Reefer rookie questions

I am not the man to ask this question to.

I am known for setting full continuous. I'll burn the 100 gallons under that reefer first and add more any time before I'll allow that temp to rise.

The only time I cycle is when hauling medicine. Set point 60 and there are times in winter it's actually keeping it heated at 60 when its -10 outside.

I have had reefer loads rejected before usually after picking up a load that has been allowed by the fuel boy to run dry at the yard. It spoils on the way to delivery across the USA. Those go into landfills. I think I only had three rejected so far and that's about all of them too. Two went into landfills and the one was resold at a loss to whole sale which became it's own delivery.

This does not include the occasional case or a pallet of this and that ranging from meat to butter and stuff because the forklift made a tiny cut in the box. Those go to OSD for insurance purposes and then specifically handled just so to prevent diversion or sales into the black market so to speak for cash.

Now if OSD gave permission you toss that food into the corner and take home. Or trade it as currency to a shipper to get loaded in 10 minutes. It's better than money to certain peoples working in fast paced shippers. They are hungry. I recall 50 pounds of butter in stick form vanishing in 5 minutes and I was loaded in 15. Just enough time to cross the GWB outbound before the crush loaded. Hunts Point got the rest.

The best shippers who I maintain loyalty to certain food items are those who toss something extra into the tractor for us on top of the loading. MM Mars come to mind. Mt Olives is another and so on. Pompeii is a third.

Most of the time we do not have the load on long enough to burn through the 100 gallons.

HOWEVER.

We were a husband and wife team with FFE one day in 2001 summer. We were told by not just Dispatch but also a broker plus one of our Company Vice Presidents to skip the Salinas truckstop and go right away into the Americold Facility emergency quick now load.

Well we got there already precold to -25 or so where they told us they aint ready. So we sit in front of their two docks on the corner burning all of our tractor fuel at high idle day and night and burning all of our reefer fuel maintaining precool for just about 3 days and two complete nights. Emergency my ###. They probably had visions of christmas joy in detention pay sitting on our gold plated butts.

A absolute waste of our time and we got paid ZIP. The first thing we had to do after loading was go buy 400+ gallons of fuel. Im pretty sure that made a dent on whatever profit there was to be made.

 

I've run literally dozens of CH Robinson loads & always ran the temp just as the broker said to which is usually what is indicated on the BOL.
The reason is, the tattletale inside the load will show if the temp. fluctuates much and how many degrees. Many receivers will check the tattletale and if they see a fluctuation, will use that to negotiate a cheaper price from the broker/shipper. Produce receivers are the worst about that. I was a company driver, so wasn't paying for the reefer fuel. Anyway, I set the temp, etc. exactly as the BOL had on it. The last thing you want is a load rejected because the tattletale snitched on you.

 

Haul for a nice healthy rate. Don't haul for .60 cents a mile. It hurts us all. You will be fine.

I expect oil to 90 dollars a barrel within this year at some point. Taking Iranian Oil off the American market slowly and surely, in combination with the declining Venezuela production as their society collapses.

We will know for sure about Memorial Day and 4th July when the gasoline and fuel burn figures come into official knowledge for Cushing stocks and american shale output.

 

Keep on cycle when temp outside is not too cold or too hat. When it's too cold you have too protect it from freezing fuel may not start again when too hat battery may not like it too start that every 20 minutes. But when I got to sleep it on continues off cours depends on temp outside.. and ice cream continues for shure

 

-10 or colder only needs continuous if it is blazing hot outside.

Potatos. Cycle. Every time. Their temp range is very wide.
Apples. Temp range 33-40. If you can keep them in that range you can get away with cycle. I run them continuous anyway. All leafy greens and berries require continuous. They pretty well all have a suitable range of only 1 or 2 degrees. All your heartier products that have a skin to them, most can be cycle. Melons oranges onions lemons etc. Stuff like peaches with a soft outer layer and easily squished-also continuous. Since you are asking potatos and apples you will probably see cherries soon as well. It's a berry and continuous. And make them pay an extra grand or 2 for cherries. They will.

Fill your reefer at the lowest price, burn red fuel if you like.

 

Only run cotinyou'd if temp outside is 65 - 70 de g if above run steady and if bellow 45 at night run continuous inless bills state continuous

 

Tell you a secret about frozen .. it burns as much or more fuel on cycle due to the fact it needs to go to high speed to draw temp back down .. on continuous it keeps temp at a idle pretty much .... and the so-called experienced hands who say defrost raises box temp don’t know what they are talking about.. temp on display only goes up because it’s heating the condenser and not flowing air into the box

 

Depends on units thermal efficiency....how good your reefer unit is....how hot it is outside...
If it has to run for 20 minutes on high idle only to shut off for 5 minutes then continuous is your friend. If it can sit off for longer than it needs to be on then cycle is fine. Even in continuous it will be programmed to run defrost every 4 hours usually.

And yes it does raise box temp but only slightly and for a short time. The temp on display is the box temp. Mine will warm from -10 to maybe +5 before it kicks into cool and then it's back down in a matter of minutes.