Is it really hard to learn about driving a Reffer rather than a dry van?

My training was with a van. But besides having to know about the temp in the trailer what else would i have to worry about?

 

Trailer shuting down while you sleep. Trailer shuting down while you are driving. Right temp setting, pre-cooling the trailer BEFORE you pick up. Reefer fuel tank. Trailer wash outs.

 

So basiccally yes there is a lot of things to learn that differ on a reffer.

 

early morning deliveries in NYC no thank you

 

Just my personal opinion, but I'd get out of the industry before I'd EVER pull a godddamn reefer again. Just got tired of being treated like a 4th class citizen at the grocery warehouse. The worst were the ones up in the NE. Some of the lumpers will help themselves to a few steaks on the back of your wagon and then write it up as a shortage on the BOL. Too much waiting around to get loaded/unloaded. Pallet swaps. Washouts. Just about every load is max weight. Getting home is ususally pretty tough at most reefer outfits.

 

It's not that severe. I learned enough in about 5 minutes.

Fueling the reefer is the same as your main tanks, stuff the handle in and pull the trigger. The control pad is almost 100% self explanatory. Cycle or continuous? Heat or cool? On or off? Up or down? Get it? :P

Your pretrip will tell you what to set your reefer to if a pre-cool is required. Step out of the cab and walk back to the controls. Set it and leave to go to the shipper. Easy peasy.

Longest I sat ever was on a dry van load. It was loading, not unloading. 21 hours for a paper load. If you sit, you sit. Go to sleep if you can. Never done a pallet swap. Never had freight stolen by receivers. Almost always ran at full gross. And? I've legally run way heavier than 80k. Washouts can be inconvenient in some areas. In 99% of the country, you'll be close to a truck stop with a truck wash company on site. I always got home when promised. 2 weeks out, 3-4 days home.

 

How big a pain pulling a reefer can be depends on the company and what they haul. If you haul a lot of produce, forced runs into NYC, then yes it can be a big PITA.

Pulling frozen foods, boxed meats, etc are not bad at all.

Unless you are down to your last 2 living brain cells it should not take you longer than about 5 minutes to learn everything you need to know about a modern reefer trailer.

 

If you have a patrial load of frozen food, load locks, load locks, load locks...I have had pallets slide halfway to the back of my trailer even with load locks...but I have learned the trick...put a stack of pallets infront of your load locks...seems to help alot...

 

Yeah, you'll wait on dry-van loads too, which is why both van/reefer pretty much suck in that regard. It's just that ON AVERAGE, you'll wait more pulling a reefer than you will a van. Reason is that you're bumping more grocery warehouse/food-grade DC docks and there's just not as much drop-n-hook with reefers because of the nature of refrigerated freight.

Nah, I'd rather run and get paid. Or if I do have to sit, get paid for each and every hour I'm on the job.

How long have you pulled a reefer?

It happened a couple of times to me. Twice in NYC. Once in Massachusets.

Like I said, most reefer loads are max weight, which depending on the area of the country you run, is gonna slow you down. With dry-van, you'll get loads at like 5k, 10k, 20k, etc that you don't have to scale/slide tandens. Better yet, you can fly up mountain-grade hills while guys with even big dual-stacked Petes are struggling like the Little Train that Could.

They're inconvenient in ALL areas. Mostly because you're getting paid $0.00/hr to sit in line with your trailer doors open.

That wasn't my experience.

 

:lol: :lol: :lol: