Pros and cons of running refrigerated

I am switching all my.cordless stuff to black & decker 20v lithiums.

 

PRO: you can use reefer to charge truck batteries when alt goes out. Hope nobody sed that yet!

 

Pros of Reefer: It can jump the truck off, and the truck can jump it off. Its versatile to load. Recession proof as long as people eat and drink refrigerated drinks. Most of the time, if you work for a major reefer carrier with large accounts, you ll have more drop and hooks versus a smaller company.

Cons of Reefer: Has to be babysat to insure it hasn t quit, and the temperature is in range. Deliveries all times of the day, and sometimes lengthy loads and unloads. Expensive after hour repairs (2 hrs minimum plus mileage and parts if no dealer close by). Even the slightest tear or dent in a box or pallet, its refused and you use up your hours trying to find a place to donate it to. Lastly, the filth and stentch of a chicken or beef plant

 

never taken me more than about 1/2 hour to have someone come and pick up donated product.

Meat processing is no worse than some vegetable places in smell. Actually better at times. Most meat plants on the reefer side are at least concrete for sanitation reasons. Unlike produce where you are likely in the mud.

Rates are considerably better on the reefer side compared to the van side.

 

Frankly, I never smelled any vegetables worse than two feet of rotting chicken water when backing into the dock to load up.

 

Haha forgot i left my laptop plugged in ...love that free jumpstart

 

My experience was that the reefer always broke at the shipper and always just before your scheduled pickup when either a terminal or repair facility was 3-4 hours away, making you late! But everyone always has to eat so refrigerated is not as susceptible to the shifts in the economy as dry-goods are.

And then there's the noise made by the reefer when it cycles on/off. Gotta get used to that noise all night!

 

Trku, I have run reefer for the last 15 months, and it just about ran me out of trucking. The reason ? Let's start with where you go. Most reefer loads originate in southern California or Arizona. The only way to make the trips worthwhile is to be able to run out to the west coast and back in a single pay period. If you cannot do that, what should have been a 5,000 to 6,000 mile week (good money) becomes a 2,500 or 2,600 mile week. (NOT so good money.) In fact, not enough to justify the time you spend away from your family. I have arrived at shippers at 06:00 and been told "the produce is not here yet." When I ask where it is, I was told, "they are still picking it." I was finally loaded at 20:00 and left the shipper. An entire day wasted. On the other end, even if you're good enough to get to the consignee a day early, they often will not accept the load until your appointment time the next day. Another day wasted and now you can't get back out west on the current pay period. I won't mention any names, but the company who does this most often has a name that rhymes with Mall Fart. (Ever wonder why the produce there isn't as fresh as your local grocery store ?) In my opinion, dry freight is the way to go; very little, if any, touching of freight, and almost 100% drop & hook. (More miles)

 

Having just sold my dry van for a reefer,

I'd say it's more to do with the carrier than with the type of commodity hauled. What he's talking about is not LEGALLY possible in a single pay period.

Even if you can log on average 68 MPH. Legally, most states will nail you if you show an overage over 65. The MOST you can legally log is 4780 miles in a singe 8-day period. Even then, you'd be sitting after your 6th day for 34 hours to reset.

That's just so you can show it on paper.

Most produce places in the SW tend to load latter in the evening any way. we have a couple drivers that go down there on a regular basis and that's just what they plan on, don't start till 8 pm.