Refrigerated vs Dry Van - Wait time at shippers?

my experience has been reefer is longer, especially grocery store chain distribution centers, meat, i've gone to places where i had to wait, sometimes 8 hrs to get unloaded, then wait hrs for lab results(bacteria levels) to come back......i think also it can depend on carrier/shipper/receiver relationship......

 

Depends what you're hauling ... Reefer is generally longer wait times. If you're loading melons right out of the field they sometimes pick them all day then ship at night. After you showed up after lunch cuz you thought maybe they close at 5. Meat takes forever if you are live loading it. If you get apples or onions etc out of a cooler if you call ahead they'll usually set you up with an appt and your time won't be wasted .. As much ... Every shed has its own way of doing things and over time you will learn where you can safely go to sleep for a while when waiting. The delivery times for reefers I find is often in the early morning hours ... More night work with reefer hauling ...

 

Dry van is almost always quicker to load and unload. And less late nite deliveries, less lumpers.

 

Dry van has always been quick and painless for me. One time i was in Maine getting loaded with industrial grade cardboard rolls (used to make those 12 and 24 pack soda can boxes). And the shipper told me he had some bad news, that it was going to take a long time to get to me because he is backed up. Me thinking in reefer mode i ask him "oh shoot, like 1 or 2 days? Is there somewhere i can camp out if so?" Hes like "no...what? Like a half an hour"

 

Reefer by far is longer then dry van but in a reefer I could always depend on getting my break in while waiting on meat loads in liberal,dodge city or garden city. Always knew where I was gonna park at too. Dry van is a bit more uncertain on that. Like right now I'm sitting in a empty parking lot near Cleveland waiting until they open tomorrow to unload my trailer full of cardboard drums sitting in the dock next to me. The hours are more daylight then running reefer also. Lots of 3 and 4 am delivery times with those cold loads. I also haven't had to pay a lumper in the last year or so either and cleaning out a dry van is pretty easy too.

 

And dont forget that you have to babysit the reefer. Batteries go dead, belts jump the pullies. you gotta find a place to fill the reefer tank before dropping it.

 

a lot more short hauls dry van
even with wait times on reefer you burn thru your 70

 

Its not what you are hauling it is who you are hauling for.

I used to pull a heavy 3 axle reefer; 48k. One worker at receiver would have that mixed reefer empty and sorted in 15 mins. Every day I was in and out within 20mins when he was working. However, if he had help it would take longer. If he wasn't there it would take two hours.

Still yet if it was going to another grocer it was 4,8,10 hours to move the same load. In addition I would have to wait in the line at security guard shack, wait to get a dock, wait to back up to a dock, wait for the CR england guy to wake up his trainer to back the truck, wait at the receiving window, wait at the lumper's desk, wait for dispatch to get back to pay the lumper, wait for the lumper to approve the check, wait for the lumper to pull the freight, wait for the freight to be re-stacked, wait for the receiver to count the pallets, wait for the other receiver to get off lunch and sign the paperwork, wait for the OSD, wait for dispatch to approve the OSD, wait for security to check out the trailer, truck the OSD back to the closest terminal and then waste more of my cleaning out the mess they left in the trailer.

The whole point is it all could be quicker. How, much quicker, 15mins vs 10 hours. It isn't quicker because with the CPM pay scam there is no penalty for wasting the truck driver's time. You give your time for free, you best expect some company will waste that time. The grocer's that deal with CPM companies and reefer loads have long since figured that out.

 

It isn't just the cpm guys. They jerk around the four dollar a mile beef loads just the same. if you are going to a cold storage warehouse, or a grocery distribution center. You are losing Atleast half a day. Just the way it is. There are few exceptions to this rule of thumb. For example Costco was always just over an hour.
Since switching to flat, one of my favorite things is delivering generators to grocery warehouses. The crane meets me at 7 am, I got my chains off and put up by 20 after and he had lifted the genny off and signed my bills by 730. I take a good long look at the two hundred trucks backed up to the docks for the last six hours and give them a big smile and wave on my way out. those poor ########, that used to be me.