Reefer vs dry van company drivers?

I do better with Reefer with the additional advantage that we can run the reefer as a dry van and often did. Sometimes we did what is called insulated service and even vented service. Or used the reefer to keep paint from freezing in the dead of winter, heating the product. And even hazmat as well that paint. Which means you stick diamonds on the thing. With a spray paint to eliminate them after you get em off.

In short life is interesting in a reefer. Usually. I found my best work running Medicine with them because they come out to high dollar loads. One was extreme dollar on 9-11 but thats a outlier.

Dry van isnt half bad, however slamming doors and ripping bills to sign is not my idea of a good trip. I get bored with that type of trucking. Not to mention getting them into some of the places is more trouble than it's worth. I have not had too much trouble with dry van but I know enough to just stay with the reefer given a choice between the two. Now flatbedding and tanker is even more motivating. Tanker being the best of the lot. I specifically exclude containers. If its one thing about those #### things its always way overgross weight. Sure they gave me a 100K permit but when you tip at 120 to 140K there is going to be a ticket somewhere. It gets tiresome.

The most dangerous liability with reefer and non medicine loads which is all produce, meat and food loads. You wait several days to load meat on your trailer, it's a chance to lay in that sleeper and sleep until you are fit to burst with just about the full 70 hours HOS ready to go when your trailer is done. because they want that meat delivered yesterday on the other end of the USA. 2400 miles to the other coast quick. Or 1000 miles overnight to fort worth from Fort collins. Never mind the paper logs and HOS. There is no scales other than old raton to speak of on US287.

Now if we were allowed appointment dates and times to accomodate that 1000 mile run legally between Fort Collins and Fort Worth or wherever (Colorado NE and Texas south central) it would have been a profitable routine. Drop hook back to denver, empty out find truck wash go to Meat Plant in Ft Collins wait a couple of days to load and straight south you go.

When you get to certain shippers or recievers it is completely out of your hands until you are empty, lumping the trailer is a real possibility. Again no ELD in those days, when youre finished 15 hours in the trailer after waiting 10 to dock you are to deadhead 4 more hours to load another 12 and then drive through the night 800 miles to deliver next morning. By day 5 you are tired. From all the waiting and lumping. Hardly any miles. Maybe 1800 at most. at .36 a mile that grosses just about 650. Take 35% for withholding and you are down less than 300 cash for all them troubles.

Thats why you try to make your mark with dispatch to go to say Yakima WA and load apples or onions or whatever going straight to Boston Market 3000 plus miles away due in 6 days. That way at .36 a mile it's about a thousand dollar gross a week. And you will net 600 or better. Much better than the BS overnights that tear you up with the waiting, lumping and constant abuse of paper logs. And you wonder why we are all on ELD today.

And we are still seeing .36 because the new generation being hired don't know any better. So there is still problems in trucking.

 

Well, depends, as usual. When I was a company driver getting paid by the hour, reefer was sweet, because it took so long to unload. O/O reefer, unless in very limited situations ( dad owns the meat packing co.) you'd have to nuts to do that today. Van work is a lot less hassle, what can you do to a load of diapers, unless you go in the drink, and most of my trucking with a box was van freight. With companies going under left and right, you might do ok with a van today.

 

The primary difference is the places you pickup and deliver. You will also have the added responsibility of setting the reefer and keeping a watch on it. Just wait until you have a -10 load, it's 110 outside you are 100 miles from the closest TK shop and your reefer is throwing codes. Ahhhh the Memories!

 

Most dry van shippers and receivers are normal hours like 7am to 5pm only. Closed on weekends.

I recall most reefer locations having appointments 24/7 but more garbage lumpers to deal with.

I think they both suck..... try a flatbed maybe?

 

At least you were paid by the hour. Isn't it a refreshing feeling that you were paid for all of your on duty time?

 

All the xtra hassles of reefer running can be worth doing if you hook up with one of those coast to coast 1500 mil average trip type companies. You can get addicted to that kind of trucking. If not for that, hell no.

 

Yes sir indeed. If you find the right reefer company you can make serious money. You also need the right planners so you can make deliveries and have another pickup ready ASAP.

 

You bet, I wouldn't have done a reefer otherwise. These schmoe "cold side" warehouse workers, they knew who was getting paid by the hour and who wasn't. They actually seemed to get off on seeing the drivers upset. Saw a lot of upset drivers when they took 2 pallets off and you didn't see them for 10 minutes. I didn't care, the only bad part was explaining to MY boss why I spent 2 hours at SuperValu for 5 pallets.

 

I have done reefer and dry van. I can say that doing reefer is more work because you now have another engine to pay attention to and temperature requirements must be monitored all the time if you want to do the job right. It gets to be a pain to fuel the reefer.

The trailer cleanliness factor is very high on reefers, unlike dry vans. I ended up buying a battery powered leaf blower for $70 to help with that. Normal brooms aren't effective on a reefer floor. A leaf blower and 3 gallons of water and I'm usually OK to load at most places, the only exception is some meat plants want a proof of washout from Blue Beacon or another washout place.

Expect to have problems with the reefer unit itself at some point. Sometimes it's just a fuel level sensor that failed and sometimes the engine just won't run or any other combination of things you will have to go to Thermoking to get fixed and not get paid for doing it, unless you make a big deal about it to your DM.

I never got any more money per mile for reefer, but the length of haul was usually good enough to keep me happy.

Also, the delivery and pickup times seemed to be at night and I got into the habit of running more at night than during the day. Also, I encountered lots of just in time appointments and repower situations.

Lots of waiting around to. I once waited 12 hours at the JBS plant in Cactus, TX and then they cancelled the load!