Question About Reefer. The Cold Kind

I have a reefer question. Stemming from my first experience pulling one just last weekend. I checked it when I left the chicken plant, loaded, at it was running and set at 20 degrees continuous as per the shippers specs. I drove 2 hours to my overnight stop, got out and checked the refer unit. Wasn't running. Well, it had recently been rebuilt by the company owner. It wouldn't start. Wouldn't even try to turn over. Well, I have been a reefer expert in my earlier life, but never a reefer mechanic. Ended up calling the owner at 11 o'clock that night. He said just don't worry about it and bring it in to the yard first thing the next morning which was 30 minutes away. Anyway, here's my question.....do the newer reefer units have any monitoring system that shows temperature and whether or not the unit is running that shows inside the cab? In an older model truck, you really can't hear it running back there over he sound of the truck engine. At least that was my experience. And if there is no such device, let me just say this.......patent pending 07/23/2015.

I've been pulling reefer for almost 4 years, and I haven't come across any in-cab monitors. The only monitor you can see from inside the truck is the function/malfunction light mounted to the corner of the trailer that you can see in the driver's mirror. Some of the newer ones will actually display the temp, but for the most part they're just a "good" or "bad" indicator.

That said, I have extreme misgivings about an owner whose attitude towards a trailer that's supposed to be at 20° continuous, but won't even start, is "meh, just bring it in in the morning." That load is going to be ruined well before the reefer unit gets fixed.

Yes they do. they can also see it in the office 2000 miles away what the temp is yada yada...

TracKing

I know when I was pulling reefer units for Prime they were monitored remotely by Prime. Also their older trailers had a display on the front driver side corner showing if the unit was running or not if you could not hear it. If the unit was not set according to the load plan, you would get messages via the Qualcomm requiring you to respond back to Prime as to the condition of the unit (running/stopped/settings/etc). They also have it setup so that it can be monitored via the Qualcomm while you are running down the road if it did not have a display on the corner of the trailer.

I agree with Fatsquatch about misgivings when it comes to the owner not being immediately concerned for the load when the unit is not operating properly.

Ernie