Reefer vs dry van ?

Reefer can mean a lot of early morning deliveries at grocery warehouses that can take hours to unload. Conversely your pick ups can take awhile too.

That said, when I was OTR I had my fair share of reefer drops, they just were far and few between. Depends on the company really.

Produce. Walmart DCs. Grocery Warehouse. Meat loads. Those are all synonymous with reefer work.

Never did dry van OTR work, but from what I can surmise most of that is now med-short haul work.

unloader

 

I haul both reefer and dry van OTR. I have been doing it for 1 year. There is not a single pro that i can think of with reefer loads. I hate them with a burning passion.

Dry van any day of the week. Put up your load bars, slam the doors, drop and hook. Done.

 

My co driver and I do reefer but only dedicated. It can be a pain and you will always just about have heavy loads. Will I keep doing reefer? Hell no, like I said it is a pain and I can imagine what 48 staters or regional goes through with that crap.

 

In all of my mere 26 years, I have been primarily dry van. I have however pulled reefer, and hated it. When I was doing OTR many years ago, (with a dry van), I too had to go to food warehouses. But there was ever so slight a difference.

My load was quickly taken off by the dock workers. The reefer guys had to break down every single pallet and restock on other pallets. And that even meant, if only one item went onto one pallet, that's the way the warehouse wanted it.

No amount of my time was ever worth reefer work. Some people like it, some love it, I loathed the day's I had pulled reefer, even if only for the short time I had done so.

 

As a company driver forget reefer.

Flip flopping sleep schedules to make all different kinds of appointment times.
And if the appointment times won't mess your sleep up... waiting endlessly to get unloaded will.
Plus you have to deal with stupid lumpers.

You're not paid enough vs Dry van to make it worth all the BS

 

Getting out of 'huge distributors' is worse - much worse. That is just the start of problems but enough to say getting a couple cents more for reefer is not worth it.

 

A lot of people worked at the wrong reefer outfits is all I can say. Reefer at the right place is great. Length of hauls much greater, all the miles you can run, all preplanned, mostly manageable appointments, a lot of drop/hook, half loads under 30k,

 

Im sure a new driver just starting out will qualify for the "right outfit" too.

For new drivers reefer outfits are a nonstarter. If you have 1-3 years experience and want to give it a shot be my guess. But you will have to do your research to find the right company. But the bottom line is reefer work is loaded with bs, so any job offer will have to come with a very generous compensation package or it just isnt worth it.