Start out reefer or van?

Just speaking from my short time experience, PattyJ. I do realize that experiences will vary. Didn't mean for it to be gospel.

 

Actually reefer and van requires no exp.its all what the person prefers.I did both and prefer van because many times you dont have to rush getting LDS delivered come Friday because you have all weekend to get it to its destination.

 

As someone who has done both, honestly most of the time my pickups and deliveries were drop and hooks. The biggest negative about reefers is the shaking it makes when it starts up. It takes a while to get used to this. But once you do you can sleep right through it. Of the two I liked reefer because most of the time I knew where I was going. Yes as has already been said there are places that only take deliveries after midnight. The vast majority of these places my company had accounts so all I did was get checked in then got back into my truck and went to bed. In both dry van and reefer you must learn how to manage your 14 hour clock and ten hour breaks. After some time has passed you will learn how to do this.

 

There are some things with reefers that a fresh driver will have no clue about. Especially dealing with produce. Like if you pick up a load in Cali that's straight from the field and you don't pulp the product then get to Chicago and
they refuse the load because it pulps at 50 degrees when it should be in the mid 30's. Or you set the reefer to 33 degrees because the BOL says so and cause freeze damage.

 

Depending on where you live, Trimac and other fuel carriers may be available to you. If so, JUMP on them.

If you want to have anything remotely resembling a home-life, fuel hauling is where you want to go. They tend to be 10 hour days and home weekends.

You may not start out there, but that's the norm. You'll need hazmat, tankers and doubles/triples endorsements.

 

Another thing new to reefer drivers need to know is things like never dropping a trailer with the fuel tanks below a half a tank. Never allow a reefer to run out of fuel because most of the time its next to impossible to restart because the fuel filter gets clogged with all the crap from the bottom of the tank. The last topic is not for people that get sick easy. Always walk through your trailer after each load where there is a chance of there being blood on the floor. If you find blood get that trailer washed out ASAP. If per chance that trailer sits for more then 2 days with the reefer unit off there will be a horrible smell that a wash out won't get rid of that easy.

 

Geezus....yeah too much to learn, I only done it for a few months, probably never again. But they do have shiny trailers.

 

The company whose trailers I tote around, do both, but I am usually hooked to a reefer, although, I probably run about 70% dry freight. Nice to have the option though.

I just ran a load of Vinegar from NY to California, dry load, to manufacturing company, and now have a Produce load goibackack east.

Give me more flexibility.

 

I know,a new driver won't know anything about reefer until he goes with a trainer and the company will give him an instructiion booklet how to operate a reefer unit.