Pros and Cons on hauling reefer????

[crazyWillie]

Pros and Cons on hauling reefer????

please list atleast one of each

And go........

thanks allot

C.W

[Random_Facts]

Forgot what the Pros were but one for the cons is: Noisy at Rest stops. Trying to sleep or something makes it interesting....

[whorutommy]

bad hr.s, dealing with lumpers, fueling reefer.. Lots more work.. Cons
More miles, pro's.

[freebirdrfd]

you can make some good money hauling reefers, but you also put in some long hours at times.. it's better than dry box or flat beds..

[cockroach]

Pros:
Consistent freight year round.
Lumpers to unload your truck for you (I never unloaded my own truck)
Reefer unit to lul you to sleep at night
On super-rare occasions you can get free food
Most grocery warehouses are designed for trucks, less difficult to get into places than dryvan.

Cons:
Can't think of any.

"fueling reefer"
You don't have to fuel the reefer nearly as much as you have to fuel your truck, I really never minded this at all.

[Skullitor]

Pros:
Consistent freight year round.
Lumpers to unload your truck for you (I never unloaded my own truck)
Reefer unit to lul you to sleep at night
On super-rare occasions you can get free food
Most grocery warehouses are designed for trucks, less difficult to get into places than dryvan.

Cons:
Can't think of any.

"fueling reefer"
You don't have to fuel the reefer nearly as much as you have to fuel your truck, I really never minded this at all.

Pro's = COOL IN SUMMER HEAT. Never sweat unloading a reefer.

Con's = Deliver at 2 to 6 AM = :shock: :x YUK

[cockroach]

Con's = Deliver at 2 to 6 AM = :shock: :x YUK

I drove at night, got to the shipper early, backed in to a dock spot and fell asleep. They would come out bang on my door in the morning and unload me. It worked great for me. I loved having early morning appointments.

[Skullitor]

Why? Then you can reload and sleep till night fall Cockroach? :shock:

[crazyWillie]

Roach good info i am looking forward to my career choice got tired of the corp world then getting the shaft after a few years..

[-FlyByNight-]

I never minded the noise from my reefer, but still can't stand it from someone elses!

I never touched freight @ Marten in 14 months, not once. I haven't at Crete though either.

I do TONS more drop & hook at Crete. With Marten I had a lot of live load/unload. It was actually the rule rather than the exception. A lot of late night/early morning stuff with Marten, but I didn't mind that so much cuz I'm a night person.

Reefer is nice for keeping busy when the economy slumps. People have to eat and reefers can pull dry AND wet loads.

When they changed the HOS 10/1/05 to where you can no longer freeze your 14 hour day by going in the sleeper for a minimum of two hours, it made reefer a lot tougher for me. Very hard to run legal AND make enough miles/money. There are a lot of other reasons why I left Marten and came to Crete, but this played a lot into it. I feel I work smarter not harder now. I'm able to manage my time more efficiently not doing reefer.

[Sealord]

Pull wagons, haul freight. BOL

[kjbprd]

I've always pulled reefer, and I always will...dealing with lumpers and food distributors is a pain sometimes, but altogether you'll run harder pulling reefer freight. I don't know about anyone else, but if I don't subconsciously hear my reefer kick on at night I wake up and get worried...

[Big John]

I pulled reefer one time and got so used to the noise that when I came home and slept in my bed it was so quiet I put my old Briggs & Stratton mower next to my bedroom and fired it up at night.

[movinit]

We pulled reefer for about a year and it pays decent, like others have said you can haul just about anything however getting pallets/getting rid of pallets, and trailer washes can be a pain. Also you have to travel out of route to find a reefer repair, we actually had to go 200 miles OOR to get ours repaired once and that was unpaid miles. As for going to only grocery warehouses that depends on who you haul for, we went down many a country road to pick up a load of produce or into Queens to unload.

You will get used to the sleeper rumbling behind you and like someone said it will wake you up if it shuts off for a long period of time. The best part about parking with a reefer, if it is a really loud one then the trucks on both sides of you leave shortly after you arrive which makes for getting out of your spot easy!

[stomper4x4]

I agre with movinit. Not always do you end up at nice roomy grocery warehouses. Its always nice delivering prduce in south Chicago or on the jersey or new york shore at 4 AM and you're hoping not to die. It's kind of funny thought, its like a flea market, all the 'ghetto' folks jumping up on your truck and trying to sell you tools (probably the ones they stole out of the truck next to yours) or trying to sell you lumper services "pre-paid" so they take off with your cash and don't empty your trailer...Oh, then the guy on the dock telling you your load is crap and bitching and yelling at you, when you know damn well there's nothing wrong with it.

I got to the point where I would just start shutting my doors and I would say "Fine, if you don't like it I'm sure I can find someone else to buy it".
That got em every time.

I never got used to that damn reefer unit while I tried to sleep either. My hats off to those guys that haul reefers their whole careers.

The pro's? Like everyone else said, nice big grocery warehouses, made for trucks to fit in there.
Tons of freight year round
great pay, specialy if you're O/O or independant, cause then you get to choose flats or reefers for the higher pay.

Plus, it's a challenge compared to dry vans. You have to learn how to take care of your loads, keep them cool or warm enough, loaded right so the air flows so not as to freeze the front half and not cool the back half of that 53' trailer and so on.

So while dry vans can get to be so routine, reefers make you think.

SO, to each is own. It's like anything. Each aspect of trucking has its pro's and cons, decide which you can live with and do that.

[crazyWillie]

then the guy on the dock telling you your load is crap and bitching and yelling at you, when you know damn well there's nothing wrong with it.

I got to the point where I would just start shutting my doors and I would say "Fine, if you don't like it I'm sure I can find someone else to buy it".
That got em every time.


do they not have to take the load??? if they dont want do you do with it

[BIG JEEP on 44's]

I'd immagine it would be good money until you get caught.,and go to jail for hauling reefer...

[crazyWillie]

LOL --- i havent heard that one b4 reefer= refrigirated

[WildK9]

Headed back to pulling reefer for a small co. out of Plainview,TX next Wednesday, due to JB Hunt stranding me in Concord, NC for almost 2 weeks.

[BIG JEEP on 44's]

LOL --- i havent heard that one b4 reefer= refrigirated

Yes it was fairly ...LAME...