Colin_scottish:
Why would you want to switch a fridge off you dont know what its loaded with.Because you think it would be ok to switch it off and maybe cause £1000s of pounds worth being wasted.But we all know drivers only think about themselfs.Btw i pull a fridge and if someone switched it off think it may involve a punch on the chin.
a mate of mine ad is derv line cut to his fridge at banbury years ag his insurence paid out best part of 9 grand just abought bust him 4 years before his premeums came down
A colleague of mine was woken by a reefer parking next to him.
The driver proceeded to uncouple and park the other side of the truck stop
Now he was a little mental so turning the fridge off was a given. But winding the legs up and dropping the trailer to low to recouple was a little harsh.
True story apparently.
About a year ago I was heading back to base with a back haul, but realised I wasn’t going to make it back before my hours were up. Called the office and informed them I would make it to the services about an hour from base, then would need to park up for the night. “Not a problem, just drop the trailer when you get there, we’ll get one of the night guys to pop down and pick it up - just make sure you’re back in the yard for 8am tomorrow”.
Got to the services, which was fairly quiet, found a spot as far away from everyone as possible, dropped the fridge in a spot, parked the unit next to it, pulled the curtains and went to sleep.
Woke up the next morning, pulled the curtains on one side and was surprised to see all the spaces to that side full. Opened the other side - which was full too - and my trailer from the day before still sat beside me!
Everyone that night must’ve been thinking I was a complete tool, but I was just doing as instructed! Was tempted to leave it there, head back solo, and deny all knowledge of it! 
Cruise Control:
For all you know that fridge could be carrying a highly unstable isotope that needs kept cool , and also carrying some dodgy chemicals, turn fridge off it warms up and keboom everything within 300 miles reduced to the landscape of Mars planet .least then the fridge won’t bother u 
The flaw in that argument is that a fridge carrying something that volatile would have a back up unit too, it isn’t unknown for a fridge engine to break down and it would have the same catastrophic outcome. The vessels in which the product was contained would also have to be able to withstand a problem too, they don’t just put things like tat in cardboard boxes on pallets!
As for the rest of it, I’ve said it many times, all this talk of switching off fridges is total ■■■■■■■■ and nothing less. I did my fair share on fridges and once in a while I was fortunate enough to be able to park for a night (international fridge drivers will totally get this) and even though I tried my best to be considerate, sometimes it’s unavoidable and I had to park amongst the crowd.
I got a few head shakes and “Are you staying long?” questions, I got called a few names too, I even got threatened with having my fridge turned off, to which I responded with the appropriate reply, but it never happened, a few drivers moved on, a few probably had a crap night’s sleep, but I never encountered one of the mythical fridge switcher offers.
Maybe I was just lucky…
Whether on a break or when on a night out, I never minded parking beside a fridge. My reasoning is that I never had to endure groups of EE drivers chain smoking, chatting loudly for hours with a stinking bbq smouldering away.
The loud mothers’ meetings weren’t entirely EE, just the stinking smoke and bbqs.
I had a fridge driver apologise once for parking next to me. I apologised in return for the inevitable noise when I got in the curtainsider and rearranged the empty pallets.
I never had a problem sleeping with a fridge motor running. I found that after a few wee drams of amber nectar I could sleep through anything … and usually half of the next morning as well 