You know it really helps to have HIGHER ups that are close Friends in the OTR industry. One is the Owner of a 300 Reefer outfit in IL the next is the CEO of a 100 Tanker truck with a 200 truck Dry van side and has a Logistics divison that controls 2 million Square feet of Warehouse space. The last one is the OWNER of a 20 truck reefer carrier based out of OREGON. They all said the same thing JB HUNT WILL FAIL in this for one reason they refuse to think that they can fail. Their OR for the 3 companies are 94 90 96 JB last Quarter was 99. Why were the Reefer boys so much Higher simple called CARGO CLAIMS AND DEADHEAD MILES plus Reefer Maintance and FUEL. Produce is and ALWAYS has been touchy. Iceberg lettuce was devolped for one reason IT SHIPPED WELL that was it. Those Spring mix salads you get in the Stores from Fresh Express have been out of the field LESS THAN 48 hours BEFORE GETTING TO THE FACTORY TO BE PACKAGED UP and 4 days before they get to the store MAX. Those are Team loads all the way. When your hauling them the ONLY THING THAT YOUR STOPPING FOR IS FUEL A PEE BREAK AND A SUBWAY SANDWICH at the Pilot Truck stop. The rest of the time your left door is closed and your foot is BURIED IN THAT ACCLERATOR. Look I am not anti RR or OTR trucking. However I have seen how the Mega Carriers like JB Hunt treat drivers and it sucks.
You see their trailers and containers going down the rail all the time and go well they must have more Freight than they can handle. No what they have done is gotten rid of their long haul boys and forced them to all be local or Regional drivers. There are alot of drivers out there like ME still that refuse to be treated like that and will fight being forced to run like that.
edbentonYou know it really helps to have HIGHER ups that are close Friends in the OTR industry. One is the Owner of a 300 Reefer outfit in IL the next is the CEO of a 100 Tanker truck with a 200 truck Dry van side and has a Logistics divison that controls 2 million Square feet of Warehouse space. The last one is the OWNER of a 20 truck reefer carrier based out of OREGON. They all said the same thing JB HUNT WILL FAIL in this for one reason they refuse to think that they can fail. Their OR for the 3 companies are 94 90 96 JB last Quarter was 99. Why were the Reefer boys so much Higher simple called CARGO CLAIMS AND DEADHEAD MILES plus Reefer Maintance and FUEL. Produce is and ALWAYS has been touchy. Iceberg lettuce was devolped for one reason IT SHIPPED WELL that was it. Those Spring mix salads you get in the Stores from Fresh Express have been out of the field LESS THAN 48 hours BEFORE GETTING TO THE FACTORY TO BE PACKAGED UP and 4 days before they get to the store MAX. Those are Team loads all the way. When your hauling them the ONLY THING THAT YOUR STOPPING FOR IS FUEL A PEE BREAK AND A SUBWAY SANDWICH at the Pilot Truck stop. The rest of the time your left door is closed and your foot is BURIED IN THAT ACCLERATOR. Look I am not anti RR or OTR trucking. However I have seen how the Mega Carriers like JB Hunt treat drivers and it sucks. You see their trailers and containers going down the rail all the time and go well they must have more Freight than they can handle. No what they have done is gotten rid of their long haul boys and forced them to all be local or Regional drivers. There are alot of drivers out there like ME still that refuse to be treated like that and will fight being forced to run like that.
My company has tried numerous times to get at least a part of this to go by rail. It has been a very very frustrating expieriance for management every time they try.
Believe it or not appox 20% of the lettuce is now coming from places other than California or Az. Also only a small percentage of the loads now are going as team loads.
The main thing on something like this is service, service, service. Getting the railroads to understand that has been a real hassle. As I described earlier, there was some flexibility in the way we did things that my company had contingency plans set up. But when the railroad involved shut us out they only had to deal with what amounted to 1 load. My company had to deal with a whole lot more.
Eventually it came down to what was more reliable trying to deal with an inflexible organization or doing ourselves with a very flexible operation.
by the way you do know that you now have to have a TWIC card to deliver or pickup trailers at a rail yard.
