🥶 REEFER the cold hard facts | the negatives of hauling reefer freight

[Music] hey how's it going out there today everybody hope everybody's having a great day coming to you from very very early in the morning uh i want to talk about reefer today uh i often talk about the good side of reefer but today's video not to bum you out but today is about the realities of the negative side of reefer freight now i don't want to turn you off from it i'm not trying to put you on it just like when i'm talking good about it i'm not trying to put you on i'm not trying to put you off i'm trying to inform you i often say there's a freight for every personality for me reefer does not bother me that bad a lot of these things that we're talking about here i've just learned to deal with them um living in minnesota uh i feel like reefer fits me very well because i don't mind the wait times and a lot of that stuff and in minnesota um in the winter we get protect from freeze loads and that helps reefer rates in the winter a lot of things that we're going to drive in in the summer just can't go on a drive in in the winter in minnesota so you know anywhere you get cold weather so that helps reefer rates out in the winter so that kind of helps me if you live in an area that's more flatbed oriented more dry van oriented you probably do better with that like say find the freight that fits your personality too um so let's get into it i've got about oh i don't know seven or eight nine ten uh things here i want to go over and talk about in this video um so the first negative that uh most people will point to um in the in the reefer game is those grocery house grocery warehouse grocery store wait times baby come on with a wait time to get unloaded um you know they show they tell you you show up at like disappointment right now i'm at an appointment getting waiting to get unloaded the appointment time was midnight flat beds you're not going to see many uh uh midnight appointment times and this is common in reefer they like to unload the reefer unit typically they like to unload between like 9 p.m and 6 a.m they like to unload them at night uh the there's a couple reasons behind this number one is it's cooler out so you know the reefers aren't you know they're not struggling taking the load off because sometimes they don't have great uh seals around those dock doors and uh you know your reefer unit runs pretty hard to keep up so they like to do it at night also they bring the loads in and then they break them down and they you typically load their trucks early in the morning uh or you know in the afternoon and send them out overnight to the grocery stores uh for you guys that don't know grocery distribution works like this you bring a whole truckload of let's just use for an example you you're a reefer driver uh like me personally say i bring in a load of grapes well every grocery store doesn't need a load of grapes they send it to the distribution center and then that load of grapes gets broken down into probably you know 50 different uh pallets and then they send a pallet of whatever you know a few boxes of whatever out to each grocery store chain they service that's how that works so they want to load their trucks you know in the afternoon and or in the morning and send them out um so wait times can be a beast i've had wait times over 24 hours in reefer i was at a u.s foods uh yesterday i had a guy in a dry van there delivering he was at the window going ballistic because he had been there for two hours um probably doesn't run much stuff to grocery warehouses two hours is like they're that's that's their gimme like they they're not that's nothing to them they're like you've only been waiting two hours and you're up here complaining you must not be a reefer driver um you know um another one is uh so so yeah wait times bummers and they just start data start um you know i'm reading the reviews of the place i'm at right now it's brutal i'm seeing like some people saying just for a few pallets eight hours to unload count the product and uh you know get your paperwork back to you so let's let's move on to another one that people complain about a lot i like these guys i don't complain about them lumpers um if they didn't do the job i would have to do the job if you don't understand how lumpers work if you're somebody that says they charge me this amount to unload my trailer go watch my video on lumpers just uh go go to my channel search lumpers i got a video about it it explains how lumpers work uh if you think they're unloading you to unload they're charging you to unload your trailer you got the whole dynamic messed up and i know a lot of people hate me because of my my lumper video because it cracks too much knowledge on them and they can't handle it they want to argue about things i'm sorry that's the definitive lumper video on youtube i'll tell you that right now if you don't understand lumpers number one they're not charging you to unload anything you've got a raw deal if they're charging you they're charging the shipper the only beef i got with it is i shouldn't be involved in the transaction you shouldn't be looking for the driver to get you a check a cold nothing the broker the shipper should pay that to the lumper service without me being involved that's my only beef with lumpers all right number number three um on the list number three appointment times um i kind of worked that in earlier with the with the wait times but you know um that's just how it is appointment times they're going to be god-awful they're going there i mean like like i said they want to unload between 9 00 p.m and then you get unloaded at two in the morning and then they turn you loose at two in the morning and pray to your deity that you can find a parking spot at two in the morning that's all i'm gonna say about