Reefer Ice Cream Loads

If you left your freezer door open a crack do you think it would work better or worse?

I think wichris's point is that for most of us with older trailers, the drain holes are probably nothing compared to bigger air leaks elsewhere. Usually loose doors or worn door seals. Easy to spot when hauling frozen product on a rainy day.

In fact, the cold air escaping is not the problem. Warm, humid air getting in is a bigger problem. The humidity causes more frequent evaporator icing and defrost cycles, making the unit work harder than it should. Mr. PC if your reefer was running mostly on low with a -20º setting and not going into defrost much, you're good.

Your reefer dealer ought to be able to provide a collapsible tip like this one (bottom item). Lets cargo goop and trailer wash drain out, keeps the air seal mostly intact otherwise.

 

I'm thinking it would interesting to look through a thermo gun to see where the trailer leaks cold air. Then apply liberal amount of expanding foam.

Interesting business idea

 

We've hauled ice cream in the past and have had no problems holding -20. It was pretty good money till the big reefer carriers moved in. It went from mostly O/O to big box carrier.

SbIII thermoking still drops like a champ. We do keep religious maintance on unit.

 

Some of the older units will struggle to get below zero.

They want you run -20 to -10 to keep it hard frozen. Actually it will stay safe to zero degrees. Many times at night when I went to bed, I would set it at -5 cycle. One to give the unit a break and me some quiet time. Then when I got up, I would set it back to -20 before I delivered. I never lost a load. It's better than listening to it scream all night and your neighbors won't hate you as much. There's a big difference in run time in them 15 degrees.

 

When you loose a load for failure to keep proper temperature caused by weather, failure equipment, or unit breaks down, or delivery location rejects product, because of the temperature settings what happens next?

Do you get stuck with the bad load or the owner of the products files a lawsuit against you or does your insurance cover it?

thanks.

 

Weather this is a brokered load or direct customer, either party would want proof of reefer breakdown insurance before giving a carrier a load of ice cream. Then, weather the unit "breaksdown" (stops running) or it cannot pulldown/maintain proper temp, and thus turning that ice cream into running gravy, the load should be covered by insurance.

 

That is the point i was making. Comparing the drain holes in a trailer to a freezer,it would amount to a pin hole in the freezer. We've used a thermal camera on trailers for years now to spot problems from moisture retention,bad seals ect. and correcting it before it becomes a major problem.

 

I guess you are insinuating I'm one of these reefer drivers that doesn't know what they are doing??

I haven't had a claim yet and have a recorder every load. The question is proper temperature and knowing your freight. Try looking at the customers warehouse temperature and even use your pulp thermometer. You'll learn things. I got my info from Dean's Ice Cream and what ice cream really needs. I use to deliver there regularly. Their warehouse was at zero degrees.

You have to remember, all trucking rules and instructions are for all including the dummies. If you noticed, I said night time when the sun isn't shining.
I never had a frozen claim. I never had a produce claim. Meat hauling days, I had one claim from a sealed load I picked up and two loose boxes were thrown on top of the edge of a back pallet.
One time 3 of us sat the weekend in St.Paul on banana loads in -15(-30 windchill). My load was accepted. The other two were rejected.
I have a better track record than most.

 

Thank you for the reply.

 

I just wanted to know in different type of situations what happens when a load is lost or rejected, who gets the one to be blamed.

I would assume their could be different circumstances.

When I used to drive this cargo van their was a client for the company I was working for that was real picky on what temperature the produce came in, the tricky part about this location was that the unloading section was next to these huge drier vents that made the unloading section always feel like 200 degrees summer or winter so as soon as you would unload the produce in matter of seconds the produce temperature would go up by just being left on the loading dock.

The guy who received the produce always had his laser thermometer gun he never used a pulp thermometer the first thing he would do was shoot the reefer unit and get the temperature and then get the produce temperature which was weird, because as soon as you would open the doors in that 200 degree unloading section the temperature would rise up.

So then after he lasered the temperature then he would shoot the produce by then degrees would be lost, now heres the catch he would reject other produce from the morning drop off in these huge box trucks, but for some odd reason he would never reject my drop off whether the temperature was right or wrong and the reason why is the first time I went their I just started talking to him with all different type of topics and the guy tell you the truth never checked the temperature again all the times I went back.

So many times I would drop off different vegetables, fruits, sometimes delicate time sensitive produce and the receiver didn't even care, he would just tell me put it in the cooler and thats it.

That came about your banana load that you mentioned and I believe a banana load should be around the 56 and 59 °F during transport otherwise they affect the ripening process.