How do refers make good money?

He meant get there the day before and stay off duty until you are done unloading. So you won't burn your clock down.

 

Provided they have a staging area for you to take your 10 hour break.

 

I did reefer for 7 years. Hopefully never again! I didn't realize how much easier dry van is with all the drop n' hook, and alot less lumpers.

 

I spent my last 2 years pulling a reefer. The waits are not that bad. Half the time I did a drop and hook anyway. It was my experience that the overnight unloads were the worse time wise. However they were good for several hours of sleep. Don't be afraid of pulling a reefer . The biggest thing is getting used to the reefer shaking and keeping an eye on it especially during your break.

 

My experience hailing reefers was the same as you describe.

Did it for almost 2 years, staying out on the road for weeks and struggling to make 1800 miles a week because we only ever did 600 mile or so runs (they gave all the good runs to a handful of drivers) and I wasted my days doing picks and drops for nothing.

I earned less in 2009/2010 running a reefer than my father in law earned in 1980, dollar for dollar. And he was home every weekend.

If I was going to do reefers again, it would be on the condition that all wait times are paid (no free 2 hours), all drops are paid (no free first/last) and hauling direct freight only, no brokers, no lumpers and no problem getting someone on the phone of you encounter the proverbial receivers that don't want/need/care about the product they ordered.

 

That's cool. I fantasize about things that will never happen too.

 

Hint: You can haul paper towels in a reefer... you cannot haul ice cream in a van.

 

You can haul that freeze dried space ice cream in a van

 

There's a few fleets out there that meet that criteria, or darn close. Walmart is allegedly ramping up to move more reefers on their own fleet instead of outside carriers.

There are a few grocery store chains in Canada that own their own fleets and only move product to their stores from their own warehouses.

Unfortunately, the trucking economy is depressed where I love and they can get away with only paying $14/hr because there are so many class 1 licenses around so that kind of work is out of the question.