There's a new 2014 evolution With dt12 in palmyra.

 

wish i would have known about the bigger heater i would have got mine with the bigger one. but what i do is close the bunk off and it helps a great deal. i got a 70 condo in a columbia. another thing i do is when its super cold out i leave the parking lights on to make the tripack run more.

 

Ok I was a bit rushed today as I fired the girl that has been a thorn in my side forever and was in the office all day and so much has changed, I was trying to keep up with all the new systems. As I've said, I lost touch with the basic day to day stuff. I oversee everything (especially the money, every penny I'm in control of), but I got sidetracked a bit as I was running around rehabbing my hip and spending so much time with my daughter. Basically I make the major decisions and then let them do their job.

Anyway, as I said I liked the Tripac, but that was in the second truck I bought. The one I drove around the country in had the Carrier one which was a piece of junk (they discontinued the product I think), it was ok for me though. After I got out of the truck, the drivers in the truck said it use to heat them out. I am extremely sensitive to the cold and bought me a little space heater to use as well.

As for the batteries, as someone mentioned they are on Ryder. I was talking to my rep today as I'm ordering 5 more trailers (more on that in a moment) and I told him that I think the problems I have been having with the Parksmart is the drivers aren't being instructed on how to use it. The guys I spoke to today on which they liked better, they were bright guys and knew how to use them. The rep said he found that he had that problem with a lot of customers with the parksmart. The drivers weren't instructed properly and after they were the customer had much less problems with them.

Anyway I am ordering the trailers through Ryder now. I stopped buying them a while ago. I have 10 with PLM and 5 with Ryder as it is. PLM is fine for me and I don't have to put a deposit down. But Ryder is getting out of the insurance business for non-owned Ryder equipment and slowly rates have been rising and this year I'm told they will rise substantially. But it stays the same for Ryder equipment. The other stuff has been under what's called the RIA program (Ryder Insurance Advantage). Right now it's about a $30 a month difference per month between the two on the trailers ( Ryder trailers are cheaper) but I liked not having all my eggs in one basket and again not putting the down payment down.

Also and please correct me if I'm wrong, Ryder units come with the 2500 Carrier units instead of the 2100. So we do do a lot of frozen stuff, I'm thinking if we put it on stop/start then the 2500 will be stronger and not have to start up as much and might be cheaper in the end on fuel. Maybe I sound completely stupid on that as I am not a mechanic nor do I have a mind for such thing, but it seems to make sense that way so feel free to correct me if I'm wrong.

Be safe everyone.

 

I have no practical knowledge on those systems, or any refer. But logically thinking, more powered unit (2500) has nothing to do, with how often it will have to start. That's rather question of trailer insulation. Power might get it to the normal temp. quicker, but is it more fuel efficient, remains to be seen. Also, IMHO it's a good idea, to buy the best stuff you can afford, if you know what i mean....

 

If you want to conserve fuel, get a better insulated trailer. Ryder and Penske buy and set up fleet trailers. They are a middle man for someone such as yourself to deal with.

Personally, I'd go find a single source trailer rep to work with and skip a flease outfit like Ryder or penske. I just don't see the financing working for long periods. But I guess you got it working for you.

As to the 2100 vs the 2500, similar in difference from the Ultra to the Ultima, one runs at 1950 RPM and the other runs at 2150 RPM on high speed. That's how they get the thing to cool down faster and more. Someone reprogrammed my Ultra to an Ultima before I bought the current trailer I have.

I view my equipment as three separate items; Reefer, trailer and tractor. Should I decide to replace my reefer, I've already decided on the X[SUB]4[/SUB]2100.

 

Hi mndriver, I'm not sure what you meant about find a single source trailer rep? As Solo pointed out, that makes more sense about the insulation but if I recall if we had more than two inches there was a problem of loading a certain amount of pallets.

By the way, I have had outside consultants that wanted to act as a middle man between me and Ryder or any lease company but they couldn't help me. They tell you one thing and it turns into another. I am a very plain spoken person. When new drivers walk into the office they assume I am just another driver. When sales people or reps, or adjusters etc walk in they go over to the dispatcher's desk. I had one risk analyst turn his back on me and he was asking the dispatcher certain questions and he wouldn't turn his back and brushed me off. He got on my nerves, and out went the plain talking and in came the $.50 cent words. (I'm self educated and read and read and read and looked up every word I didn't know). I started pointing out things in the CFR's (Code of Federal Regulations); Man how he came in is not how he left. I like to let them think I'm dumb as it shows them for who they are. But I started tearing into those consultants and they move on from me.