Rgds IGN
Oh yeah I know all about needing that TWIC card for a Rail Yard the Fed Background check for the Haz-Mat Endorsement and even needing a Passport for going to Canada. Give me a break. Cdl is now 150 here in IL TWIC is 50 HAZMAT is another 50 yet if you can get either the of those 2 you can get the OTHER ONE. Yet if you apply for them you have to pay for each separtate Background check. I loved the clearance I had back when I drove. TS/SC level 2 so lets just say could and did pull about anything out there.
Having thought about this a bit more, perhaps what J.B. Hunt is doing does validate what Ed Benton is saying, to a degree - instead of performing the long-haul reefer run, Hunt is essentially subcontracting it to BNSF, just like it would to a truck owner-operator. That way, BNSF - not Hunt - is primarily responsible for all those operational issues.
The irony is - will we see a return to the days of passenger train and livestock train servicing facilities ? Maybe not too many of us here will know just what that means . . .
What I mean is this: Imagine a train of a couple hundred loaded reefers speeding across the desert at 0-Dark:30 - or better yet, in the middle of a scorching summer afternoon. A couple of them in the middle run low or out of fuel, the engine quits on another, another loses its refrigerant, another refuses to start when commanded by either its thermostat or the GPS-based remote monitor, another has a clogged fuel filter and loses power, another has a clogged lube oil filter or loses pressure in that system and shuts down, and another one develops a cooling system leak, loses its coolant, and shuts down - and a few other assorted mishaps that we can all well imagine, because even the best and most diligent Preventative Maintenance can do only so muich. All of this is duly reported to J. B. Hunt's operating HQ by satellite radio.
Now, what do Hunt and/ or BNSF do then ? Do they just continue on ahead with the train and risk losing those loads ? Or do they try to stop at the next point with mechanical forces and repair all these defects ? With extended crew and loco districts, it might be several hundred miles and 8 to 10 hours until that happens. And once there, what kinds of skills, equipment, and parts will be on hand ? How long are the other functioning reefer containers on that train going to be delayed while the crew tries to repair the malfunctioning ones ? Will they have to pull the train forward a few times to spot the cars needing fuel and repairs where the fuel truck and tools can reach them ? How long does all this take ? How does the repair crew afely get to the refrigeration units on the upper level of the double-stacks ? What if the container has to be unloaded to be repaired - how is that accomplished in the middle of nowhere, a long ways from any intermodal terminal with that kind of lift capacity ? Or is the whole 'car' of wells or platforms set out for further TLC as that can be arranged ? And who among the general carknocker force dependably knows anything about refrigeration ?
What I'm wondering if with enough of this kind of 'stuff' happening, whether it won't be worthwhile or evolve into establishing a couple of service points along the way, at intervals of from 200 to 300 miles, to be able to intelligently diagnose and capably remedy at least some of these problems, or at least furnish enough 'first aid' so that the container and its load can limp along to the end terminal for better repairs or transfer to a working container, etc. ? Any thoughts on this ?
- Paul North.
Also another BIG issue is Cross Contaimination were say you have Fresh meat on top of Veggies BELOW and that unit on top QUITS. Say Ecoli was in that top reefer of meat and got into those Veggies. Now what are you going to do as the RR or JB HUnt. When word leaks out it WAS YOU THAT CAUSED THE ISSUE. Better have DEEP POCKETS.
