Pros & Cons of Reefer as Company Driver

Perfect.

I couldn't have put it any better, myself.

--Lual

 

TL;DR:
There’s things that are kind of a pain but I like it. Works for me.

Wilson company driver hauling Prime loads.

Plenty of freight moving and almost always have a load ready when I’ve delivered the current one.

As many have said, waiting for unloading / lumpers can be a pain but when you learn to manage your clock and get detention pay it’s no big deal to me.

I don’t mind the ever-changing sleep schedule either, but sometimes finding decent parking is a PITA, especially at certain times and in “certain areas.” As for being concerned about other drivers bothered by reefer noise…I try to be polite but in the end if you’re parking at Love’s you should probably expect it.

It’s the only kind of driving I’ve ever done, and I’m in my rookie season so there’s that too.

 

Ok all told I've probably done about 4 years worth of hauling reefers so I reckon I qualify for to at least give some input. First I must point out that I loved doing reefer, which is why I struck with it for so long, out of all the cons, about the only one I'd say that really would be a hindrance would be the issue with monitoring the fridge motor, and even then in all my years of hauling chilled & Frozen freight and can only think of 3 times that I ever had issues. The key thing to remember in the colder climates specially if your hauling in the snowy states, like UT, ID, WY, MT, MN, IL, ND, SD, MI, is to keep those anti - freeze diesel additives in the reefer fuel tanks this I remember was a constant issue if a person switched off the engine once the trailer was empty. if you have to pick up frozen freight they will usually require you to pre -chill the trailer before loading or in some cases get it down to temp after loading. I remember once loading frozen freight I had to get the thing back down to around 1° F after they'd finished loading me and you could not leave the warehouse till you could prove your temps were at the required level. It must have taken me a good 3 hours to do so the unit just would not go down below a certain level, then someone suggested I unhook the tractor, at that point I was willing to try anything, so I unhooked the truck from the trailer sure enough the temps started coming right down, these are the issues you get when the reefer trailer the company provide you with is not actually designed for frozen temps, hence the delay, had I only had chilled freight on board I would of been long gone. Bottom line is sure there are a few extra issues you will have to put up with although having to wait for delivery times can be just as bad for dry freight too. Most of the other cons are not really that bad sure you have the extra tank to fill at the gas station but that won't take that much time.

 

If you have to deal with a food warehouse, then there are no pros....

 

Well you could get your 34 hour reset in while in a dock

 

How is Dutch maid to work for? I been talking to them an thinking about going.

 

Pulling reefers, if the weather is extremely hot or extremely cold, just set the reefer unit to "Continuous Run" and the temp will stay where it's supposed to.