Are reefer dock times bad?

Delivery times can be any time of day or night. If delivering in a bad parking area, there are a few ways to mitigate it. The best is try to trip plan with extra time available, and make sure you have a preplan so you can either travel directly to it, or drive toward it if parking is easier along the route.

If that’s not possible just look at all your parking options; stay at receiver, drive farther to get to parking, park in a small out of the way place, park on the street in industrial areas, etc. Worst case you have to drive farther than you want to get to parking. That can be on PC if necessary. Welcome to the world of reefer, a happy place for sure!

 

Using the split break is very helpful. So is pc.

 

Not sure about driving rules today, but some things in trucking never change, reefer is the absolute WORST aspect of trucking. I did a lot of reefer work for Crystal Farms, and luckily, I was paid by the hour, but many times, the place literally has no room for your product, and you become their cold storage until something moves. Unlike van freight, it can't just sit on a dock. All those places are union, and they milk it terribly. Their LAST concern is about the driver running out of hours, they couldn't care less.
So, in conclusion, you'd have to be nuts to drag a reefer today, the money, especially out here, is in flatbed. Flatbed, the people are grateful to load you, and the people are waiting for it on the other end. It's a much better deal, trust me.

 

And when backed into the dock, PUT YOURSELF IN THE SLEEPER, so you aren't burning your hours while twiddling your thumbs. If you end up at the dock for an extended period, you can do split sleeper to get enough hours to move after they are finished.

 

I've been doing reefer almost 2 years now. I guess I must be weird, but I like doing reefer. Appointment times vary around. One advantage to 2AM appointments is thay if it's in a city, cuts down on traffic to deal with.
And, yes, there tends to be alot of waiting for loading and unloading. I'm patient and don't have to be a mile #####, so I'm fine with it.
Rule of thumb I've found useful in clock management, if I'm waiting for the next thing to happen, I go either off duty or sleeper berth. I arrive, change to on duty to check in. Once checked in and waiting for dock assignment, change to off duty. Get a call with a dock, drive to it and back in, go back to off duty. Finished loading and getting paperwork, go to on duty. Then, when done, leave. Easy peasy and I haven't eaten up excessive clock time. All my actual waiting is spent in either off duty or sleeper berth.

 

Hauled Schreiber cheese for about 12 months never once had a dock book in time before 6 am or after 12 pm we always had good time slots.

 

If you choose your reefer company carefully, there are some that have plenty of drop and hooks. But those are typically larger companies. Most/many are live though.