Walmart rolls out ‘first of its kind’ 60-foot multi-temp reefer trailer

Lot of states use to allow 57 trailers
Was always funny when I’d back in to the dock next to a 57 footer with my LTL-9000 Ford with a 36” sleeper and a 40 foot sea can.
The 57 trailer was longer than my whole rig .

 

I just don’t see this as being logistical efficient

let’s say the frozen stuff is up front and the refrigerated is at the back ,
Or whatever
This means that the entire trailer has to be unloaded to get to whatever product is up front .
And that trailer has to be carefully routed to stay legal .

 

That’s why they load it according to stops. Not hard to do.

 

No different than planning out any other LTL load.

 

I’m sure I’ve probably seen them many times and just never realized they were longer than normal. The 59’ marking just happened to catch my attention this time.

 

Interesting this load according to stops...

Ran a meat delivery trailer route from West Point, MS to Greenville, MS , back in the 50's. They were loading stacking the various items along
the sides (boxes of wieners, sausages, bacon) leaving center aisle. Climb in, walk up selecting all of an orders components take to rear
door, jump out an take inside.

By the time I drove from WP to G'ville, most of it had shifted , collapsed and like in the floor harum scarum. Then had to clear aisle and resort
enough to make up each stops order (30 lb box of neckbones,10 lb box sausage, 2 sticks of gut bologna, bucket of calf liver, etc).

I suggested, since it was usually all on the floor, why not dump it there as loaded? See; the loaders had to pick each order off the dock carts,
and take it in trailer and stack.

So, I then stacked the tickets in reverse route order and had them put it on overnight, just piled in the floor. Got to G'ville, just open the door,
looked at the ticket, reached up and got most of it. As progressed, that next order was right in front within reach side to side. Reefer floor was
like 2 inch channeled aluminum and cold air goes down so all kept cold. (Usually loaded 8 to midnight and I pulled it at 2 AM.)
After a couple of trips, I made them a list of the stops as we worked them and from then on, shipping put the tickets in that order.
It was understood any new customers order would be loaded last. I could set it aside until I reached his store and next week list him in order.
Lot less walking 30 feet to get a box of this, back 10 feet to another item, then back up front for another.

 

Believe it or not , its actually easier to hit the dock just right with the longer trailer.
I ran 57 footers for a few summers and got really good at backing them. Next job was running a fairly short Cozad RGN in offroad conditions . That thing took me forever to get the hang of even with a daycab
That long trailer means you have really long reaction times

 

Actually, they don't load by stop...per say. I pulled a multi-zone ltl load out of the Cheyenne DC recently. It was a 3 zone trailer with 3 stops. The back zone and the front zone were 35° zones, the middle was -20°. The 1st 2 stops had both refrigerated and deep frozen so at stop 1, they had to move the refrigerated pallets for the 2nd stop out of the way in the back zone to get to their deep frozen in the middle section, then put it back after we replaced the moveable wall.