Rules for washing out trailer

when i worked for food lion(a grocery store chain) that's how the trailers would be loaded.milk in the front,along all the perishables behind that then your bulk head divider.then the dry goods on the back...

 

Man how things have changed. I grew up in the grocery business, happily got away from it, then found myself having to go back into it for a few years, just to get the bills paid. The stores I worked for were all part of an association, and they did NOT mix loads.

Dry vans were used for non perishables. Frozen was on a different truck. As was produce, and meat. And dairy came in on its own truck, plus of course the local dairy stuff on small trucks.

 

Walmart loads non perishables on dry vans.

Frozen(-20) and Dairy Deli (32) on together. (same trailer 3 temp zones seperated by bulkheads)
and
Meat (32) and Produce (40) together same as above.

 

In my 6 years pulling refer I have only had to do a washout maybe a dozen times. I just blow it out with a 18 volt leaf blower. I haul meat, frozen, dairy, produce, etc.

 

I never asked him how much he got on him or if it scattered a lot and bothered him any. Good question. He doesn't have to use it all the time, but you know how some trailers get trashed out sometimes. A lot of the trailers have to be washed out with some of the loads they haul.

 

Do it all the time--nothing wrong with it if done properly--and of course now days with multi temp trailers it is even easier--but I cannot think of one reason properly packaged meat and dairy for example cannot be hauled together--Do it every trip--and still do frozen-cool-dry on single unit trailer--properly bulkheaded--have had occasion to wrap some dry freight that shouldn't get to cold--but it is rare--
Oh and for the posting about leaf blowers--Beats the HECK out of a BROOM--been using one for years....
Course the key is my wagon gets washed out between EVERY LOAD!
just my $.02

 

Husband doesn't have the same trailer, sometimes he might keep one for a couple of loads or so and then he will have a drop and hook. I think most of the times they are somewhat cleaner when mty and picked up than they were with his previous company.

 

I almost ALWAYS get my trailer washed out. With most food- grade shippers, having a CLEAN trailer is a must, and there are shippers(cargill and morton salt for example), that will not load a trailer of there is so much as a small amount of debris. There's a bunch of new food security regs coming out, and i have no doubt that some states are requiring law enforcement to investigate loads with contaminated and/or improperly refrigerated product.

It my seem like a PITA, but having a clean trailer before you pull into a shipper will help prevent problems with being rejected, or having product rejected at the receiver. At my last company i pulled dry van hauling mostly food grade so cleaning the trailer after every load is nothing new to me. Would you want to eat a steak after finding it was transported in a filthy trailer, or left to "age" in an unrefrigerated box truck? I wouldn't.