Refrigerated freight (reefer) moves temperature-sensitive products in an insulated trailer with a mechanical refrigeration unit. Kargoza operates reefer capacity for food, beverage, pharmaceutical, and chemical shippers who need a precise set point maintained from origin to destination, monitored continuously through every mile of the lane.
What Reefer Trailers Carry
Reefers handle any commodity that must stay within a defined temperature window. The most common loads include:
- Fresh and frozen food, including produce, meat, dairy, and seafood.
- Temperature-sensitive pharmaceuticals, vaccines, and clinical supplies.
- Beverages that require cool-chain handling.
- Certain chemicals and adhesives that degrade outside of a narrow range.
- Floral and agricultural products.
Shippers in our food and beverage and life-sciences lanes use reefer daily. For non-perishable dry goods, our dry van service is the lower-cost option.
Temperature Ranges We Handle
Refrigerated trailers can hold a wide range of set points, generally:
- Frozen: -10°F to 0°F for ice cream, seafood, and frozen meals.
- Refrigerated: 33°F to 39°F for produce, dairy, and fresh meat.
- Cool / Pharma: 36°F to 46°F for many pharmaceutical products.
- Controlled room temp: 59°F to 77°F for chocolate, candy, and some adhesives.
Each load is set, monitored, and verified against a written temperature specification at pickup.
FSMA and Food Safety Compliance
The Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) Sanitary Transportation rule requires shippers, carriers, and receivers to take documented steps to prevent contamination during transport. Kargoza’s reefer program supports compliance with:
- Pre-cool documentation: trailer temperature is recorded before loading.
- Wash-out records for prior loads, especially for allergen-sensitive commodities.
- Trailer seals applied at origin and verified at delivery.
- Continuous temperature monitoring with downloadable reports.
For food and beverage shippers, we provide a record of compliance on every shipment.
Continuous Temperature Monitoring
Modern reefer units log trailer temperature at frequent intervals. Kargoza monitors these logs in transit and flags excursions to dispatch and the customer. At delivery we provide a temperature report that documents the product stayed in range from dock-in to dock-out, which is often required for retailer compliance, FSMA audits, and pharmaceutical chain-of-custody.
Pre-Cool and Product Pulldown
Pre-cooling the trailer to the target set point before loading is critical, especially for frozen goods. Loading warm product into a cold trailer can spike the load temperature and trigger a refusal. We confirm pre-cool time at booking and verify it before tendering the load.
Equipment and Capacity
Kargoza’s reefer fleet covers single-temperature and multi-temperature trailers. Multi-temp units allow two or three set points in the same trailer, useful for retailers taking frozen and refrigerated goods together. Equipment is dispatched on Full Truckload lanes for large volumes or on consolidated LTL moves for smaller pallets with a minimum cube.
If your product must arrive at the same temperature it left, our refrigerated freight service delivers a documented, monitored cool-chain from origin to delivery. Send us your commodity, set-point range, lane, and pallet count, and we will return a reefer quote with the equipment and transit window that fits.
Frequently asked questions
What temperature range do you support?
Most reefers hold -10°F to 77°F. We will match the trailer set point to your product specification and document it at pickup.
Do you monitor trailer temperature in transit?
Yes. The reefer unit logs temperature continuously and we review the log for excursions. A delivery temperature report is provided on request.
What is FSMA and how do you handle it?
The Food Safety Modernization Act requires sanitary transportation practices for food. We document pre-cool, wash-out, seals, and chain-of-custody, and we provide compliance records for every shipment.
Can a reefer carry dry goods?
It can, but a dry van is significantly cheaper. Use a reefer only when the product genuinely needs a controlled temperature range.