Paul_D_North_Jr Having thought about this a bit more, perhaps what J.B. Hunt is doing does validate what Ed Benton is saying, to a degree - instead of performing the long-haul reefer run, Hunt is essentially subcontracting it to BNSF, just like it would to a truck owner-operator. That way, BNSF - not Hunt - is primarily responsible for all those operational issues. The irony is - will we see a return to the days of passenger train and livestock train servicing facilities ? Maybe not too many of us here will know just what that means . . . What I mean is this: Imagine a train of a couple hundred loaded reefers speeding across the desert at 0-Dark:30 - or better yet, in the middle of a scorching summer afternoon. A couple of them in the middle run low or out of fuel, the engine quits on another, another loses its refrigerant, another refuses to start when commanded by either its thermostat or the GPS-based remote monitor, another has a clogged fuel filter and loses power, another has a clogged lube oil filter or loses pressure in that system and shuts down, and another one develops a cooling system leak, loses its coolant, and shuts down - and a few other assorted mishaps that we can all well imagine, because even the best and most diligent Preventative Maintenance can do only so muich. All of this is duly reported to J. B. Hunt's operating HQ by satellite radio. Now, what do Hunt and/ or BNSF do then ? Do they just continue on ahead with the train and risk losing those loads ? Or do they try to stop at the next point with mechanical forces and repair all these defects ? With extended crew and loco districts, it might be several hundred miles and 8 to 10 hours until that happens. And once there, what kinds of skills, equipment, and parts will be on hand ? How long are the other functioning reefer containers on that train going to be delayed while the crew tries to repair the malfunctioning ones ? Will they have to pull the train forward a few times to spot the cars needing fuel and repairs where the fuel truck and tools can reach them ? How long does all this take ? How does the repair crew afely get to the refrigeration units on the upper level of the double-stacks ? What if the container has to be unloaded to be repaired - how is that accomplished in the middle of nowhere, a long ways from any intermodal terminal with that kind of lift capacity ? Or is the whole 'car' of wells or platforms set out for further TLC as that can be arranged ? And who among the general carknocker force dependably knows anything about refrigeration ? What I'm wondering if with enough of this kind of 'stuff' happening, whether it won't be worthwhile or evolve into establishing a couple of service points along the way, at intervals of from 200 to 300 miles, to be able to intelligently diagnose and capably remedy at least some of these problems, or at least furnish enough 'first aid' so that the container and its load can limp along to the end terminal for better repairs or transfer to a working container, etc. ? Any thoughts on this ? - Paul North.
Paul, despite what Ed is saying about the meat melting in the top container and the bottom container leaking all at the same time, the railroads can successfully handle this freight and have been doing so for a long time. They just weren't allowed to compete and now have to reestablish themselves.
USDA divides California into four reporting regions. North, Central, South and Imperial Valley. I just grabbed the numbers from the Central Region because I don't want to spend all night on this. For the 12 month period ending March 27, 2010 the railroads moved 25,664 truckload equivalents (45,000 pounds) of fresh fruits and vegetables from the Central California Region. While this is but a fraction of what moved by truck, I think it more than proves that the railroads have the ability and knowledge to handle FF&V. The rail tonnage was split about evenly between intermodal and rail car.
If you want to do your own checking of my numbers you may do so at:
http://www.marketnews.usda.gov/portal/fv
If you've got a bad order reefer unit, then you've got a bad order. If the problem can be fixed while in the train then it gets fixed. If you need to set out the load, then you set it out for repair. There's no need to panic. It's a 45,000 pound or so load in an insulated box. It's been cooled down (suposidly) to the proper temperature prior to shipment. It won't go bad all that quickly. (The ice cream can stay in the trucks.)
The vast majority of the loads will come though with no problems. It then gets into being a trade off as to how much is spent on freight claims vs how much is spent baby sitting the reefer units. With the tremendous cost advantage double stack has over trucking the railroads will be able to build the loss and damage factor in to their rates and still come out ahead.
Here are the intermodal commodities from the Central California Region for the 12 months ended 3/27/2010. I didn't break out the rail car by commodity, but if anyone wants to do that, please be my guest.
Greyhoiunds THE HELL THE LOAD WILL BE SAFE FOR A FEW HOURS. Even Precooled in 100 degree heat which is VERY TYPICAL in the Central Valley of California a Trailer can go from 34 degrees to 60 in 5 hours when a Reefer UNIT FAILS. How do I know this I had one BREAKDOWN in Bakersfield 20 Mins before I was supposed to RELOAD. 5 hours later my trailer was at 60. Try to Precool a reefer unit to -20 in 120 degree heat in TEXAS to get a load of Baskin Robbins on out of College Station took 48 hours with an ICE CREAM SPECED UNIT that was had 40 thousand BTU's of cooling capacity at -30 in 120 degree heat to do it. I'll bet you this 90% of what they are hauling is this Frozen or Dried or all ready Shreeded foods. See the USDA does not make a differance in Dried or FRESH apricots to them they are the SAME things. Imported Dried ones are marked differant. Lettuce they might be hauling Bagged Shredded for Mc Donalds. See you pack the bags with Nitrogen you can stop the decay for a couple weeks. Bet you did not know that did you. Strawberries they found out package the pallets with compressed Nitrogen gas with a touch of Helium stops them from ROTTING. Be amazed the stuff you learn on the shipping floor of the packing houses.
