Who sets the temperature for a refrigerated load?

The shipper. Under 21 CFR 1.908(b) a shipper of food requiring temperature control for safety must specify an operating temperature to the carrier in writing. The carrier must provide that temperature and, on request, demonstrate that it maintained the conditions during transport.

Do I have to keep temperature records?

The rule requires carriers to be able to demonstrate, if asked by the shipper or receiver, that temperature conditions were maintained. In practice that means keeping the unit download or a continuous temperature record for every load. Carmack Amendment time limits mean a claim can be brought years later, so keep them accordingly.

Is a small carrier exempt from the FSMA transportation rule?

Businesses with less than $500,000 in average annual revenue, adjusted for inflation and calculated on a rolling three-year basis, are exempt from the rule. That exemption does not remove customer contract requirements, which usually demand the same records anyway.

How long does a shipper have to file a cargo claim?

Under 49 U.S.C. 14706 a carrier may not provide a period of less than nine months for filing a claim, or less than two years for bringing a civil action from the date the carrier gives written notice that the claim has been rejected in whole or in part.

Refrigerated Freight: The FSMA Rule and What It Puts on the Carrier

Reefer work looks like van work with a motor on the front. The difference is that a van either delivers the freight or it does not, while a reefer can deliver freight that arrives looking perfect and is worth nothing.

The rule that governs this work

Refrigerated food transport in the United States sits under the FDA's Sanitary Transportation of Human and Animal Food rule, made under the Food Safety Modernization Act and codified at 21 CFR Part 1 Subpart O. It applies to shippers, loaders, carriers and receivers who transport food by motor or rail vehicle.

It sets requirements in four areas: vehicles and transportation equipment, transportation operations, training, and records. What makes it worth reading rather than skimming is that it allocates responsibility between the shipper and the carrier explicitly — and where it lands on you, it lands hard.

The temperature has to be in writing

Under 1.908(b), a shipper of food requiring temperature control for safety must specify to the carrier, in writing, an operating temperature for the transportation operation. One written notification covers subsequent operations until the conditions change.

Under 1.908(e), the carrier must provide the operating temperature the shipper specified, and must — if the shipper or receiver asks — demonstrate that it maintained temperature conditions during the transportation operation.

That second half is the sentence that matters. The obligation is not only to run the reefer correctly; it is to be able to prove afterwards that you did. A download from the unit, or a continuous temperature record, is how that proof exists. No record is functionally the same as no compliance when a claim arrives.

The other carrier obligations

Pre-cooling the refrigerated compartment before loading, where required.
Developing and maintaining written procedures for cleaning, sanitising and inspecting vehicles and equipment.
For bulk vehicles, providing information about the previous three cargoes on request.
Training, where the carrier has agreed in writing to take on responsibility for sanitary conditions — with records of that training.

Who is exempt

The rule exempts businesses whose average annual revenues are less than $500,000, as adjusted for inflation, calculated on a rolling basis over the preceding three-year period. It also excludes transportation of food that is completely enclosed by a container — except food that requires temperature control for safety, compressed food gases, and live food animals other than molluscan shellfish — along with farm transportation activities, transshipped food and food for export.

Do not lean on the revenue exemption. It is a regulatory exemption, not a commercial one. Your customers will require temperature records, written procedures and training regardless, because their own compliance depends on yours. Exempt carriers routinely do all of it anyway because the contracts say so.

Where the money goes wrong: claims

A reefer claim is not a damage claim in the ordinary sense. The freight often arrives intact, on time, and unsellable, because the temperature record shows an excursion. The consignee rejects it; the value of the load becomes your problem.

Carrier liability for loss or damage to freight in interstate transport is governed by the Carmack Amendment, 49 U.S.C. 14706. Two deadlines in it are worth knowing, because carriers may not contract below them: a carrier cannot provide a period of less than nine months for filing a claim against it, and not less than two years for bringing a civil action, running from when the carrier gives written notice that the claim is rejected in whole or part.

Which means a load you hauled today can produce a lawsuit nearly three years from now. Keep the temperature records that long.

Check your cargo insurance limit against what you actually haul. A trailer of pharmaceuticals, seafood or high-value produce can exceed a standard cargo limit comfortably. And check the exclusions — many cargo policies exclude reefer breakdown unless a specific endorsement is bought, and that endorsement usually requires documented pre-trip checks of the unit. What drives insurance pricing is covered here.

The cost side a dry van does not have

Reefer fuel. The unit burns diesel independently of the tractor, and consumption depends on set point, ambient temperature, insulation, door openings and whether you run continuous or cycle. It is a separate line item. Measure yours rather than using a figure from a website; the variation between operations is large.
Unit maintenance. The reefer is a second engine with its own service schedule, its own hours meter, and its own failure modes. Budget it separately from the tractor.
Washouts. Between certain commodities a washout is required, and you pay for it and wait for it.
The trailer itself. A refrigerated trailer costs substantially more than a dry van to buy, to insure and to repair, and insulation degrades over its life.

All of that belongs in your cost per mile. Reefer rates are typically higher than van rates on the same lane; whether the difference covers this list is the question that decides the sector for you.

Continuous versus cycle

Running the unit continuously holds the set point tightly and burns more fuel. Cycling the unit lets the box drift between limits and burns less. Which one is correct is not your choice to make on a temperature-sensitive load — some commodities and some shippers require continuous operation, and the instruction should be on the paperwork.

If it is not on the paperwork, ask, and get the answer in writing. "The broker said cycle is fine" is not a defence to a claim.

Practical habits that prevent most claims

Pre-cool, and record that you did. Loading a warm box is a temperature excursion before you leave.
Pulp the product at loading where the shipper allows it, and note the reading on the bill of lading. A load that arrives warm because it was loaded warm is a very different conversation when you have the number.
Note exceptions on the bill of lading at the shipper. Signing a clean bill for freight you can see is already wrong makes the condition your problem.
Do not adjust the set point on a driver's or a broker's say-so. Written instruction from the shipper, or nothing.
Keep the download. Every load, filed by load number, for at least three years.
Watch the door. Multi-stop loads lose temperature at every opening, and multi-stop reefer work is where excursions accumulate.

Is it a good sector to start in?

It pays better than dry van and the freight is less seasonal than a lot of alternatives, because food moves all year. Against that: the equipment costs more, the claims exposure is genuinely larger, and the appointment discipline at produce and grocery facilities is unforgiving.

The failure mode for a new carrier is not the driving. It is a single rejected load worth more than a month of revenue, on a policy that excluded reefer breakdown, with no temperature record to argue from. Every item on that sentence is preventable, and each one is preventable before you take the first load rather than after.

Refrigerated Freight: What the Rules Put on the Carrier