Waiting and Loading Times for Fresh Produce Loads - California

We were a reefer team, wife and I. Pulling into Salinas truck stop for some downtime to take care of ourselves and the truck. A emergency message came through from Corporate and two dispatchers telling us to load at Americold in Salinas SW about 30 minutes away as the crow flies.

Compressing the entire story, It's about 80 hours of waiting in front of their two corner docks and the shipper office door Keeping our reefer precold and keeping us rested and so on with A/C on idle. Going into what would have been a beginning of day four while we had a converstation about getting out the credit card and have a fuel dealer locally deliver to us upwards of almost 400 gallons of fuel. We were about out. They called us to back in and were loaded pronto.

Filling the reefer and tractor took close to 400 gallons all together. And the delivery paid I think about 1200 miles. That particular week was very bad. Essentially ruined us for that one month.

I have a life time of horror stories long before Salinas. But this one would be the worst in losses. Considering how many drivers in FFE sitting around LA at any time, they can hop on 5 and be in Salinas pronto. And having us, a team sitting there all that time is wasteful. VERY wasteful.

That particular incident among others was a motivation to leave FFE for Memphis McKesson where shipping is strictly drop hook and unloading and reloading is 40 minutes in a secure facility for Memphis to get another medicine load out. That would be what I would do again in a heartbeat. Cuts out all that waiting BS from Produce, grocery and whatever else.

 

I didn't eat there , so can't comment on that, otherwise all the above plus. lol
lizards, lizards everywhere, Some guy pulled in talking to a lizard he apparently knew, there was zero parking, I mean not one space, after circling the lot he just parked in the row right in front of me.
I was going nowhere so didn't say anything, and the lizard jumped inand a lady co driver jumped out.
She had to walk right by my window to go in, so I ask if she had got kicked out for a while,(respectable looking lady) and she just said can you belive this. lol

 

Been several years since I did reefer as a company driver. Ran mostly western 11. So factor this in when reading my post...

In my experience, if the place is a mom&pop type place where the employees have a vested interest in efficiency, I've gotten in and out quickly.

On the other hand, if you're dealing with a medium to larger place where you have lumpers and office personnel milking the clock, I knew I was in for a loooooooooooong day.

And there are back hauls out of Watsonville area.

I wish I could remember the name but there was one smallish place I picked up at. I could smell the ocean and the weather was pleasantly cool as I waited in the staging area. This surprised me as it was a little more inland. They had a place to take a 10 there if necessary - something I was looking forward to because it was so nice. But wouldn't you know it? They got me a door and loaded me right away.

 

Time is your friend. That's all I have to say about produce loading.

 

The larger the shipper the longer the wait. I just delivered a load of fresh produce at Costco in Washington that I picked up at a small shipper in Gilroy. They had me loaded in 30 minutes. The big places will run out your clocks and you'll be spending the night there in many cases.

 

They got this new thing called PC mode or outlaw mode I call it which allows you to leave a shipper or receiver after they are done with you and your daily 14 is done.

 

It's actually called an agricultural exemption which allows you to drive up to 150 miles from the shipper while off duty. I've used it a few times but I usually don't feel like driving after taking 10 hours to load and in the middle of the night. Usually I'll just go off duty while I'm waiting to be loaded and then go PC until I find a parking spot until morning. I'm not a night owl.

 

See this is what I don’t understand losing 10 hours to unload is like killing 1k for me. How in the world would people do it? Specially with the current rates.

 

Well, as I recall there were a few successful reefer O/Os I met at trailer washouts, etc.

I didn't ask for their trade secrets (not like they were going to blab it to some guy they just met). But they looked quite successful and content. My guess is they dialed in their client base to reduce down time to an absolute minimum.

And there were the occasional specialty runs. I did a few carbon fiber loads which had to be temp controlled. Light to the point you'd swear you're pulling an mt. The relay driver told me loading was painless. The unloading part, which I dealt with at the consignee, was no touch, pleasant, and fast.

But, to your point, a majority of my experience pulling reefer freight was jaw-droppingly time consuming and frustrating.

If I calculate the hours worked to the dollar paid, I would've done better serving coffee at a starbucks.

As I inch closer to getting out of line haul and buying my first truck, I plan on dry van and flatbed, then transitioning to predominantly flatbed. I have @spyder7723 to thank for that advice.

For the lease ops and owner ops who choose the reefer path and make it genuinely work for you, I tip my hat.

 

I'm leased to a carrier that only deals with a couple buyers whom will go up a shippers arse if we get jacked around and have left product sitting on docks a couple times .
I dont have many problems.