on 23, should get close by Tuesday. What's the RA temp say?

 

Definitely loaded warm,.,not unusual...leave on 23..,,open rear vent door
Beef trimmings are either ground up for filler or rendered for oil...just need to be cold so they don’t spoil

 

I have that issue commonly. I just leave the temp at the set point specified on the BOL. I know it often is warmer than the set point. But, the folks who ship this stuff know how reefer temp stuff works, so they factor that into what they request the set point to be. If they say set at 23, they know that the temp will range from about 29 or 30 degrees down to around 21 degrees.
Only time I tweak things a bit is sometimes I'll have a load specifying on the BOL that the load needs to stay below 0 degrees. I'll typically set my reefer to -10 in those circumstances and with ice cream loads, the common setting is -15. I'll commonly set my reefer to -20.
Stuff that is basically strongly frozen, keeping the temp lower doesn't hurt. But, meat is weird and even though the temp setting is technically below freezing, it isn't a hard freeze and a keep the temp too low can cause damage by hard freezing the load. With a meat load, best to set it where and how the BOL specifies, the shipper and receiver know that the reefer box temp will vary around somewhat.

 

The beef was most likely slaughtered and processed the day you picked it up. Run it at the temperature that your BOL advises you to. Read the BOL carefully for example, when I load fresh Chicken, the BOL advises to run at 5 degrees for 12 hours then 26 for the remainder of the trip.
After your next load if it is doing the same thing, then get it checked out.