You lose 1-2 feet of length with a reefer depending on your unit encroachment and door thickness. You also lose width, due to the insulation. Space can be an issue, especially if they don't want to pinwheel the pallets. You also can't load all the way to your ceiling because of the chute. Sometimes there are issues with the floor...you can nail into a van's floor. Also, some shippers don't want to have to worry about the added care needed loading a reefer. You can't just shove stuff into a tight space because you'll damage the insulation. You've seen the beating a dry van takes on the dock.

And lastly :lol: some brokers try and protect their dry freight rates from reefers. Most dry freight is year-round, while reefers are generally seasonal. Reefers are notorious for taking anything just to get back to where ever the hot spot of the moment is. This often leads to undercutting what would normally be a nice year-round rate. So some brokers think they can protect their rate by not exposing their customers to reefers.

As far as the weight difference, it's definitely important to check on. A reefer unit weighs 1500-2000 pounds, the trailer structure is beefier than a van, and you have the insulation. Many company vans can scale 46,000+. I know if I get over 43,000 it starts to get dicey.

 

That was a very good, thorough answer no-worries. It's amazing the help some of you guys provide. Very much appreciated by more than just merrick4. Thanks

 

Yeah definitely what Outta here says No_worries. Very thorough indeed. I appreciate it. You always mention that you have your facts straight should a problem arise with these brokers; I bet half the time they are dumbfounded when you get on a roll .

Actually my truck is very light. About 32,500 with a half a tank and empty trailer. Actully I loaded just under 30,000 pounds today but went and scaled out cause I had to slide the tandems back at the last place and can never feel comfortable on where the tandems should be. I hate to spend the money, but I don't want to be called into any office and be asked any questions. I'm hoping with time I will get a bit more comfortable with it.


Now that I look at this scale ticket this seems low but I scaled 62360lbs with a load of 29294lbs as per the BOL. I guess that's right as I had about a half of tank.

How's your truck doing? Did they get the part they needed? There was a load out to Nevada today and Ch called me on it. They wanted to give me $1.20 a mile to go to Sparks. Not this truck. What comes out of Nevada anyway? From what I hear nothing.

Anyone know if Kentucky is one of those states not to buy fuel in like Indiana? It sure was cheap (or cheaper) there today. I usually look up the fuel tax on etrucker but even with Indiana they dont mention that it doesn't come out at the pump.

Thanks again no_worries you're a big help!

 

That's what we're here for guys.

So you're one of those guys that makes shippers think they can list reefer loads weighing 46,000 lbs :x :lol:

Definitely keep scaling anything you're not sure about. It's much cheaper than the free scale the DOT uses :shock: After awhile you'll get used to how your unit sits. Plus, with a little basic physics you can get awfully accurate estimates...assuming the shipper's weights are right :roll:

While I never go to the Reno area, I know you can get potatoes and onions out of there. Rarely have I seen the round worth it, but it's happened on occasion. You can also DH over to the Central Valley, but it wouldn't be worth it this time of year, especially at $1.20 going in :lol:

IN and KY both can have good fuel prices. They both take tax at the pump, but then they have an additional tax as well. For the purposes of computing the best fuel price, tax in IN is $.16 and KY is $.166. Many people think that you should never buy in OR because they don't take ANY tax at the pump. That's just not true. There were several times this summer when OR was the cheapest fuel on my run. With the volatility in fuel prices the past couple of years, you have to check everyday if you want to get the best price. I had a trip a month or two ago, where the fuel was cheapest on the West Coast and gradually went up as I went East. When I reloaded to come back, it was the other way around :shock: Keeps ya on your toes :lol:

Yeah, got everything fixed but freight was dead. I have my end-of-the-year bread and butter load in OR next Friday so I decided just to spend this week at home. I was able to put together a nice LTL headed up there on Monday, so I'll spend a few days with the folks then grab that load to Toledo, reload in Detroit and be back home and done for the year on the 20th or so. I love it when a plan comes together 8) :lol:

 

How come Steve was complaining about a food warehouse about 2 weeks ago in Philly and you guys go to them all the time and don't complain?

 

What he said.

 

I have never found these food warehouses that bad. I don't find the people to be rude either at all. A lot of times I will start out talking with them and they kind of give me a rude "what?" because they seem to think that I am going to be nasty.

All I know of truckdrivers is from what I read here. Most everyone here is polite and articulate; I don't listen to the cb and I don't hang out in truckstops ever. But it does seem from the initial reaction that I get from these places that they deal with a lot of nasty people.

Once they see that I'm being freindly most people are very freindly in return. I usually am interested about something and ask a lot of questions and they are pretty helpful.

Now there have been a few times where they were nasty and while by nature I am very polite and freindly I can do the nasty North East attitude just as good as any and they usually pipe down after that.

The waits aren't as bad as I thought they would be either. Granted all I have ever done is reefer so I never really did the drop n hook and plan on being there for a couple of hours. I do not show up at Walmart 5 hours early as I don't find you get out early by doing that. I show up on the dot, and can keep myself busy for the couple of hours I wait and get out on time.

This load I just finished I was there for 5 hours. For the first couple of hours I didn't mind as I just came from home and was putting everything away but then I saw the time and more then sitting there as I was tired anyway, I started getting mad that they rushed me up there only to sit. So I made dispatch call the broker at her home to authorize detention.

 

Good job. And when they knew they were paying you to sit, things started to happen right?

 

Definitely I try not to max out on the weight. I want the least amount of stress on this truck of mine for the most amount of money. Some of these loads I am finding out are priced by weight. I called on a load of potatoes and he told me $4 per hundred weight. I had no idea what he was talking about and asked him what that translated to per mile. When I realized it was bad I figured what the hell I don't want the load so I don't care if he thinks I'm ignorant so I asked him to explain the per hundred weight. As they say "he who asks a question is a fool once, he who doesn't is a fool forever".

But I see that hauling produce I need to learn the prices per bag and all of that. I know this sounds stupid, but if nothing else I am honest , I am amazed at how much it takes to be a successful O/O (or wanna be successful O/O like me ) I've said it a bunch already but getting the truck and authority is the easiest part to the O/O thing.

Actually probably not just produce either. I picked up a load of stuff in California once for the company I was with and they squeezed every square inch of space on that truck. No pallets allowed and the dispatcher was saying something about square feet or square something or cubed something. I think that's how it was billed to the customer which was Burdines.

Now this surprises me. I could have sworn I read that Indiana doesn't take the tax out at the pump. For this reason I haven't fueled up there. I run my route on one of these fuel routing things and they always have Indiana as the cheapest (after Ifta) but I don't get it cause I thought they didn't take it at the pump. I just fueled up in Kentucky for $3.08 but I spaced out and handed them the Amex Simple card instead of the Amex Blue card. At least I'll see how they classify fuel over 75 gallons.

Glad your truck got fixed ok. I didn't know you did LTL stuff too. I want to look into that too. Sometimes I try and learn everything at once which isn't easy believe me

Speaking of LTL, I was talking with someone from ABF corporate once and there was a lot he was telling me that I didn't understand but speaking on the cheap freight etc I remember him saying that he won't haul customers stuff for free. He said let them go for cheaper but they'll be back after they get what they pay for.

I wish I could talk to that guy again cause there is a bunch of stuff I'd like to ask him now.