Seafood

I don't haul seafood but I know washouts can use a deodorizer. Not sure if this helps.

 

Coffee grounds would get rid of the odor I bet followed by a washout.

 

I use to haul ice pack chicken, blood and stuff all in the melting ice in the tracks, awful smelling stuff and when we unloaded at the Bronx meat market we would go right across the street to the produce market for our backhaul without a washout. The guy we hauled for used coffee mixed with cinnamon and would go from front to back and sprinkle it the whole way, it did the job. When I unloaded in DC or Baltimore I was never once asked what I had hauled before I picked up their stuff, it actually smelled pretty good, that's all you could smell. Our company started buying some kind of orange citrus stuff in gal jugs and had us use that if we went somewhere else, I didn't think it did nearly as good a job as the coffee and cinnamon.

 

Coffee Grounds. Toss one or two canisters of coffee in there, wait a bit then sweep.

I used to run out of Dardens in Aberdeen Maryland supporting Red Lobsters in the NE, 4 in particular. That was my big LTL dedication to Seafood via FFE. I kept my own truck, but they supplied the loads, toll money and paid a salary netting close to about a thousand each weekend for the 4 deliveries so... considering that kind of labor involved, it's really intense. You are liable for every lost case of seafood. those Lobsters are market rate. That might wipe out your pay. Three of the lobsters supplied a meal after unloading. Don't depend on that. Alot has to do if you are on time and everything came off the trailer in good order without OSD, Over, short or damage. It was some good eating. whew. Glad I worked it off then.

Run off anyone approaching your trailer. They know what is inside of it with that giant MBM on the side of it. And they want what you have inside. Ive caught and run off some thieves before they were able to get something, kind of hard to lumber away with 120 pound box with me coming for you with chain and tire thumper half the size of a bat.

Im glad I dont do that anymore. I was positioning to get wife involved as a team and stop running as a single in that Fall so in time that took me back into ST rather than dedicated.

 

In nearly 11 months pulling reefer, I've had exactly one seafood load. Pulling out of Florida, actually.
I've also had one load of Quahog clam juice, but that's not exactly "seafood", per se.

As for the smell, I could smell it while driving, but I think that's just because it got into my clothes. I could also smell the dry van load of garlic powder I had last week.

 

If you're running under your own authority always make sure you ask about the load value on seafood. Yeah you probably won't have a problem, but realize that something small going wrong with a seafood load could put you out of business.

 

Seafood pays well because it is very valuable. I have been asked to do some in the past and needed temporary 500,000$ cargo insurance. The load broker covered the extra cost.

It won't ruin your trailer so long as no boxes break open. The washout place must use deodorizer and plenty of it then leave your doors open for a few hours/overnight to dry and you should be good to go. Make sure your drain holes are all free of debris prior to loading so any ice melting or juices can flow out.

 

Your typical seafood freight, LTL or truckload is mostly cheap from the brokers/ consolidators that specialize in it. Might just get lucky and get a good paying one.

 

Seafood is a really broad category. Obviously a load of frozen fish sticks isn't high risk... but 4 pallets of salmon could put you out of business.