I too consider the equipment as three separate items. I have changed a couple of reefer units already and kept the trailer, but I get paranoid when they are out of warranty. I just like the fact with the leased units, they HAVE to come out and help me. It may be more expensive in the long run but we charge above average rates and we get it due to our service level. One of our biggest customers recently got mad at us for something they misunderstood, and started ranting about we get paid above average rates out of Florida etc. I told him very politely that he can get the same level of service and capacity for cheaper then I would suggest they do that. Real quick he said, "no no no, we have no plans of changing anything".

Just as an example of service, my cell rang today and a customer said he needed an update on a truck. By chance I was on the phone with the driver manager but I called the girl who did the tracking and while she was checking on the GPS location of the truck and I was pulling up the driver info which he needed too (we use Google docs, incredible tool) the driver manager got the driver on the phone. So in the end the customer had 3 of us on the phone plus the driver. That's service and these people pay us money that quite frankly we have no idea how they pay us so much.

 

Where are you located?

I would never get a piece of equipment from Ryder or penske. Especially a trailer.

I would work with GE financial and a dealer like Jim hawks, trudell or my personal favorite, Crossroads trailer in Albert Lea MN.

I told them point blank, I am paying for your service, you are giving me the trailer to use. Crossroads is the only dealer that understood what I meant. They stand by that so well, last week I felt compelled to share that with the general manager. Sales, service AMD parts.

That's what I mean for a single source. Look at a lease finance vs cost of a trailer from a dealer vs financing on your own. There are several thousands difference in financing. Most of it in interest cost.

I personally will own nothing but a great Dane trailer. Just as some folks are stuck on Pete's. But that's just me. I hear what you're saying about the 2" of insulation. You really need to maintain. 98" inside dimension and that limits you to 2". When you spin 48*42" pallets, you don't have much space left for over hang or anything else between the walls and pallets. Critical when you are starting to look at 30 pallets on a load.

 

Ah I see what you mean now. Actually every trailer I have bought (except the 2nd) has been through GE. At one point I owed them like a million dollars. They are easy to deal with, treated me right. The rep I had (whose gone now) never even had me fill out everything. I was always just approved. She was on maternity leave for a while and some other guy stepped in and wanted me to fill out applications and I told him I didn't do that, that my rep just did it all for me. In short I have excellent credit with them.

I know they have lease finance etc but I always just did a straight 5 year purchase. These other companies you use, they give you service as well? GE never gave me anything except the money to buy the trailer.

I like Great Dane too. I started with all Wabash but the service was atrocious. Well I'm in South Florida so Miami is what it is. I always say North America starts at the Broward County line. I'm about 15 minutes from Ft Lauderdale. The service from Great Dane has been good. With the PLM I only pay the fixed cost and the variable on the engine hours and I don't pay per mile so I am responsible for maintenance. I worked it out to be cheaper that way. But more and more I want to go to Ryder. It will be cheaper on the insurance (I pay $87 per month for physical Damage on the trailer) and again I like the one stop shopping.

It's a huge corporation, but I'm well known and they try and keep my happy. I got so mad one time I got the North American head of operations for the full service leasing division (they have 3 divisions and that is the largest). He's now head of global operations. When I get worked up, I know how to make things move.

My driver/safety manager is going on vacation next week for about 2 1/2 weeks but when he comes back I am going to start aggressively growing. We are turning away a lot of freight. We need more capacity.

By the way, as an update to previous issues. I haven't heard a word back from the lawyer in Wisconsin on that ticket. I'm tempted to email him but it's been so quiet I'm nervous to.

I refused to deal with the adjusters with the stolen trailer claim but I did speak to the law firm my insurance company hired to try and recoup the money. I'm hoping they deny the claim at this point. The customer is holding $24,000 of my money and we filed on their bond. I still think there should be some sort of repercussions for placing cargo on the trailer that exceeded by over 40% the amount of insurance I had. I could have just obtained a rider, ergo they placed me in undo risk. I don't know how that will turn out.

 

Hawks, trudell and crossroads are all full service trailer dealers. All capable of handling companies like decker, j&r schugel and other 250+ truck fleets.

Not uncommon for any of then to place a 125+ trailer order.

 

mndriver, just out of curiosity, why would you never lease from Ryder/Penske?

Thanks