that uh let's talk about the trailer let's talk about the trailer a lot of people don't like reefer because of a couple things i've heard a lot of people on youtube say oh i don't like it when a reefer driver parks next to me um i tell them hey there's a quick cure for that stop eating fresh food if everybody would stop eating fresh vegetables and fresh food we wouldn't need reefer trailers it's that simple that's never going to happen um you know so you just got to deal with it they're getting quieter the newer ones are quieter it's like i don't know to me if you're a truck driver and the wind rocking the truck or a little noise outside keeps you awake uh especially if it's steady noise like a reefer uh i don't know maybe maybe you're gonna have a hard time being a truck driver because truck stops are loud that's just the way they are um so reefer noise uh that's a big one a lot of people don't like it to me if you gotta if you got a diesel-powered apu on your truck it's just like having a reefer on your truck to me the noise is the same i think reefers actually are quieter than ap using most uh most times because the exhaust is pointed up out of the top of the reefer whereas an apu is like right next to you know like like right the exhaust comes out like right near my sleeper so that's that's the problem with the reefer noise uh the no another one with the uh trailer another one is reefer responsibility um you know if you like flatbed you're gonna have securement responsibility if you like drive in you put a load lock in that some and you go and i'll be honest with you i see a lot of guys pulling up uh with box trailers with no securement at all in them i don't care if i'm hauling the most uniform pallets and they're heavy and they're very well strength it the law requires you to have securement you got to at least put a load lock or strap on it every load that's that's just i'm just putting that out there for you but not not only that but when you get these multiple stop loads you know you got to get in there and take your load bar down put it up take it down put it up it's just the way it's part of the job um now i will say this i don't let i don't like grocery warehouses i don't let lumper services touch my load locks i take them down i get them out of their way because let me tell you they'll run them over with the forklift and bend the feet on them and i can hear it when they take them down they throw them as hard as they can they hate the fact that you didn't take that down for them and they punish your load like for it but what i mean by reefer responsibility is you are responsible for that unit you're responsible for the settings the temperature uh the working condition you're responsible for that as the driver uh if you pick up a load and it's it's a frozen food load and you know you you don't and the the bill says you know negative 10 and you forget to turn the unit on hmm and and cover your butt see why hey uh always go by what the bill of lading says and if the bill of lading is different than what the broker told you or your dispatch told you you call that in immediately do not risk that um like a lot of times what i do is if i pick up a load um from the broker and the temperature says anything different than what i was told or the bill says do not i take a picture of that bill and i send it to him immediately i'm not being responsible for a lost load uh so that's another one um keeping on keeping on with the uh you know with the with the load part of it and the trailer part of it uh let's talk about trailer washouts uh you hauled that load of bulk chicken chicken blood pouring out of the drain holes on that bad boy and uh you know you got a tight schedule and you got to go you got to be down the road to pick up a load of bread frozen bread or uh you know fruit or something you know you got to get that trailer washed out and you don't always just pull up to the blue beacon and say hey i need a washout sometimes you will sit there for two or three hours that's the key thing in reefer that i think equalizes reefer uh reefer pays more but you're not going to get as many miles typically because you're going to be waiting longer at the shipper you're going to be doing things like trailer wash out you got to stop at least like if i haul like a load of palletized uh you know tv dinners i at least got to get in there with a with my leaf blower or a broom and clean get it broom swell condition you know for the next load you don't have to get a washout between everload but you want that thing to be in food grade quality you know like if i hold a load and it's like pre-packaged food and i'm going to pick up another load that's pre-packaged food i you know a washout's not required in between but you want it to be clean you want to be presentable for your customers and that one that you will waste some time with those trailer washouts you will i don't care what anybody says um so uh let's get let's get on to uh you know the type of loads you haul you know multiple stop loads multiple stop loads are a big thing in reefer you will to me you definitely do more multiple stops with reefer than you do any other kind of trucking it's just the nature of the beast um you know what i mean like it's perishable food it's not like dry van where you know if they if a grocery store chain orders um a truckload of rice bring it all to them at one time you know what i mean like it can sit there in the warehouse till they you know have you know until they need it it's not perishable uh you know when you're bringing something that's perishable like fruit you can't just bring a whole truckload sometimes sometimes like you got to split that one load between three or four warehouses you know so a lot more multiple stop if you're not a multiple stop guy you don't want to deal