Bill of lading says +24, continuous run, or not?

There are several factors such as the age of the reefer, the condition of the seals around the doors, outside ambient temperature, the temperature of the product when loaded, the condition of the air shute, the quality of the wall insulation,...

 

Biggest reason refrigerated trailers have a limited life expectancy, especially to run a lot of frozen is moisture intrusion into the foam walls. (Air loss)


Fighting moisture intrusion in refrigerated trailers

 

We had a old carrier approx 1975 vintage with a 30 gallon tank or so.

Let's just say that when icecream is in there in the summer, there is no way to put away the miles in a given workday or night without feeding that thing sometimes. Spin the big dial down all the way to -25 and the howl sets in that will never stop. Best it would do is about -9 or so. Which is good enough.

Even today I consider it amazing how we got that stuff delivered in good condition with something like that.

 

Interesting. I had a feeling this would be an issue, but didn’t realize it would compromise the quality of the foam walls.

I watched an OOIDA educational video where they mentioned to weigh the trailer before purchase to know if there might be water in between the walls, but they didn’t mention moisture intrusion. They mentioned holes in the wall that were not repaired promptly and started accumulating a lot of water. I suppose moisture is the primary culprit in damaging the insulation, while the holes in the wall can add lots of weight to the trailer if not repaired promptly. I can confirm that there are many fleet trailers with holes in them. Drivers don’t report them because that would mean a trip to the shop. Drivers mostly use tape.

 

I just finished reading an article on this topic. While I don’t fully agree, they make some interesting points. They say cycle sentry should only be used on frozen food (+24 or less). They also say to always run produce on continuous because of product respiration. I’ve always known to run produce on continuous, but didn’t understand why.

Continuous vs. Cycle Sentry

 

I think I will try this continuous method. Interestingly, I have run most loads on cycle sentry (except produce or if BOL says continuous) and have never had a rejected load due to temperature at all. I’ve been doing OTR reefer for over 5 years.

I am trying to come up with a “formula” with the continuous method you guys mentioned. For example, run it on continuous for 36 hrs, or 50% of the transit time, whichever is greater.

I can see how running it on continuous (initially) can prevent claims from loads that were not properly cooled before loading. I remember one time I was told to have the reefer temp on +34 by the loader late at night. The shipping office was closed and the BOL mentioned no temp. I called the next morning to verify the temp, and was told the temp should be -10! I remember it took the reefer over 24 hrs to bring the temp below 0. The load was received with no issues.

 

Reefers are maintainers, not chillers.

Most of the issues are through forklift trouble with the boxes. Then you have a great deal of food items rejected. It's still good, nothing wrong with it except now it's a great hassle reselling to a local wholesaler who will be pleased to make a dollar on it. I recall there was never any money in getting rid of this and that. Might as well chuck it all into the side box and get the forks out with the plate to start eating on it for the good it does.

 

I run with the Blue and Gold chicken guys and we run intermittent *most of the time*. The plant will blast chill and dry ice pack to get the bird to its desired shipping temp. Most fresh product we haul at 28. Certain loads go at 20 dependent on customer. IF the plant is really pushing to get product out, we will have loads that aren't fully at temp and despite the unit set on intermittent, will run the entire trip to the DC.

 

Wow that's impressive!

 

That is pretty impressive. 10 on 3 day continuous.

What in the world would be my questions. Once burnt the entire 100 gallon tank in precooling at the bottom of ours long ago in less than three on a hot summer week. I think it was trying for -25 or so. Which is probably not possible in the end. So that 100 lost would be my fault and not the nice 10 over 3 days.

That's amazing.

I remember also having to fill 30 gallon smalls twice a day on seafood sometimes. The aggravating part was the fuel always came back out of the spout on you if you were not looking.