Refrigerated trailer

Refrigerated trailers are trucks with a cooling body. As closed bodies out of plastic or sheet steel they are designed for the transport of cooled groceries. In short distance traffic often smaller busses are used for the transport of deep-frozen foods. In long distance traffic trucks with refrigerated trailers are more suitable. There are many constraints and conditions which should be paid attention to while transporting fresh foods.

The so-called refrigerated boxes consist of double-walled metal walls with an integrated insulating layer. The cooling unit, which fixes the temperature on the inside, is pre-installed at the front end of the refrigerated trailer. The boxes are especially designed for the transport of fresh and frozen foods.

Such a refrigerated box is much heavier than other trailers. This decreases the standard maximum payload of 25 tons to 24. Because of the isolated box and cooling unit – almost always with a heating and deep-freezing function – these refrigerated trailers are much more technically complex than other trailers but are also much more sensitive which results in higher maintenance costs. Also small manoeuvring damages can cause high repair costs.

Which goods the refrigerated bodies are transporting and how cooled the trailer should be depends on the specific intended purpose and freight. Plants, for example, are transported in special flower transports and require naturally other temperatures than fresh meat. And also the equipment is different: a vehicle with meat tube rails looks completely different to the equipment of a trailer which transports dairy products.

There are no low-wage factories which produce refrigerated trailers, because these refrigerated trailers are often customized individually. Over 90% of the in Germany sold refrigerated trailers are manufactured by Schmitz, Cargobull and Krone. The other 10% are coming from the Company Kögel and the French manufacturer Chereau. But also Daewoo, DAF Trucks, Foton, Hino, Hyundai, Isuzu, Iveco, MAN, Mercedes-Benz, Mitsubishi, Nissan, Peugeot, Renault Trucks, Scania, Toyota and Volvo are producing trailers with cooling functions.