with the logistics of multiple stops uh reefer's probably not for you the load i got on right now one pickup uh seven drops seven drops count em one pick seven drops so if you're not into logistics like that and having to deal with like stuff like that reefers probably not for you um let's see let's get to let's get to the customer side of it now we're winding it down i went through the majority of them you know if you got any questions about any of these by the way just leave it in the comment section i get to the comments quicker and i'll get to an email um and plus there's other people that can help you out if you leave comments um and while i got you there hey why not hit the like button while you're here and subscribe to the channel if you haven't already think about it at least check out the description i got stuff down there like ways to save on fuel uh stuff like that so let's get to the customer side of it we've already talked about the wait times and the appointment time stuff like that talking about the actual customer's facilities uh staging areas who's a fan of a staging area i kind of am i kind of ain't i'll be honest with you i like the fact that i can show up a little early and not be like turned away at a gate because they got a little area for me to park in those parking areas can get dangerous as far as the traffic people in a hurry they don't they you know they get that fear of missing out they oh this guy's going to get in front of me and get unloaded quicker they get that anxiety and they start acting like idiots in some of these staging lights i noticed this a lot this past fall with the food shortages especially down in texas i think when they got the snow in texas oh i went down there after that it was brutal some of these grocery warehouses how crazy people were acting so keep that in mind in staging areas today i was at u.s foods when i was the one i was talking about earlier um they didn't even want you to pull up to the gate they wanted you to park at the staging area give them a phone call they'll call you you don't call them you know they'll call you when they're ready that's how a lot of these places are um you know put you in that staging light it's kind of like purgatory a little bit so uh you know like i said that's just more waiting you know uh reefer that's that's the um that's the ongoing theme in reefer is sit around and wait hurry up and get there sit around and wait um so all right staging areas most reefer places have a staging area walmart's don't that i i'll complain about walmart a little bit on that um keeping on with the customers uh let's see here we got um meat processing plants if you're going to haul reefer uh chances are you're gonna pull some meat and meat doesn't always come from a warehouse i don't know if you guys know this or not uh excuse me the meat in the grocery store comes from animals i know some people out there didn't know this comes from animals those animals have to be processed and by what i mean by processed is killed and cut up into pieces uh these processing plants uh it's hard to schedule for them i know when you show up they give you an appointment for 2 p.m uh you know they got to get it all lined up like if something breaks in the plant they're held up if the truck bringing in the livestocks held up then they ain't got the livestock to process it is a it is a needle they are threading having your loads done so don't be surprised you show up in a meat processing plant and uh you're there for you know 10 to 20 hours um seems to me chicken processing plants are the worst at this um i think it's just because of the high number of animals they process you know one little glitch in the system and you know before you know it the whole matrix is down so um and and these plants they typically don't smell that green you know there's a there's a lot of death in the air around those places um again if you don't like it stop eating meat but i'm i'm a meat eater so i deal with it but uh yeah good good weight loss program you know go to uh go to a pig processing plant and sit there for eight hours you you won't get hungry more likely you won't get hungry during that eight hours um you know you drop a few drop a few lbs doing a lot of meat loads um but uh yeah it's just it it's a waiting game and a lot of meat processing plants there again the thing comes back of waiting um let's see what else we got the smell at the processing plants um you know just it's just how it is it's just how it is it's part of the game if you're gonna do reefer and that's what i'm making this video about it's not to run you off but it's the it's to take that bright shiny finish off because let's face it every kind of trucking's got its drawbacks there is no perfect perfect kind of trucking like i said you got to find the kind that fits your personality so that's meat processing plants you're gonna deal with a lot of that um i would also put in there um like side note produce a lot of times you show up to pick up a load of produce and it's still in the field and they still gotta pick it put it in a cooler to cool it down you know to a reasonable temperature and then load it on your truck seven hours later it's a bummer i picked up cucumbers one time that were like 100 degrees and i had to take them to a cooling processing plant where they they spray water in my trailer they spray cold water in my trailer onto the produce to cool it down i mean it's just little extra things like that you're gonna deal with did they pay me any extra to do that nope they were like either you want the load or you don't a lot of meat processing plants are four hours before they start kicking into tension it's just the way it is it's just the way it is um you know so it's like yes reefer's gonna pay a little bit more than drive-in but you're not