Paul_D_North_JrHaving thought about this a bit more, perhaps what J.B. Hunt is doing does validate what Ed Benton is saying, to a degree - instead of performing the long-haul reefer run, Hunt is essentially subcontracting it to BNSF, just like it would to a truck owner-operator. That way, BNSF - not Hunt - is primarily responsible for all those operational issues. The irony is - will we see a return to the days of passenger train and livestock train servicing facilities ? Maybe not too many of us here will know just what that means . . . What I mean is this: Imagine a train of a couple hundred loaded reefers speeding across the desert at 0-Dark:30 - or better yet, in the middle of a scorching summer afternoon. A couple of them in the middle run low or out of fuel, the engine quits on another, another loses its refrigerant, another refuses to start when commanded by either its thermostat or the GPS-based remote monitor, another has a clogged fuel filter and loses power, another has a clogged lube oil filter or loses pressure in that system and shuts down, and another one develops a cooling system leak, loses its coolant, and shuts down - and a few other assorted mishaps that we can all well imagine, because even the best and most diligent Preventative Maintenance can do only so muich. All of this is duly reported to J. B. Hunt's operating HQ by satellite radio. Now, what do Hunt and/ or BNSF do then ? Do they just continue on ahead with the train and risk losing those loads ? Or do they try to stop at the next point with mechanical forces and repair all these defects ? With extended crew and loco districts, it might be several hundred miles and 8 to 10 hours until that happens. And once there, what kinds of skills, equipment, and parts will be on hand ? How long are the other functioning reefer containers on that train going to be delayed while the crew tries to repair the malfunctioning ones ? Will they have to pull the train forward a few times to spot the cars needing fuel and repairs where the fuel truck and tools can reach them ? How long does all this take ? How does the repair crew afely get to the refrigeration units on the upper level of the double-stacks ? What if the container has to be unloaded to be repaired - how is that accomplished in the middle of nowhere, a long ways from any intermodal terminal with that kind of lift capacity ? Or is the whole 'car' of wells or platforms set out for further TLC as that can be arranged ? And who among the general carknocker force dependably knows anything about refrigeration ? What I'm wondering if with enough of this kind of 'stuff' happening, whether it won't be worthwhile or evolve into establishing a couple of service points along the way, at intervals of from 200 to 300 miles, to be able to intelligently diagnose and capably remedy at least some of these problems, or at least furnish enough 'first aid' so that the container and its load can limp along to the end terminal for better repairs or transfer to a working container, etc. ? Any thoughts on this ? - Paul North.
Last summer had a load of ice cream and unit failed in +90f temp 11pm sat nite. Nearest Carrier repair was 100 miles out of route(I was on I-70, Colby, Ks. Had to go to Dodge City, Ks to get fixed. Problem was compressor clutch blew out on a brand new unit/ trailer (2 wks old). The shop did not have clutch and we ended up having to swing a rental unit on trailer.
This was not cheap. Carrier paid for the repairs, My company ended up paying for the rental unit and then paid me all the miles involved and then we had to take some cheap o freight to get back to Dodge to get the repaired unit back on trailer. I've seen worse. (Another co's melted creme pies in Casa Grande, Az) .
Worse case if you have competent people available, on a railroad operation is you replace unit on trailer. I've been told that happens when a unit goes bad on a railcar. I know from experance that BNSF has some good refridgeration mechanics on staff at Willow Springs. (helped me with a unit that sucked the crude out of the bottom of a fuel tank.)
The best defense is having knowledgable people that know to pretrip unit before loading and then having staff available enroute. (a good driver).
edbentonOh yeah I know all about needing that TWIC card for a Rail Yard the Fed Background check for the Haz-Mat Endorsement and even needing a Passport for going to Canada. Give me a break. Cdl is now 150 here in IL TWIC is 50 HAZMAT is another 50 yet if you can get either the of those 2 you can get the OTHER ONE. Yet if you apply for them you have to pay for each separtate Background check. I loved the clearance I had back when I drove. TS/SC level 2 so lets just say could and did pull about anything out there.
edbenton"Also another BIG issue is Cross Contaimination were say you have Fresh meat on top of Veggies BELOW and that unit on top QUITS. Say Ecoli was in that top reefer of meat and got into those Veggies. Now what are you going to do as the RR or JB HUnt. When word leaks out it WAS YOU THAT CAUSED THE ISSUE. Better have DEEP POCKETS."
