Reefer load wait times

Thunder232 · May 15, 2020

x1Heavy said: ↑

Reefer has a price. The driver pays that price usually. I know it because I was taught reefer work to be done just so, and avoid the losses in lumpers by doing the work yourself to load and unload. That takes hours. Even if you were waiting it will be hours loading. Best case is you sleep and rest for the coming morning delivery 500 miles away overnight while they load. Or you learn to get tough, and run the night after waiting all day.

Ultimately meat loads cut to order loading can take up to 4 days and nights of waiting. Then it has to be on one of the coasts immediately. It's not a problem because you are all rested beyond rested and ready to GO.

Sometimes as a team in later reefer work we would be rushed to a dock only to sit and wait two days, Americold in Salinas CA comes to mind. Right there in the dock waiting. We learned not to let dispatch rush us anymore like that ever again. We would call direct and get the goods on the load status and then use that time to our advantage doing laundry etc.

Finally but not least leaving the food behind and going with McKesson for very high dollar medicine million plus in value, unloaded in 30 minutes, reloaded with waste bales going right back to memphis to drop and hook another load of medicines... No lost time, too much wages earned hand over fist to spend it all. Glorious gravy train.

It will be very hard to go back into reefer for meat and foods. You lose so much time doing that. It's literally does not pay anymore to sit. If wishes were horses, beggers ride eh?
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How can you get in touch with Mckesson?

spindrift · May 15, 2020

Hurst said: ↑

If you are referring to rookies out of CDL school,.. the options for which direction to get into is as simple as what ever you want. No one is limited to strictly reefer or van. There are a great number of bottom feeder flatbed companies that will train the rookie driver.

Most choose reefer or van because its easier and less work. That is a personal choice a driver made,.. not a trucking prerequisite.

My advice is to not get into any deep conversations with other CDL rookies or at truck stops with mega drivers. It usually ends up as a case of the blind leading the blind with piles and piles of misinformation mixed in.

I cant tell you where to go with out you first knowing what you want. Where to you see yourself in 5 yrs?

Personally,.. I choose open deck. If I was a new young CDL holder,.. I would look into doing a yr with a someone like TMC or Roehl,.. and then signing up with ATS and work towards getting into the OS/OW RGN world. Do that for 4 - 5 yrs and then looking into some of the specialized companies. Not sure if ATS does training for new CDL holders,.. but it is a path I would consider if I planned to be just a company driver.

Hurst
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If I wasn't so happy where I'm at, I would have looked into ATS. Those heavy haul boys get some cool stuff. Right now, they're busy pulling loads out of the Houston port and running north on I-45 to wherever. The loads look to be the structural hollow columns for wind turbines. I ran into them at a rest stop. All professional, all appear to be good folks.

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