6 Easy Ways to Maintain a Refrigerated Trailer and the Risks of Not Maintaining It

For some companies in the business of cold chain logistics, refrigerated trailers are the main assets needed for day-to-day business operations. Without reefer trailers, there is consequently no business. Therefore, maintaining refrigerated trailers should be made a high priority for business owners to keep the business moving.

What Is A Refrigerated Trailer and How Does It Work?

Ice cream arrived at its destination as cool as when it was loaded – just the way you like it! For being transported using reefer trailers or refrigerated trailers. Refrigerated trailers are insulated trailers (attached to a semi-truck) with built-in refrigeration units designed for the safe delivery and storage of perishable products at consistent temperatures.

So how do reefer trailers work? Interestingly, they are not responsible for actually cooling products. Instead, reefer trailers are designed to restrict heat from entering the trailer for products to maintain a consistent temperature during transportation and storage. 

Reefer trailers do this using three main components: the evaporator coil, the compressor, and the small diesel engine; these work together to make sure the air inside the trailer remains cool and consistent by removing any heat or humidity through the evaporator coil. 

6 Easy Ways to Maintain Refrigerated Trailers:

1. Practice Routine Vehicle Maintenance: As a company that relies on refrigerated trailers for daily business operations, vehicle maintenance issues such as unexpected breakdowns, wear and tear, condenser or evaporator problems, temperature sensor malfunctions, and blocked airflows will disrupt the ability to optimize the use of refrigerated trailers.It is therefore important to have a routine maintenance plan that is followed to prevent unexpected downtime from maintenance issues and breakdowns

2. Clean the Interior: With all the kinds of temperature-sensitive products being transported, reefer trailers can get messy. Once emptied, reefer trailers need to be cleaned using a pressure washer with water mixed with industrial refrigeration detergent because the leftovers, dirt, and other messy things can hinder proper airflow within the trailer, risk the temperature consistency in the trailer, and put products at risk of spoilage and damage.

3. Perform Pre-trip Inspections: Interior inspections include checking if drains have clogs, walls have cracks or cuts, and air chutes have holes. Exterior inspections include checking for oil leaks, faults in hoses and belts, unusual engine noises, trailer body damages, light malfunctions, and low tire pressure.

4. Stay Fully Fueled Up: Before transporting products be sure there is a full fuel tank to prevent the reefer trailer from running out of fuel. If the reefer runs out of fuel, it also runs out of cold, placing the perishable products at risk of spoilage and can cause major mechanical issues as the cooling unit will pull accumulated moisture out of the lines if fuel is low.

5. Monitor Temperatures: To ensure the right temperature is consistent during the transportation of temperature-sensitive products. Efficient temperature monitoring is important because it will prevent unsafe temperatures within the trailer and thus prevent the spoilage or damage of the products.

6. Comply with Loading Guidelines: To ensure that products are well preserved, fresh, and receiving the right amount of airflow, it is important to adhere to loading guidelines:
   -  Freight must be at least 1-2 inches (2-5 cm) from the reefer trailer’s side walls
   -  Freight must be 9 inches (23 cm) from the ceiling of the reefer trailer
   -  Freight must be 4 inches (10 cm) from the rear doors
   -  The evaporator must not be blocked

Risks of Poorly-Maintained Refrigerated Trailers

Companies that use reefer trailers to transport temperature-sensitive products need to comply with regulations and standards around the world to ensure the health and safety of the transported products and protect customers’ interests. By not maintaining refrigerated trailers, companies cannot correctly monitor temperatures and provide good transporting conditions, thus running the risk of not abiding by the regulations and standards which include:

• BPOM and import license authorizing the transportation of temperature-sensitive products

•  Maintaining adequate temperature controls to ensure food safety

• Providing the receiver with the operating temperature, demonstrating temperature conditions have been maintained during transportation 

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Poorly maintained reefer trailers risk the safety and usability of temperature-sensitive products. This will lead to a broken cold chain that may result in a range of short and long-term consequent impacts such as:  

• Damage, spoilage, flavor loss, and bacterial growth: the lack of access to fresh and healthy foods (e.g fruits, vegetables, protein, etc) may further result in food insecurity on a local or global scale. Additionally, damaged vaccines and medications may have profound effects on public health.

• Business downfall: damaged and spoiled products will in turn lead to waste and loss of products, sales, and overall business profits. In addition to declining finances, low-quality products and service delivery as a result of unmaintained refrigerated trailers can further destroy the company's brand and reputation.  

Optimize Use of Refrigerated Trailers with Cartrack Technology to Keep Products Fresh and Customers Satisfied

From monitoring temperatures to ensuring regular maintenance and regulation compliance, running or managing a business that relies on refrigerated trailers for day-to-day operations can get challenging. However, Cartrack makes it easy. With our reefer temperature monitoring software you can: 

• Rapidly reduce unexpected downtime with preventative maintenance

  Cartrack features such as reminder alerts, routine service plans, and engine diagnostics, help determine which vehicles need service, reducing breakdowns and surprise maintenance issues. Preventative maintenance plans allow you to visually plan schedules, dispatch vehicles and allocate jobs accordingly - boosting overall fleet productivity and longevity.

• Keep refrigerated products fresh with real-time temperature monitoring

  Businesses can use Cartrack’s reefer temperature monitoring software, and GPS and IoT tracking technology to monitor the location and temperature conditions of their refrigerated trailers. Fleet managers can receive alerts the moment any temperature fluctuations occur, allowing them to immediately check in with drivers to resolve issues or send a replacement trailer if necessary to prevent massive profit losses. This ensures products are always kept fresh, eliminating rejected deliveries and building better customer relationships.

• Optimize routes for faster and fresher deliveries

  Our user-friendly fleet management platform helps fleet managers easily manage and track drivers and their tasks. Managers can view driver statuses to quickly assign new tasks to their nearest available drivers, and optimize the quickest and safest routes for faster and fresher deliveries. Being able to track tasks and communicate via the app, improves communication and productivity between managers and drivers as they no longer have to waste time trying to locate and contact each other for job updates.

• Remain fully compliant

  Easily make your cold chain logistics operation fully compliant by using Cartrack’s software system. Digitise and automate the temperature tracking, recording, and monitoring of your reefer trailers. This will ensure you have all the necessary documents at your fingertips and receive real-time updates on the exact temperature range of your refrigerated trailers. Remaining compliant, also helps you avoid unexpected downtime and makes you more attractive for new business ventures as you can cater to any temperature-specific standards and industry requirements for customers.

Monitor your refrigerated trailer with Cartrack

Call 021 3973 0230 now and get a demo of temperature monitoring software to maintain the quality and freshness of your products.