"Also another BIG issue is Cross Contaimination were say you have Fresh meat on top of Veggies BELOW and that unit on top QUITS. Say Ecoli was in that top reefer of meat and got into those Veggies. Now what are you going to do as the RR or JB HUnt. When word leaks out it WAS YOU THAT CAUSED THE ISSUE. Better have DEEP POCKETS."
IGN trouble is NOt all places DO THAT. Anyone remember a couple years ago that Spinach recall. Guess who was HO<DING the bag them the OTR truckers. NOT THE PACKERS THE GROWER NOPE THE FINAL LEG OF THE SHIPMENTS. BTW all contamination is NOT BLOODY either. Improper cleaning of equipment can a does cause more issues whit FOOD BORNE stuff yet does JB Hunt know how to handle it. I doubt it. Also What Watertight containers. you have to allow drainage from these things or MOLD GROWS IN THEM FASTER THAN OPRAH AND KRISTIE ALLEY EATING A PIZZA TOGETHER. That is why there is 4 drains in EACH of these things one in each corner so after they are Washed out they can drain the excess WATER OUT OF THEM.
comments: 1 If a load melts and leaks out of its container the roof of the container underneath should keep out the liquid.
2. Produce is checked pretty closely, as it goes bad all too easy. If a receiver sees blood inside a trailer, or other transport container here is what happens. 1. USDA is called for inspection. 2. When USDA inspector sees blood he/she condemns load. 3. carrier must then remove offending cargo & 4. must provide USDA certification of how load was disposed of.
Watched this happen to an owner operator. He emptied out on a meat load that left blood all over the trailer. Then helped him unload cargo at a land fill. He had to get someone from landfill to witness the disposal and sign a statement that cargo was then made unrecoverable. The guy from landfill just stood there as we (the driver, his wife & myself) tossed cargo off the back of trailer, and then when it was covered in ground.
I think Dole is shipping lettuce by rail again. Heard some rumors bout this when I was out in California last year. The biggest surprise on the list is broccoli. Broccoli is pretty sensitive, and you need to ice it down after loading to keep it from drying out. I think this may be going out as frozen, not fresh.
Grapes are another surprise, but again shouldn't be. During the winter we(in the US) get a lot of grapes up from Chile. They take about a week in transit. and a couple of days to the stores.
edbenton IGN trouble is NOt all places DO THAT. Anyone remember a couple years ago that Spinach recall. Guess who was HO<DING the bag them the OTR truckers. NOT THE PACKERS THE GROWER NOPE THE FINAL LEG OF THE SHIPMENTS. BTW all contamination is NOT BLOODY either. Improper cleaning of equipment can a does cause more issues whit FOOD BORNE stuff yet does JB Hunt know how to handle it. I doubt it. Also What Watertight containers. you have to allow drainage from these things or MOLD GROWS IN THEM FASTER THAN OPRAH AND KRISTIE ALLEY EATING A PIZZA TOGETHER. That is why there is 4 drains in EACH of these things one in each corner so after they are Washed out they can drain the excess WATER OUT OF THEM.
Ed, if they weren't watertight there would be no need for the drains to let the water out.
You see, when they want to clean the inside of the container somebody takes a high pressure hose and intentionally puts water inside. Otherwise, the idea is to keep water out. But when they use water to clean the inside they have to remove the water.... Oh, never mind.
The mess with spinach turned out to be a problem of animal control. Specifically a herd of cattle wandered onto the field where the spinach was being grown. It was not a problem with the shipping container. I was in the middle of that as a whole lot of shippers were absolutely nuts about cleanliness. Now you have to provide a copy of washout receipt before loading or dropping a trailer.
And no trucking co's had any liability at the end of that. Just got stuck disposing of a whole lot of spinach that went bad whilst everyone was figuring out what to do.
narig01 I think Dole is shipping lettuce by rail again. Heard some rumors bout this when I was out in California last year. The biggest surprise on the list is broccoli. Broccoli is pretty sensitive, and you need to ice it down after loading to keep it from drying out. I think this may be going out as frozen, not fresh. Grapes are another surprise, but again shouldn't be. During the winter we(in the US) get a lot of grapes up from Chile. They take about a week in transit. and a couple of days to the stores. Rgds IGN
No, that's fresh broccoli. The numbers are from a "Fresh Fruit and Vegetable" report. If the produce is frozen the USDA doesn't include it in the report. (I wish they did include frozen products. Potatoes are a big volume commodity and most of them go as frozen processed product or dehydratred product. It takes a lot more work to quantify the potato transportation market.)
