Pros and Cons of Driving Reefer??

The back of your bunk's thin sheet metal is about 4 feet from the reefer's loud engine screaming all night when you're trying to sleep. Bonus when it pukes up 4 gallons of oil all over the back of your cab.....

 

Where did you work where reefer units “screamed and puked oil”? I’ve been doing refrigerated about the past 7 years and have never experienced any of this.

 

1am deliveries
Everybody always complains about this. I don't know who gets these magical 1am deliveries but I almost never delivered at crazy hours.

Lumper
I hope you know dry vans deliver to grocery warehouses as well.

Another engine that needs repairs
#### happens. Easy way to deal with that is work for company with decent equipment I know it's groundbreaking..

Rejected Loads
I have had two whole loads rejected.
One was with a Dry Van and one was with a

Another Tank
Well I guess I know why you've had trouble with it.
Because if you put gas in it it's going to give you all kinds of trouble.
It takes an extra 5 to 6 minutes every time you top it off.
The way I see it .... More points.

Long Wait times for washout
It happens but I've never waited 3h.
There's going to be a super long wait I'll just sweep it out.
I keep 'my trailer' pretty clean most of the time. So it's almost never that bad.

Sleeping
I guess if you're a really light sleeper you might have some trouble.
I am not a light sleeper.

 

Everyone has had those problems while pulling a cold box, some deal with those problems so they do not become real problems. As for the lumpers, I remember when you needed a union card to deliver to most places so it only changed from that to lumpers. The rest like the wait times and rejected product is just a part of business that we learn to deal with it. The noise, it is soothing to hear that screaming while sleeping, then you get the time you can hear a pin drop.... flying out and getting that beast running again. Those are all duties that if you can do well you will get paid well if you get in the right company. not many have those skills or ability to deal with. Driving should not be all just going down the road, that gets old, been there, done that. It is a skill set where if you are good you will thrive, you can only hold that steering wheel, you will have problems. I enjoyed running food because the years I did it I always learned something new.

 

Carrier is alot more of a solid unit than Thermo King. The APU's are much better than the TriPac as well.

 

It all depends on who you're working for and what you haul. I worked reefer for a year and hauled refrigerated but not frozen loads. Picked up and delivered during the days and never had to deal with lumpers. Other than a dead battery that was quickly replaced, I never had a reefer break down. It was the occasional brokered frozen load that was a pain in the butt. Never had to do a washout before. Middle of the night appointments, long wait times and lumpers are all things I had to deal with hauling dry loads, and I'll never do it again.

 

Times have improved them units, decades ago them things were nightmares requiring constant work and the noise was loud, you get used to it but you would need to learn to read lips quickly.

 

Should go down the road and let it drain on the tailgaters, it might get them to back off a bit if they knew what that stuff is.

 

Pro with reefer. McKesson Medicine in excess of 1 million in value at 60 degrees. Unloaded in 20 minutes, reloaded in less than that with bales back to Memphis.

Cons, everything else. Particularly Lumpers and waiting to get a dock in many places. It's literally not worth the losses waiting days each week if you are paid by the mile. I hate to be difficult but that part of the industry needs some serious reformation. Makes a mockery of appointment times when you lose two days waiting.

The only other pro with reefer work is sometimes you can play at being a dry van within limits. It's a food grade vehicle and there are some things you cannot put into it.