Thermal blanket

Those are generally used on short dry van loads and not in reefers. You realize this is the reefer forum, right?

 

On rare occasions when products get shipped on a single temp trailer that need to be at different temps.

Think protect from freezing on a mixed LTL load.

 

Actually some shippers that have both fresh and frozen products going to the same receiver will use them. There are a few different kinds. Some are like furniture pads and others look like a “space blanket”.
I load a good bit of product that is “wrapped “ even though I have a bulkhead they still wrap fresh pallets for insurance.
They tried the space blankets once as a experiment and it didn’t protect the product at all.

 

I've never seen them used for reefers with zone cooling, but I don't offer that service on my reefer and have never been asked. Wouldn't think they would do a lot of good.

I've seen them used frequently hauling wine and beer particularly in the summer when they want to protect the load from heat. Most red wines spoil over 80-F degrees and the blankets offer some protection on short runs when the product is coming out of a chilled warehouse.

 

I would say it’s a small shipper thing where they are trying to save money. There is a place about 30mins from me that does fresh and frozen products and they’ve tried a few ways to ship them together. They now use the white foam like is used for furniture. Just wrap it 5-6 times and run on zero degrees.

 

I have never seen this kind of protection. Its either ice, temp or bulkhead running the rear cooling reefer compartment.

 

I’ve seen them used in rail containers when loading wine at chilled warehouses.

 

Use them all the time on LTL reefer along with the bulkhead.