It amazes me why they have to be turned off on truckstops and services
Whenever I pull on for a break,and have to park in with the sleeping drivers, I turn mine off usually,
But the amount of trucks that are left idling, while the driver lies in bed or making a cup of tea with the curtains still closed.Making a right noise, and waking the rest of the sleeping drivers up
So a fridge, humming away, with a constant noise is a lot more relaxing, than hearing drivers out talking to the guy 2 trucks away, or engines needlessly idling
When im on a night out, I’d rather park away from others, and wake up when I want to, not when the guy next door thinks I should be waking up,
And when I leave anywhere, its always quiet, no fuss no mess
Had a 40’ reefer container picked up a few weeks ago in the evening from Southampton for Grimsby. I picked it up at 5pm and spent the night at Doncaster services and truck wouldn’t start in the morning. When I eventually got on the move, they instructed me to go to our depot in leeds to get plugged in. Arrived at 4ish 23 hours after I picked it up from the dock and it was -6. Not entirely sure how accurate it would be to the goods but it was pretty well packed when I arrived.
Pulleyns haul pharmaceuticals all over Europe and further afield.Their fridges have locks on the control panel and the head office is aware of the temperature from their computer in Reading.
The driver checks it every two hours while on his route.
With the load worth millions,the client is informed of the temperatures on the journey.
Mortimers did chips.
Eat more chips.Now T/a Broughton Ltd.
Boss is Toby Ovens,he could help out.
Tampering with a fridge should be a criminal offence.You could give a whole town food poisoning by turning it off or changing the settings.
If other drivers object to it,buy foam ear plugs or give up driving as what do they expect their food to eat.
Do they turn off their fridge at home.?
tonyb70:
It amazes me why they have to be turned off on truckstops and services
Whenever I pull on for a break,and have to park in with the sleeping drivers, I turn mine off usually,
But the amount of trucks that are left idling, while the driver lies in bed or making a cup of tea with the curtains still closed.Making a right noise, and waking the rest of the sleeping drivers up
tonyb70:
It amazes me why they have to be turned off on truckstops and services
Whenever I pull on for a break,and have to park in with the sleeping drivers, I turn mine off usually,
But the amount of trucks that are left idling, while the driver lies in bed or making a cup of tea with the curtains still closed.Making a right noise, and waking the rest of the sleeping drivers up
Silver_Surfer:
Leave it on constant so everyone knows the score, it’s the stop/start all night that gets on the ■■■■ thow see.
+1
There’s nothing worse than pulling up next to an off fridge thinking its empty, diving for the bunk & then ten mins later he switches on. Pants on & move or pants off…
Silver_Surfer:
Leave it on constant so everyone knows the score, it’s the stop/start all night that gets on the ■■■■ thow see.
+1
There’s nothing worse than pulling up next to an off fridge thinking its empty, diving for the bunk & then ten mins later he switches on. Pants on & move or pants off…
It’s not just that, the start / stop wakes you up - usually the stop strangely enough.
Constant is just that, and will actually help your sleep - how often have you been feeling sleepy on the motorway so you dive off to grab 15 mins, and as soon as you turn the engine off, you’re wide awake?
The fridge I had on was quite new & quite, no alarm sounding before engine clicked in, & I pulled off it just in front, so no problem, until… I’d attracted two more fridges!!! With very noisy engines… Still I slept ok ish… Thanks again everyone, lessons learned …
For anyone with little or no experience of pulling temperature controlled loads I would like to offer the following advice…
Ignore people who tell you that you can turn the fridge off because they’re talking complete ■■■■■■■■
There is a reason that companies invest many thousands of pounds in equipment that maintains the temperature of the load and that reason isn’t to give their drivers (and anyone else) a quiet night’s sleep
Even a load of frozen chips can go horribly wrong if you turn off the fridge, you may not risk causing bacteria in the product, like you can with meat, fish and dairy, but as soon as the temperature starts to rise you will get condensation, as heat rises and will come up through the floor, the first boxes to get hit by condensation are the bottom ones, condensation causes cardboard to go soggy and soggy cartons at the bottom of a pallet mean that the weight of the ones on top will make them collapse or split
OWLDRIVER:
Well I was here first, I’ve parked in corner, so we’ll see…
Don’t worry. I did the same thing and parked well away from others and still had a driver who had just turned up and get out of his cab and ask if my fridge will be on all night with a stinking attitude. He then started to have a good moan about how long he had been working and that he needed a good nights kip. Now that day I had just done a 14 1/2 hour shift due to weather in Portsmouth, Southampton and Brighton and delays on the M25 near to Clacket Lane due to a broken down vehicle.
So many parking spots in the car park between other lorries that were not fridges and I was parked in the corner.
newmercman:
but as soon as the temperature starts to rise you will get condensation, as heat rises and will come up through the floor, the first boxes to get hit by condensation are the bottom ones, condensation causes cardboard to go soggy and soggy cartons at the bottom of a pallet mean that the weight of the ones on top will make them collapse or split
You make a very convincing argument NMM, except for one major flaw; assuming that the fridge trailer in question isn’t anywhere near the tropics then even after being switched off for 10/12 hours the internal temperature is still going to be below freezing. So what is going to happen to this condensation once it meets a temperature below freezing?
newmercman:
This here internet can be a dangerous thing
For anyone with little or no experience of pulling temperature controlled loads I would like to offer the following advice…
Ignore people who tell you that you can turn the fridge off because they’re talking complete ■■■■■■■■
There is a reason that companies invest many thousands of pounds in equipment that maintains the temperature of the load and that reason isn’t to give their drivers (and anyone else) a quiet night’s sleep
Even a load of frozen chips can go horribly wrong if you turn off the fridge, you may not risk causing bacteria in the product, like you can with meat, fish and dairy, but as soon as the temperature starts to rise you will get condensation, as heat rises and will come up through the floor, the first boxes to get hit by condensation are the bottom ones, condensation causes cardboard to go soggy and soggy cartons at the bottom of a pallet mean that the weight of the ones on top will make them collapse or split
Well said that man, if your going to do it do it right.
newmercman:
but as soon as the temperature starts to rise you will get condensation, as heat rises and will come up through the floor, the first boxes to get hit by condensation are the bottom ones, condensation causes cardboard to go soggy and soggy cartons at the bottom of a pallet mean that the weight of the ones on top will make them collapse or split
You make a very convincing argument NMM, except for one major flaw; assuming that the fridge trailer in question isn’t anywhere near the tropics then even after being switched off for 10/12 hours the internal temperature is still going to be below freezing. So what is going to happen to this condensation once it meets a temperature below freezing?
Errm…let me think, condensation (water vapour) meets below freezing temperatures, does it spontaneously combust I have been told on this very forum that it will if it’s a load of grapes, although I think grapes in their liquid form may have had an influence in that statement
Condensation that refreezes will become ice, which when found on the outside of a frozen load will be a tell tale sign for anyone who regularly receives frozen loads that have been blast frozen in a moisture free environment
Whatever the fine points of it all, if a load has to go in a temperature controlled environment, the fridge should be running, some loads/shippers allow cycle mode, some insist on continuous, however in my experience (approx 15yrs on fridges) none of them are ok if you want to turn the fridge off at night
If I switched the fridge off when it should be running then I’d get a call asking why. These days the office know everything so be wary. I’ve even had calls while driving telling me the fridge has shut off and the exact fault code showing, and asking me to stop and check it out. Many customers expect a temp record emailed to them, the driver never knows. So like I say be careful. A customer has paid for a fridge for a reason.
I have been told on this very forum that it will if it’s a load of grapes, although I think grapes in their liquid form may have had an influence in that statement 