Dry van running all 48?

I would give Danny Herman a call you never know they might be interested.

 

Watkins Shepard is a true 48 state company, headquartered in Montana but with terminals all over. They do plenty of business out west.

 

They did, but they're still operating as a separate company. Though I hear they now have Schneider loads in addition to their own freight.

 

Don't be afraid of reefer. You just need to find the right company that won't screw around with you over it.

My first outfit tried to dictate temperature settings through dispatch even when the customer themselves came out and set it. They would even change the settings remotely while drivers were on their ten hour. We had crazy high numbers of rejected loads because of it, but that never stopped the people with the biggest egos in the company. We also had to fight with them constantly over detention pay. Getting a comcheck authorized was its own nightmare. Imagine sitting 7.5 hours at a shipper: 30 minutes to get checked in, backed in, unloaded, and pull out of the door...and 7 hours to get a csr to approve the lumper fee request and issue an express code. Payroll was its own little hades. Imagine getting your expenses randomly turned down because someone with zero trucking experience who is sitting in an office that never even sees the company trucks can't figure out why they should pay for things like washouts, scales, lumpers, or pallet fees. Not surprisingly, that particular company has sold off much of its reefer fleet, including a number of trailers they bought brand new but never even picked up from the factory. Like every other mega, they are freely blaming "low freight volume".

My current company guaranteed detention as soon as you hit two hours past appointment time. They issue t-checks ahead of time, so that all you have to do is message them the lumper amount so they can cancel the remaining balance. Our scales are covered by our fuel card. I've never once had anyone - shipper, consignee, or company - mess with the reefer. And the only time I've needed a washout on the road, I found out my company has an account set up at the same place that particular shipper uses to inspect incoming trailers.

As long as you have a company committed to doing it right, reefer should rarely be any more of a headache than dry van.

 

if you enjoy spending more time at customers, waiting in longer lines, delivering at 2am and picking up at 5pm all while trying to plan it on elogs and gettin paid by the mile then sure, reefer is for you lol

 

yup