Driving Reefer and the Lower 48

Is it safe to say that Reefer drivers get to travel more of the country? Do they usually get longer hauls?
Also, if I were to get on with one of the bigger companies and do OTR, will I go to all 48 States? Or do some companies try to keep you East of the Mississippi or The Rockies? I'd really like to see the Lower 48 with my first company.

Thanks guys!

 

you already live in one of the most beautiful parts of the country
reefer co come in all shapes and sizes many starter co dont send newbies over the mountains
but some do
you might need to be with a few different companies and experience before you see it all
but off the top of my head Prime will send you from sea to shining sea

 

"but off the top of my head Prime will send you from sea to shining sea"
There"s a song in there somewhere

 

Can't speak for Prime. FFE's modus operandi was to rail high mileage freight unless it was a JIT (Just-in-time) delivery. It was pretty regular to see freight railed to the west coast as a solo driver. Which meant many lovely days spent at railheads waiting to pull a load 15 miles out of it, to get back into a freightline that had more than 200 miles loads coming off it.

My very best loads came out of Southwest/central Cali (typically always food products, specifically a lot of wine/spirits and produce), Denver area (meatpatch territory), Dallas (usually hard commodities like thermoset plastics and general dry van freight. Sometimes processed foods), Cleveland area (lots of dairy products), and finally, north jersey (A LOT of imported produce heading to the midwest that was JIT freight, and hard commodities like processed and packaged glass.)

Typically any freight that was above 1,000 miles but below 2,500 was yours to haul. BUT, if it was coast to coast they'd almost always rail it. I've taken several from Pacific to the Atlantic and I can confirm it is the best and most awesome thing about being a trucker


This is just my experience with FFE. Though it's worth mentioning I rarely had late deliveries (5, in total. 2 of which were completely my fault.) and my MPG was almost always 7+. That's what I get for going company trained and refuse to lease out of the gate @_@

 

not sure about the west coast, but if you like the north east try Stevens outa dallas.

 

I think I read a blog somewhere about a Swift driver getting to travel all 48...but I was trying to stay away from Swift. Hmm, what to do. I'm definitely considering Prime and Roehl.

 

H O Wolding seems to get all over the country
but they can get fussy about the hiring areas

 

Stevens covers all 48 states and Canada. New drivers can be sent anywhere and usually are. Canada is only for those drivers that ask for it. It is not unusual to do coast to coast runs with your trainer, but as a solo, coast to coast is fairly rare. you may get a load from Cali to Cheyenne, then the next from Nebraska to the east.

 

Eh...I'd stay away from Swift if you can.

I'm not saying they're the worst company. There's someone running around on these forums with a signature that says "A company is 90% your attitude and 10% a dispatcher screwing you." With hind-sight 20/20 I agree. Any company is what you make of it. A lot of drivers get on here, screaming from the mountain tops what a terrible company Swift is. I make fun of them, a lot of drivers do. But in all honesty; since I've never been with them, I'm not really in a position to judge. And you will find that those drivers that are the least happiest, are the ones rolling around hardly getting 6 mpg, and making late deliveries... Yeah, they're getting screwed, because undoubtedly their planners/dispatchers aren't willing to trust them with high value/high mileage loads with tight delivery times. The point I'm trying to make is very simple. If you screw around, don't expect to go far. If you're bad at this job, you will be unhappy.


BUT! from what I hear on the ground it might be a good idea to push them back to a last resort, or something close to it.


Do what you're gonna do, but at the very least- learn from it. Wisdom is just the dividends of screwing up.
Don't forget that.

Also, do this job because you love it. Not for the money. You'll be very sad if you do this job for the money at first.

 

Good question to ask reefer companies; do they run 48 states. Some reefer companies give the long runs to their teams and some reefer companies don't run teams at all, only solo. If you prefer solo driving, then start looking for companies that run solo drivers 48 states.