Reefer Freight: What to Get Right Before the Truck Shows Up

A refrigerated load punishes you for the mistakes you make before the driver ever backs into your dock. A dry load that gets bumped or delayed is annoying. A frozen load that thaws is a claim, a rejected delivery, and a very bad phone call with your customer. The good news: most reefer problems are preventable, and almost all of them happen before the truck rolls.

Here is what to nail down ahead of pickup so the temperature you promised is the temperature that arrives.

Know your product’s spec, not just “keep it cold”

“Refrigerated” and “frozen” are not instructions. A reefer unit holds a set-point; it does not fix product that showed up warm. Before you book, you need to know:

• The exact set-point temperature the product must ride at.
• Whether it ships frozen (hard) or chilled (fresh), because those are different loads with different tolerances.
• Whether continuous cooling or cycle (start/stop) operation is required. Some produce needs continuous airflow; some frozen freight can ride on cycle.
• The acceptable temperature range your receiver will actually accept on delivery.

Put those numbers on the bill of lading in writing. If the set-point lives only in someone’s head, it will be wrong at 2 a.m.

Precool the trailer and precool the product

A reefer unit is built to hold temperature, not pull it down fast from a hot load. Two things have to be cold before the freight goes on:

1. The product. Load it at temperature. A pallet that comes out of the plant warm will fight the unit the whole trip, and it may never recover.
2. The trailer. The reefer should be running and pulled down to your set-point before loading starts, not while your product sits on a hot dock waiting.

If you load warm product into a warm trailer and expect the unit to catch up on the road, you are gambling with the whole shipment.

Load for airflow, not just for space

Air has to move around your freight for the temperature to hold. Cram pallets floor to ceiling and wall to wall and you choke the airflow, which means the boxes in the middle ride warmer than the sensor reads.

• Keep freight off the front bulkhead so return air can circulate.
• Don’t block the floor channels; the air moves along the deck for a reason.
• Leave space at the rear so the doors can seal and air can return.
• Palletize and secure so nothing shifts and blocks a channel mid-trip.

Get the paperwork and handoff right

Delays are the enemy of cold freight. Every extra hour on a dock is an hour the product spends drifting toward the edge of its range. Have your BOL complete, your set-point written down, your pallet count confirmed, and your dock ready when the appointment window opens. If the driver has to wait, your product waits with them.

Decide up front who pulps the product and when. A receiver who pulps at delivery and finds an out-of-range reading will reject the load, and you want your own temperature records to back you up.

Match the size of the move to the right service

Not every cold shipment is a full truckload. Comet handles dry and refrigerated freight at both LTL and truckload size, frozen and fresh, to all 48 states and Canada. If you have a few pallets, you don’t need to pay for a whole reefer trailer, and if you have a full load with a tight window, you need dedicated space and a driver who understands the product. The mistake is forcing a shipment into the wrong size and eating cost or risk you didn’t have to.

This is also where a single point of contact earns its keep. When something drifts on the road, you want a person who answers the phone and owns the problem, not a tracking number and a queue.

The short version

Get these right before the truck shows up and most reefer trouble never starts:

• Know the exact set-point and delivery range, and put them on the BOL.
• Precool both the product and the trailer.
• Load for airflow, not maximum stuffing.
• Have the dock and paperwork ready so the load doesn’t sit.
• Size the move to the freight, LTL or truckload.

If you have a refrigerated or frozen load coming up and you want a second set of eyes on the plan before you book it, call Comet National. We have been moving temperature-controlled freight since 1995, and we would rather talk through the details now than sort out a claim later.