It's also not processed lettuce. It's heads of Iceberg and Romaine. The USDA breaks out processed lettuce as a seperate commodity and no processed lettuce shows as moving by rail.
The railroads can haul this stuff well enough. But I fully agree that railroad operating supervisors sometimes tend to lack a "Customer Centric" approach to their jobs.
edbenton Greyhoiunds THE HELL THE LOAD WILL BE SAFE FOR A FEW HOURS. Even Precooled in 100 degree heat which is VERY TYPICAL in the Central Valley of California a Trailer can go from 34 degrees to 60 in 5 hours when a Reefer UNIT FAILS. How do I know this I had one BREAKDOWN in Bakersfield 20 Mins before I was supposed to RELOAD. 5 hours later my trailer was at 60. Try to Precool a reefer unit to -20 in 120 degree heat in TEXAS to get a load of Baskin Robbins on out of College Station took 48 hours with an ICE CREAM SPECED UNIT that was had 40 thousand BTU's of cooling capacity at -30 in 120 degree heat to do it. I'll bet you this 90% of what they are hauling is this Frozen or Dried or all ready Shreeded foods. See the USDA does not make a differance in Dried or FRESH apricots to them they are the SAME things. Imported Dried ones are marked differant. Lettuce they might be hauling Bagged Shredded for Mc Donalds. See you pack the bags with Nitrogen you can stop the decay for a couple weeks. Bet you did not know that did you. Strawberries they found out package the pallets with compressed Nitrogen gas with a touch of Helium stops them from ROTTING. Be amazed the stuff you learn on the shipping floor of the packing houses.
You loose your bet. The numbers are for Fresh Fruits and Vegetables.
As to McDonalds....Before my Ex Wife acquired the "Ex" prefix she worked in distribution for McDonalds at their Oak Brook, IL corporate headquarters. I remember going with her to a distribution facility near Lemont, IL and watching her stick a thermometer into some shredded lettuce. She told me all about the lettuce thing.
I also know about controlled atmosphere use in shipping. Do you know that it is now possible to move fresh (not frozen) pork by ship to Japan and have it arrive with a good shelf life remaining? While you've got a lot of knowledge and experience, you're not the only one posting who has knowledge experience in moving temperature controlled products.
As to your trailer going up to 60 degrees in five hours... As I read your post you did not have a load in the trailer. 22 tons of product at 34 degrees in an insulated box is going to take a while to get warm enough to be damaged. The lettuce doesn't go bad the instant the reefer unit quits. And it's not the air temperature in the trailer/container that counts. It's the temperature of the product that counts. Eventually, the temperature of the load will increase to the air temp in the vehicle. But that's going to take a while. So there is some time. The rail units will be remotely monitored and in the rare cases where the refrigeration system does fail a decision based on the rate of temperature change can be made as to what to do. Reefer units don't fail very often, and when they do it's not like someone is having a heart attack. There is time to evaluate the situation and take a resonable course of action. Unless you're hauling ice cream.
As to ice cream. I obviously have no authority or standing to speak for any entitiy in the North American rail system. However, I feel confident that they would agree with me when I say: "Keep the freaking ice cream". The railroads will haul the soup, the salad, the meat, the potatoes, as well as the other veggies and the wine. The truckers can keep the ice cream desert. Deal?
Note: Ice Cream is one of the most "non-transportable" commodities there is.
Is ice cream shipped transcontinentally? Or regionally? Are there local facilities which manufacture for regional distribution? Seems like it would make sense?Ed
MP173 Is ice cream shipped transcontinentally? Or regionally? Are there local facilities which manufacture for regional distribution? Seems like it would make sense?Ed
Thanks to Chris / CopCarSS for my avatar.
