Pros & Cons of Reefer as Company Driver

Discussion in 'Refrigerated Trucking Forum' started by downplay, Jul 15, 2022.

  1. nredfor88

    nredfor88 Road Train Member

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    I’ve pulled a reefer or two that ran continuously to try to get to -10 even though set to stop/start until the sun was down a few hours. That can happen with older equipment in hot weather, or if the shipper was using the reefer to bring their product down to temp.
     
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  3. Thrasher28

    Thrasher28 Heavy Load Member

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    Late to the party, but will add my $0.02 for any lurkers curious

    I’ve only ever pulled reefer and dry van and 100% would go back to reefer right now if I didn’t care about a somewhat stable job history. Made the switch from reefer back to dry van for more pay a few months ago, so I feel like it’d be a bad look to make the jump back.

    Reefer runs are longer on average by a decent margin, and lots come from/go to 24/7 warehouses. This means a lot of the time, you’re able to be rolling or PU/Del. when you have hours instead of sitting around waiting on appointments. One month, I had two 1700 mile loads one week, a 2900 mile load, followed by two 1600 miles loads in a row. That was almost 3 weeks covered in 5 loads and was true coast to coast running. Were dock times longer? Sure. But bumped a total of 10 docks in 3 weeks, which would be done in 5-6 days in dry van. Total time in a dock in reefer per week is actually pretty close to dry van. In dry van, you’ll get a lot of 500 mile, next day deliveries. You can still get decent miles in dry van, but it’s irritating going on a 8 hour trip from one Midwest state to another and parking at 7pm just to wait for your 8am appointment. In dry van, if you have a delivery at 2pm and they take their time unloading, good luck finding a reload at 6pm. You’ll probably be sitting until 7am. Some might prefer the day shift life, but I miss pulling reefer and working based on HOS allowance rather than some little warehouse’s business hours.

    My average length of haul in reefer was ~1000 miles and my average length of haul in dry van is ~600.

    Downsides to reefer would be the long detention times, washouts, added worries, etc.. It’s not too big of a deal if you’re the type that can nap for 3 hours, wake up, drive your hours out, and fall back asleep. I’d assume it sucks for those who need an actual sleep schedule and prefer to sleep from 9pm - 5am every night. Washouts can be a pain at times. It could take 15 minutes and you’re on your way, or it could be a 2 hour wait at the local streakin’ beacon and suddenly, you’re stressed about your appointment time. The stress of maintaining temp isn’t a super big deal, but it is always something in the back of your mind. I might be biased because I enjoyed it so much, but there really aren’t any major cons for me.
     
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  4. MartinFromBC

    MartinFromBC Road Train Member

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    Come on Up here in winter time, all loads are reefer loads. Open deck, dump truck, low bed, all reefer :)
     
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  5. northstarfire0693

    northstarfire0693 Heavy Load Member

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    Little late to the party, but here is my take on reefer. I pulled for 7 years with two different companies back in the mid 90's-2003. Lisa/MTC and National Carriers.

    Pro's

    The workload is steady. Everyone has to eat, no matter what time of year.
    Miles were good. Never had a slow week.
    Home time was simple. Lived in San Antonio.
    Equipment was good.
    Loaded heavy 98% of the time 79K. So wind and snow wasn't much of an issue.
    Ran cross country many times CA to NY. I was one of the few who didn't mind Hunts Point back then.
    Lots of night driving, loved it. Less traffic and always had parking when time to shut down.
    Long waits times at shippers/receivers were time to reset the book so I could run. ( Others hate it, but its how you manage your logbook, take advantage).

    Cons

    Attitudes from 90% of the workers at shippers/receivers. Some were decent, but most hate the fact you are there.
    Lumpers.
    Long wait times (See my post above)
    Cold Storage warehouses. Most of them just suck.
    Meat Plants. Not sure on how they work now, but back then you could sit for up two three days waiting on a load. (my company put us in a hotel, so 90% of the time it wasent too bad of a deal. Others had to wait in their trucks. And the smell was awesome). If I had to pick up a load in the pan handle, like Cactus TX. worked great for me if I had to sit a few days. Bobtailed to Amarillo to see the girlfriend.


    Bottom line. It is what you make of it. I did both reefer and flats (conastoga, no tarping) I had good and bad time in both. If I was going to step back into the drivers seat, I would go back to flats, but I would also do reefer again if I had to.
     
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