gonna get as many miles in as drive-ins so like think of it like that you're gonna get more done with dry van you know it's like what fits your personality better do you have the patience to wait 20 hours at a shipper because uh you know i think i had a 26 hour wait time last spring at a place uh you know you make up your mind you figure out what you're gonna do if you're gonna stay if you're gonna leave but uh just be prepared for a lot of waiting and uh let me see here another thing at the shipper you're gonna have to worry about is when they put that freight back on your trailer rejected loads um in the reefer game we got a little we got a little term we call osd overages shortages and damages now if the lumper service damages five boxes of uh you know mashed potatoes uh chances are that's going back on your trailer now i don't think this process is right i think if if i left with a sealed trailer and i show up with a sealed trailer and no pallets have been tipped over but yet there's five damage boxes on there i don't think it should be my problem but a lot of times it is uh back last uh summer i think it was i had 216 pounds of bacon uh rejected it was like it was like 24 pound boxes and there was a lot of them you know what i mean like like 10 plus boxes of bacon now the broker and the customer is not going to let you take that bacon home which i wish they would have you go back and watch that video i made a video about it i was like 10 miles from my house boy i could stock my freezer my in-laws i got to talk to everybody that knows freezer was baking but no they want it donated to a charity and they want a receipt from it before they'll pay you for that load because technically now they did had a stop pay on to that and a lot of times you can't negotiate a stop pay because that is an extra stop but the customer won't take it because they're not going to pay for it uh the receiver won't um you know i i had a costco reject a pallet of almond milk for possible damages it wasn't even damaged the shrink wrap had had uh almond milk on it from like the factory and they were like hey that could be damaged we're not touching that i had to take i'd take a whole pile of almond milk to a charity you know i gotta stop pay but you know i wasted half of my day doing that uh so over just shortages and damages shortages are probably if you're gonna have one of the three you won't you won't know none of them you won't know osd i like to text my brokers or whoever booked the load for me i like i like to text them when i'm done no osd that means boom clean bills we're good we're out we're done um it don't always work like that though um but i guess if you're gonna have one shortages is the best especially if it's a sealed trailer when you leave and it's a sealed trailer when you show up you know they know you didn't open the trailer that means the shipper shortage something uh overages can be a beast like i said you may have to go donate that damages can be a beast because if it's not too damaged they'll want you to donate it if it is too damaged then they they make it your responsibility they're like just throw it in just get rid of it and i'm like oh yeah yeah let me unload 400 pounds of product where am i gonna put that number one um so i was in houston earlier in the year i had some some product that was an overage i don't know it was like 10 cases of something you know luckily the customer let me throw it in their dumpster but if not uh last spring i had like a a lot like 500 400 pounds of mashed potatoes rejected um i had to pile on i had to go pick up a load and there was no truck stops no dumpsters i had to pile them up here in the cab with a truck until i could find a dumpster later that day had to go pick up a load and then find a dumpster to get rid of the rotting mashed potatoes and they weren't like you know they'd just come out of the cooler so they weren't rotten but you know i had to figure out a way to get rid of that they make a lot of that your responsibility it's not cool um occasionally you get lucky you know like the like the product in houston i kept a case of that you know they said throw it in a dumpster i said hey it's in a dumpster i kept a case of it and ate on it sometimes you get a win like that but it's very it's not very often uh so there you go guys those are those are kind of my you know uh list of negatives i call them the cold hard truth of reefer um just stuff to think about if you want to do reefer put some thought into it you know don't just jump into it um you know think about what you want to do think about you know it can i handle a 10 hour wait time can i ever can i handle like an average four hour wait time uh you know because that's about average i think in reefer about a fort like three to four hour average you know occasionally you get that one place like if it's under two hours and reefer hell you think you've won the lottery um so uh yeah there it is guys i appreciate everybody tuning in i really do thanks for watching take care of each other out there watch one of these other videos if you want to learn more from cash's king thank you bye

Channel: Cash is King trucking

Views: 7,882

Rating: 4.9463806 out of 5

Keywords: Trucking, trucker, truckstop, dat loadboard, brokers, owner operator, hauling, refrigerated, cascadia, big rig, Freightliner, gps, 18-wheeler, semi truck, CDL license, pre-trip, post-trip, training, flatbed, dryvan, trailer, stepdeck, tanker, diesel, fuel, ifta, toll road, towing, jake-brake, ltl, Apu, idling, reefer, food-service, cold-storage, Detention, layover, lease purchase, logbook, ELD, sleeper, cb-radio, bunk, inspection, bill of lading, lumper, capstone, comdata, efs, hazmat, airbrake, weight station, bitcoin, Amazon

Id: Nz_CKr_AHFI

Length: 24min 41sec (1481 seconds)

Published: Fri Apr 23 2021