Dry Van or Reefer?

Any decisions yet, @Regional ???? Since you're up on TTR . . . chime in!

 

It’s a toss up. I hauled a reefer unit for a year and an half. We hauled pharmaceuticals for a big corporation, I can not give any advice on food shipments.
You do need fuel (although it’s a small amount it’s an added expense). I had the reefer breakdown twice, luckily not under a load. I was able to get serviced quickly ( I’m not sure if it was because of whom I pulled for or not) BUT, Thermo king is only open during business hours.
Yes, I was able to get dry loads as well but, you have to watch your weight and your space. The thermo unit adds weight and gives you less space than a dry van.
We always kept lock bars at the nose of the trailer to help from any damage that may occur from reckless loaders.
The flooring is different in reefers too (maybe you know this stuff, I don’t know)
We had a few odd ball loads that made it difficult to load. One was musical equipment where they just rolled the stuff on, it took a while to get loaded with the tiny wheels getting stuck in the grooves.
One load we had to get plywood for the floors. That worked out for us though. The company paid for it and we used it to rebuild our well house.
Our truck was leased on to the company and the trailer was theirs. So, except for fuel and rental fee we didn’t have to pay for anything on the trailer.

 

I like dry vans I don’t care to much for reefers. They are noisy expensive cold and breakdown and are heavy. Dry vans are quiet cheap warm and only break down very infrequently and they are light. Also a study shows that dry van drivers are seen as more attractive to women.

 

Probably because when the woman smiles and says "Hey big guy" the dry van drivers response is "Hey girl." The refer drivers reply is "What?" "What did you say?" "Speak up, I can't hear you."

 

What’d ya say .... what .... speak up can’t hear you ?!?!?!?

Lol