I’to be doing my first reefer run (early) tomorrow morning, so do any of you guys (or gals) have any advice?
TIA…
- make sure it has plenty of diesel in its tank.( normally red diesel,not white)
- ask the shunter or driver on site how to turn it off and on .(most important)
- check the temperature when you pick it up, it will be on the display panel, and make sure this is the right temperature for the product carried.
4.when parking in truckstops try and park away from all us non fridge drivers
or turn the fridge off.
Never be afraid to ask where you are working, I have always the good companys respect you for doing so, Biffa even have a tick box form for its TM’s to ensure they go through a pre start check & show for all new/agency drivers.
Not knowing everything is natural, so when you arrive ask to be shown how to operate thier units if needed.
As the guys have said, get someone to show you how the fridge works. As its now Sat pm, I hope it all went OK. Modern fridges are pretty straight-forward and simple to operate, from the drivers view, until they go wrong. Even that isn’t a problem if all you do is phone the office and they dispatch the man who can. With the cold weather coming in, getting to the next drop so you can be fixed off the roadside, isn’t a big prob’ either.
Don’t forget to check over your fridge, in the same way as you should check over your wagon, ie oil, coolant level, etc, adding in refrigerant level (sight glass), and belt tension. Don’t try checking most of these if the engine is running when your shift starts (especially belt tension 
), but if you have to switch off during your shift, its a good idea to leave it to settle for 30 mins’s? and then do a check. Like wagons, you get to know your fridge unit, so don’t need to do a check every day after a while (eg wagons oil level drops quickly to that point, but then stays there for about 4 weeks, then starts to drop slowly, might need a drop of oil before next service). 
How it went…
Job was multidrop of frozen food (baguettes, mince pies, pasties, etc.)
Started at 5am. Told guy who gave me the paperwork “I’ve never driven a reefer before, tell me everything I need to know”.
He said: “This is how to turn the fridge off, this is how to turn it on, and if anything else goes wrong, it’s not your fault, so don’t worry about it.” 
Anyway, first drop was in Gloucester; so started off up the M5. Fridge temp. started rising rapidly (probably as we’d opened the back doors twice to inspect the load); I was getting worried as it rose up to -7 C, but then started dropping again.
Stopped in Michaelwood services for a [zb] and to buy a map; parked next to artic, and turned off engine. Fridge unit immediately starts up and I think “Oh [zb]”, and swiftly move myself as far away from the other trucks as possible - I didn’t really want to switch the fridge off, because of the previous scare. Apologies to anyone I woke up… 
Get to Gloucester, first drop is Ramada Hotel. Find the “Ramada Golf Course and Country Club”, but gate is locked, and there’s no intercom. Park at gate, and spend 10-15 minutes walk/running up deserted country track, only to find a deserted golf club. Go back to truck, and find a load of golfers stuck outside because my truck is blocking the entrance (and gate is now unlocked). Actual hotel is 100m up the road… 
Arrive at hotel. I am directed to kitchen loading area, which is through an archway. Guess what? Archway is 11 ft high, and my truck is 13 ft. I offer to “remodel” their archway but they don’t like that idea. 
Have to handball a pallet full of food across 3 flights of stairs and numerous doors. It seems that that drop is usually done in a 7.5-tonne truck… 
Next two drops relatively easy (although took wrong turning finding first one, and got caught up in rush-hour traffic jam 
)
Next drop in Bath University. Now, one would think that a university’s students would have a clue about where the buildings were. Apparently not. Eventually get close to destination, which is in middle of road which goes underneath the main building complex. Guess what? 11 ft clearance again. Get approached by University security guard, asking me why I’m blocking the road. Tell him what I’m looking for, and he tells me that one of the guys I’m holding up is a catering van. Guy agrees to take the stuff from me, so unload onto him.
Next drop relatively easy (although drove past on first attempt), and owner decided to stand and watch me handball 2 pallets of stuff and refuse to help and then complained that I was late…
Final drop in Bristol Airport. Got stuck for a few miles behind tractor doing 20mph - single carriageway road, with no real opportunities for a safe overtake, and tractor driver never pulled in. 
Run sheet says “delivery before 12am” (which most people call midnight). Arrive at approx. 3pm, find out that they went home 3 hours ago, and phoned office to refuse the delivery (but office neglected to tell me, so I could have avoided going there at all). I don’t personally think anyone could have got there on time given the order I was told - if the run sheet had said it was 12 noon, I would have re-ordered…
Got back to depot, dropped truck, and went home.
Oh, and a couple of pearls of wisdom:
-25C is [zb]ing cold…
As long as you can see reasonably well without them, take your glasses off before going in the back…
Ha Ha.
Yup, -25c is {zb}ing cold isn’t it 
Your run sounds about par for the course, for any multi-drop run, when you don’t know it. That’s one of the drawbacks of agency work, the customer can put on a couple of extra drops, and/or put the load on a different (unsuitable?) wagon, then act surprised/disappointed in you for not getting the run done in the same time as the regular driver. Not that I’me saying that is what happens in every case.
As you get more used to the various runs you do, you’ll get round them quicker. I found that, if you stayed with the same agency, good companies who were customers would tend to put you on a particular run, moving their own drivers around runs. They would already know most of the drops from cross overs, when one run was extra busy and the neigbouring one was quiet, training, chatting about disasters etc. A bit like these forums really. 
All part of the learning curve really. Keep on telling us about your experiences. They are interesting reminders for those of us who have already been there and useful info’ for those about to go there.