What are the downsides to hauling a reefer

No he's actually right. Can't be hearsay when it's all facts.

 

First who want's light loads when you have 50 mph wind gust in Wyoming, Colorado, California, and Oklahoma?

You can get plenty of light frozen loads. They load them all the way to the back and almost to the ceiling. On a 53 foot trailer.

Having a little weight on your tractor on ice and snow is a plus. I kinda like blowing the doors off those mail haulers. Who blow by you going up those mountains.

From my experience you spend very little time fixing damaged trailers. I just remember 1 or 2 in my 10 years of pulling a reefer. I think one time all I did was drop it at the trailer place and went and picked up my load.

Dry box companies have trailers rejected all the time for holes, and what have you.

You really don't need to be worried about securement if you can drive like you have some sense. I very seldom ever put a load lock on my loads and no shifted loads.

Depending on the company you can have plenty of long loads. I just did a 2400 mile load that picked up in Plainwell, MI, delivered to Brea, CA and 2nd stop Delivered in Tracy, Ca. I did get stuck on some short loads after that, but my company has a account with that company, but getting an extra 300 miles to go on the check with the 2400 miles a plus. Think I picked up load on a Thursday, Delivered first stop Monday and second stop Tuesday. Did the short load after I delivered on Tuesday and a nice 2800 miles for the payroll week ending Wednesday at midnight.

I'm sure only reefer trucks have weight distribution issue's NOT. When you have your crapola companies trying to get accounts with the heavy beer and pop haulers then you will have more issues, and Yes since refrigerated is a lot of ltl. You could get a meat load whose stop in the nose is heavier then the other stops.

I did have a heavy load coming out of Cali the other day that I had to stretch the tandems out on, but that was a dry freight load, and I had Colorado on my mind. Rubber duck was on the front door and we had a train of rooster cruisers who were not about to stop at the scale. So we put the hammer down!! Did help the scale was full and had the closed sign on. But that was the only load I have had that made me nervous about weight in at least a year or two.

So if you are not trying to get on with a reefer company that has super heavy trucks you probably wont have that issue very much.

Who cares about having 3 or 4 in the morning delivery times. That's a plus when you miss a turn or get lost. Not much 4 wheeler traffic to get through. Then by the time you are empty. You have the regular hours to pick up your next load. Good thing about reefer is its 24-7. You can deliver or pick up any day of the week. Which mean more money more money more money. Some places are even open on the holidays. Repeat after me. More money more money more money!!

In closing you need to always check the source of who you are getting information from. If it's a reefer hater, then they will make it seem like some of these things happen everyday. For instance I'm a chemical tanker, flatbed, and dry box hater. So yes I will be biased and say who wants to be a suicide jockey and spend all your time at tank washouts, and chemical plants who could blow the (truck) up at any moment. Or I would say who wan'ts to work pulling a flatbed, Or who wants to play go find an empty pulling a dry box.

So your honor I stand by my statement of hearsay because its Choc full of reefer hating bias. Or maybe I could of used slander. Its been awhile since I had a case like this. Some people are just not equipped mentally or physically to be the ambassadors of the Refrigerated perishable no feeling like chicken mobiling industry. Just as we are not mentally or physically equipped to be playing with surge, chains, tarps, and straps, or trailers that don't have a big UNIT on the front of them. I REST MY CASE.

 

Lot of damaged trailers of all types left for the next guy to hook up to not just reefers .

 

This guy knows his stuff. Listen to him.

 

Don't call me Francis while Im hauling reefer

 

First of all I am not a reefer hater. I just said .01 to .03 cpm that most of these companies pay for refer work over van does not cover all the hassles involved. Pay me the .30 to .40 cents more the cold loads pay the trucking company then we can talk. Just like I will not tarp and strap for .01 more or a $20 dollar bill.

People jump on the idea that refer freight is more study, year around. For the most part that is not the case for the driver of the independent trucking company. Most of the contracted refer loads are from the food processor to the end distributer. That is as seasonal as hell.

It also is short run:regional distributer to retail distrubution center. More and more of the longer loads are put on trains.

The steady loads are from the retail distributer center to the end retailer. Those loads pay the driver by the hour and everything I said is of little concecequence to the driver then. Jump on those jobs if possible, but do not compare them to cpm crap.

Having no problem with the refer is like saying you have no problem with the truck: it will just go on and on with no repair or maintence. That is just not so. All equipment needs maintence and there is just more of it with the reefer than van. Cpm companies do not like to do maintence and certainly do not like to compensate drivers for the results. Anybody doubt me?