Most if not ALL Baskin Robbins is made in Kentucky and Shipped all over the USA. Most EDY's Brand Ice cream is made in Bakersfield along with Drumsticks and their style of Ice Cream snack there. Now there are som regional daires however Ben and Jerries only has 2 Plants in the Nation and they are Nation Wide. Dippin Dots has ONE and they IIRC are in about all Amusement parks anymore. What made shipping Ice Cream easier was when Carrier came out with a Screw style Compressor in 1999 in fact I had a load rejected for BEING TO COLD with one of them. Seems Baskin Robbins did not like their Ice Cream at -30 in summer.
greyhoundsNote: Ice Cream is one of the most "non-transportable" commodities there is.
The load I described that I had a unit go bad on me was 43000#'s of ice cream. By the by C.R.England is sending ice cream by rail. I think someone else may be doing so as well for Nestle's.
I remember reading in the Omaha Weird Harold some years ago about how the Japanese love novelty ice cream items. Well Blue Bunny was shipping ice cream treats from LeMars IA to Japan via K-Line. They'd run Omaha/CB - UP - Seattle for export.
If you want to hear crazy about Ice Cream. A couple of years ago I hauled a load of Hagen Das Ice cream from Tulare, Ca to NJ.
When I was empty I was dispatched on a load from where I delivered that load back to California. The laugh was when I looked at paperwork about 1/4 of my west bound load was the same lot number as what I'd delivered to NJ. I'm not sure if it was the same stuff I'd just delivered. But I was surprised when I compared paperwork.
The great world of transportation. Go figure.
narig01 greyhoundsNote: Ice Cream is one of the most "non-transportable" commodities there is. The load I described that I had a unit go bad on me was 43000#'s of ice cream. By the by C.R.England is sending ice cream by rail. I think someone else may be doing so as well for Nestle's. Rgds IGN
Wow! That's cool!. (Pun intended.) Thanks for mentioning this.
I view ice cream as kind of the final frontier. If C.R. England is confident that the reefer units will maintain a hard freeze on ice cream while on a flatcar, I reason they are very confident in the reliability of the units. Reefer shut downs shouldn't be a significant problem when moving temperature controled products by rail.
Now if the dang operating department just doesn't screw things up.
Yeah because in SUMMER your burning about 35 gallons a day to keep it frozen. So if that train is late YOUR DONE. Produce is a normally 20 gallons a day these figures are from Thermo Kings Fuel charts for their latest gen engine. They have a 100 gallon tank so good for about 3 days however Dispatch better be on the ball and there BETTER NOT BE A LINE AT THE FUEL PUMP. However the Next line on the CARB and EPA hitlist is putting DPF's on Reefer Units that will be fun were are they going to put the UREA on a reefer so it will not Freeze since all that trailer at one time is exposed to temps well below Zero or the Boiling point aka the Engine bay of UREA.
[quote user="greyhounds"]
narig01 greyhoundsNote: Ice Cream is one of the most "non-transportable" commodities there is.Wow! That's cool!. (Pun intended.) Thanks for mentioning this. The load I described that I had a unit go bad on me was 43000#'s of ice cream. By the by C.R.England is sending ice cream by rail. I think someone else may be doing so as well for Nestle's. Rgds IGN
Thx IGN
Just to keep this thread from being forgotten about. Try to remember Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream is made in Vermont and shipped everywhere.
Norfolk Southern has an interesting rule that refrigerated trailers on flat cars. They are not to be placed so that two refrigerator unites are facing each other at the end of coupled cars. This is due to the possibility ot damage to them if trailers should slip.
If you look at Alliance & ICE Refridgerated trailers they both have what I'll refer to as bump shields. A metal framework to protect the units from such mishaps. Placing the units nose to nose if an invitation to not damaging one but two units.
There is ALot of V ery Expensive Epquipment in the nose of a Reefer Trailer. You have a Reefer Unit that can cost well over 50K. There is a Condesor Engine and alot of Haz Mat in the unit like Antifreeze Oil and Refrigarants. Not to mention a Battery and Fuel for the engine trying to keep a load cool how would you like to be the Yardmaster that has to call the Customer Relations department and let them know that we just took out 500K in food products because we slammed 2 unit s together. Also Reefers do not always haul food. More than one time I hauled some less than savory stuff that liked to go BOOM or others that would EAT MY TRAILER if it was to warm. Those are the Final frontier in reefer.
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