Differences between Van an Reefer driving?
 

Can you guys give me some details on the good an bad of both, i'm thinking of going to a school that drives mostly reefers. Would it be best to start out driving a regular trailer or is the difference not that big of a deal. With a reefer do you have to get your load to dock sooner, also what about unloading your product, would you unload a reefer yourself more so then most vans. Sorry guys if i'm asking dumb question i'm really new to all of this, it seems like something I would really like so i'm going to give it a try.

As far as the actual pulling goes there is no difference beyond having to check your trailer temp once in a while a put fuel in the refer tank.

With refers many deliveries tend to be in the wee hours of the morning.

With vans there are fewer driver unloads, but lumpers (people you can hire to do the unloading) are more common at refriderated/food warehouses so in the end the total amount of actual driver unloads tend to even out.

The biggest advantage to pulling a refer is that you are not limited to one type of freight. You can haul almost anything in a refer that you can in a van. The second biggest advantage is that the food supply is effected negatively a lot slower than other consumer items. People have to eat.

The biggest draw back to pulling a refer is the food warehouses. They tend to have a lot more hurry up and wait and offer a lot more BS than other places in general.

All in all though pulling one is not that bad. If you do decide to give it a try make sure the company you work for pays for lumpers and that they also have a good detention pay program.

Detention pay is where you are paid after arriving at the shipper and reciever and are not loaded in a reasonable amount of time. This pay is usually per hour and many companies that pay it do so after 4 hours on average.

CHECK YOUR TEMPS!! Especially after being loaded.

A poor guy I worked with on the Walmart/Schneider account did not check his temps after leaving the shipper and pulled into the Walmart distribution center with a 53 ft trailer filled with $25,000 of bad food that had to be thrown straight into the dumpster.

They (dock workers) turned the temps up when they loaded him because they did not want cold air blowing on them while they loaded the trailer, he did not check the temps afterwards. :cry:

Thanks guys, i'm just trying to gather some info before I make my decision, i'm looking at going to school with Central I've seen alot of good things written on here about them. There are some bad things also but from what i've read it seems it more along the good side.

Hmm...the differences between a Van an Reefer driving?

Well...one van has a reefer and the other van doesn't. :wink: :roll: :lol:

Re: Differences between Van an Reefer driving?
 

Reefer = produce houses, meat-packing plants, grocery whorehouses, Hunt's Point. Lots of hurry up and wait around unpaid and dealing with lumpers (most of whom don't speak English). If you're hauling produce (a likely possibility seeing as your from California), then lots of multi-stop picks and drops.

Plus side is that the LOH (Length Of Haul) tends to be longer because not as much perishables can go on trains. Also reefer is less sensitive to the economy (people gotta eat, right?). You can haul both dry-freight and refegerated, although the added weight of the reefer and insulated walls can limit you somewhat. Minus is far less drop-n'-hook which means oodles and oodles of live loads.

You'll pretty much always be heavy in the box at max weight. Then there's pallet swaps, strange appointment times in the wee hours of the morn, washouts at the Streakin' Beacon, and you'll have to fill the reefer with fuel before you drop it. Hometime tends to be better with dry van because it's easier to drop trailers and you can always go home under a load (try doing that hauling lettuce).

Lots more BS but the mere thought of reefers makes me want to wretch so I'll quit while I'm ahead...

Driving for Central, you might well miss a lot of the big differences. Maybe not, I can't say I'm familiar with there freight base. If they mostly pull frozen goods then it's pretty straight forward. If they get into produce, it can be a different world. A lot of produce is multi-pick, which means you will be loaded at multiple locations (sometimes 10 or 12.) When you do get a single loading of produce, it is often multiple drop (2-3 different stops to get unloaded.)

The other differences? You will be paying lumpers to unload your trailer constantly. The company should pay for that, but it's still a pain as you have to call or qualcomm it in, get a Tcheck number, present it to the receiving clerk, etc. etc. And it's kind of annoying that a dry van can pull into a Wal Mart DC and it's unloaded, a reefer pulls into a Wal Mart DC and has to pay to be unloaded.

Oh, big difference, anyone you park next to in a truck stop will hate you. Whenever possible, stick to the back row as a courtesy. Reefer drivers are the pariah dogs of the truck stop world.

As mentioned before, check your temp settings after loading, check your actual temp periodically in route. And buy yourself a pulp thermometer (available at any truck stop) and check the skid temps as they are loading. A hot skid can take out everything next to it. The reefers job is to keep freight cold, not chill it.