If you do no pull reefers you do no understand the wall issue. The interior of refers are lined with a light plastic or fiberglass paneling that is relatively easily damaged. The paneling covers the insulation and if not repaired before the next load, trailer will be rejected and even banned. The fear is condensation and mold will get in the insulation and contaminate the food product. That cannot happen and must be repaired before presenting to the next shipper. Wall damage is much more of an issue in the refer world.

A steel, Duraplate, Z-plate, or even plywood lined van can take quite a bit of abuse before being damaged. I have caught many a forklift run into a van wall with little damage. That will not happen in a refer. Furthermore, if a van gets damaged from the inside most of the time it does not penatrate the outside wall and is most cases usable for the next load. I just got to place blame where blame is due, file a claim, and go back to making money with the same van. Let the company repair or ignor the van at their convience, not my time.

I will even go on to say I have much more issues with cracked aluminum floors in reefers than bad floors wood floors in van.

If you are the type of driver that does not worry about load securement then refer is your best choise. For everybody elses sake do not take up flatbed. Rarely does the DOT look in a cold box to check the load but it does happen. Look a load securement tickets for refer companies. Since I am concerned about my time, load, and safety I am concerned about my loads. I check them out before they get sealed up. I often find they are not loaded right. I can see when they are overweight before putting them on the scale. I often find the front singled pallet or two also just happens to be the ones not wrapped well so the drivers can be be blamed for the poor packaging. In those cases the pallet and the trailer gets fixed before it moves;these shippers are already abusing my time, I will not have them waste any more!

OSD problems will just suck up a drivers time. Way too much of my time has been wasted dealing with one or two damaged cans that were not my fault in the first place. The whole lumper scam is to pay low wage workers to do the hard work of unpackaging a truck and repackage the product so a portion of the load be rejected and blamed and claimed on the trucking company. Thats where you get the long detention times in the refer world: It takes fifteen minutes to unload the trailer, two hours to repackage it, and then you have to wait hours until well paid reciever to find the package the lumpers or shippers damaged and blame it on the shipping company/driver. Driver then must donate more of his time to this problem; Often running the case of damaged product back to terminal with no pay for his time. This is an epidemic in the refer world compared to the van world.

It is all about money and .01-.03 cents does not even come close to covering it. Refer companies are just trying to cut a fat hog and keep the refer premium for themselves. The premium exists for a reason and the promise of 'consistant freight' just does not pan out for cpm company driver.

 

If your driving for cpm your an idiot and being ripped off anyway.

 

Sir Mattbnr. How should we be getting paid sir?

Sir Bikes. I don't think you have a cotton picking clue about what you are talking about.

How many reefer companies are on the train. Let's see. Marten, Stevens, and uhhhh. Yeahh

Most of the inter-modal guys don't get paid by the hour they get paid by the day.

As I have said in the 10 years or more that I have been pulling reefer only once or twice have I had to get the inside wall damage repaired. Which didn't take long. Just go on the dry box sites and they will tell you all those paper companies who reject dry box trailers for holes and water damage. Yes if as I said. You go to a crapola company who uses old trailers you are going to have more issues. My company leases trailers turns them in after 3 or 4 years. I just had only my second reefer problem with this company in the 4 years I have been here, and it took about 2 hours.

OSD can be in refrigerated and dry box. Thankfully we don't haul a lot of produce. It seems I have had more issues with those type of loads.

I have set and waited at sugar and paper plants almost as long as I've sat at a Meat plant. Also when I was at the sugar and paper plants. I was hauling a reefer

Most of the meat loads are already sealed. So no going in to check and see if they didn't load it single double single.

Just admit it. You ain't cut out for the fast paced. Getter done, chicken hauling lifeystle that is so filled with glitz and glamour. You are mad because they don't let you on party row no more because you don't have a shiny hiney trailer. I just got my preplan for my next load off home time. Picks up in Tulsa, delivers in Riverside, Ca. I don't even know if its dry or perishable. I'll pick it up tmrw and then come back by the house and leave out Saturday.

All I ask you sir is to stop hating. Pull your van and make your change. I'm going pull this reefer and make that cheese. We beeeeeak quiet.

 

KLLM also runs regular intermodal trailers, as does Central. I have friends that work for KLLM and when I pulled containers I also pulled a few Central, Stevens and Marten trailers. Also used to see CR England trailers in there when I worked for Marten but not sure if they run through the railyards anymore.

 

Percentage or hourly is the only way I'll get paid now. I'm Otr pulling tanker and I get paid hourly now. In a ideal set up you should get paid percentage of load plus hourly for all time spent on line 4. If you actually log all the work you do on line 4 you will most likely have 20+ hours on that line by the end of the week. Do you like working for free? Would you go to any other job and work 20+ hours a week for free? I wouldn't. That's why I stopped pulling reefer and dry van. Way too much free work being done. Loading, unloading, washouts, trailer switching etc. screw that. I like being paid for work that I do.