O/O Reefer Versus Dry?

Just interested in seeing where folks fall out on this...

Reefer - less gross (weight of equipment), higher risk (reefer issues or receiver wants to find an excuse to reject the load), slightly better cpm, can load dry (if shipper will/can load a reefer box, and freight net doesn't put you over gross.


While the better $$ is in skateboards, don't know that I would do that kind of freight without working for someone else fist to learn the ropes of loading, securement and tarping (plus, it actually resembles real work).

Considering just purchasing a box at the end of the year (versus leasing on with a company and dragging someone else's). Obviously a reefer is more expensive and more maintenance intense than dry.

OTOH - FOOD always moves, fruits & veg's require reefer.

Does the freight and pay justify the risk and additional cost (both the buy-in and the maintenance), or is dry-van the best way to go.

Load board demo's I'm looking at (which don't show rates of course) are about 50/50 in the lanes I'm looking to run.

Rick

 

Yeah MN, like I said - flat is attractive, for the "adventure" of interesting loads and the $$ - but slinging tarps, straps & chains doesn't seem like a whole lot of fun.

Friend of mine ran a rolling tarp system, cost him a bundle. Thought it was more trouble than it was worth, expensive to repair, he had a step and the time, and I see he's driving a straight, and throwing his own tarps now.

Again, while the reefer stuff seems to run a little more regular (albeit produce lanes move around by whats in season/where), it's more high risk/equipment maintenance.

Owning your own box - everything is a live load. I've seen more guys unloading their own dry boxes, than reefer guys unloading theirs. I supposed there's a trade-off in detention times being greater (on average) for reefer than for dry?

Rick

 

So you're liking the dry van stuff and prefer it over (potentially) running reefer?

Have a broker friend (go figure, a broker that is actually a FRIEND) I was discussing this with a few years ago, last time I was considering "buying in" to the trucking circus. I was looking at reefer then, for the versatility of being able to run both kinds of freight - but she she she couldn't load me (she was all dry van at the time), because of the diminished capacity of the reefer box (both in weight and interior dimensions). She books all kinds of freight now - but I haven't revisited this conversation.

One of the other things I hear is quite common, is the receiver decides he didn't need the "inventory", claims you went "over temp" on the load and rejects the whole thing - leaving the carrier to eat it as a claim (and driving his cargo insurance rates up). Shippers will frequently throw a skid of spoiled (though their negligence) product on, so the carrier has to eat the claim when the receiver finds it, and on and on and on.

So it seems like reefer loads are much higher risk (of rejection or claims) than dry loads. Does the difference in rates actually justify the risk?

Rick