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5 Alternative Uses for Refrigerated Vehicles

Joe Dickman | April 4th, 2022

Many people believe the misconception that you can only use refrigerated vehicles for food. You can use climate-controlled trucks and vans for unique and beneficial purposes. You can continue reading to explore five alternative uses for refrigerated vehicles.

1. Taking Bees on the Road

Occasionally you will need to move a beehive from one location to another. You classify bees as livestock once you transport them on roads. These insects are significant to our ecosystem.

Bees, such as honeybees, bumblebees, and solitary bees, are essential pollinators. The insects carry pollen from one plant to another, fertilizing the plants and allowing them to produce fruit, vegetables, seeds, and other products.

Storing and Delivering the Insects

Unfortunately, while transporting bees in an enclosed cargo, they generate an immense amount of heat that usually doesn’t escape. This heat can build in the closed-off space, leading to many different issues. However, using a refrigerated truck helps keep the temperature lower, the bees healthy, and your vehicle in good shape.

You will often transport bees in climate-controlled vehicles that you re-engineered to keep the bees at a comfortable temperature with the correct ventilation, regardless of distance or season. The engine’s sound and vibration can also calm the bees, making them easier to handle.

2. Moving Ice Sculptures

Ice sculptures are lovely but delicate works of art that demand temperatures below freezing to hold their shape. These temperature constraints can easily pose issues if you need to transfer the artwork to a different location without melting. You need to ensure a climate-controlled storage space that preserves the artwork since even room temperature can leave you with nothing but a puddle.

Climate-Controlled Solution

Refrigerated trucks are ideal for maintaining a regulated environment that protects the artist’s work throughout transit. Therefore, many times a sculptor will hire a climate-controlled vehicle to take them from their studio to places such as museums, black-tie affairs, and parks. These artists may even charter a truck only to employ it as a testing room for their sculpting talents.

3. Seasonal Christmas Trees

Have you ever wondered how to get a real Christmas tree no matter where you reside in the United States? The key is keeping seasonal evergreens lovely and fresh from the moment you harvest them at a tree farm until they reach a retail store or neighborhood lot. Without the right setting, the trees may lose their branches, leaving you with nothing but a large stump.

How the Process Works

Christmas trees typically get cut, graded, baled, and transported inside refrigerated trucks to ensure maximum freshness. You’ll virtually never leave trees out for long before storing them in a cool, dry environment until you’re ready to load them onto a truck.

Keep the foliage at a regulated temperature of 36 degrees to 40 degrees Fahrenheit to transport a high-quality product. Often, businesses will also use climate-controlled vehicles to make local deliveries so that you can safely get your Christmas tree right to your door.

4. Cosmetics To Look Your Best

You may have already used cold-storage devices to store various beauty items in your home. You can keep organic, preservative-free skincare items, cosmetics, and beauty equipment in excellent condition with the proper refrigerated temperatures. A climate-controlled storage area also ensures your products are cool and refreshing when they contact your skin.

Delivering Makeup Supplies to Stores

The same scientific reasoning behind cold storage for your own makeup also explains why the cosmetics industry transports some beauty products in refrigerated trucks. Heat exposure can cause water, oil, and wax to spill, compromising the functionality of a beauty product.

Perfumes can spoil when exposed to oxidation, overexposure, and sunlight. Organic ingredients included in cosmetics can be even more sensitive and vulnerable to high – temperatures due to harmful microorganisms that enter because of a lack of preservatives. However, refrigerated trucks solve these issues by keeping them chilled and away from sunlight.

5. Life-Saving Pharmaceuticals

Reliable refrigerated transportation to safely deliver crucial medical supplies like vaccinations have been especially relevant in recent years. However, since you can never fully predict traffic delays or rough weather while delivering medicines, immunizations, and certain drugs, you need to know they’re safe for extended periods. This means you need to maintain low temperatures inside the cabin to avoid spoilage.

Whenever you deliver medicines, you also need to keep in mind that an excessive amount of either heat or cold can damage the cargo. Vaccines are particularly sensitive to changes in temperature, with varying degrees of vulnerability depending on the exact drugs you’re transporting. Typically, a temperature range of +2°C to +8°C is necessary for transporting pharmaceuticals.

Going Beyond Food Transportation

Refrigerated vehicles are highly versatile, so they are a sound investment for organizations searching for dependable solutions to deliver various unconventional products. You can use them to provide virtually any product that requires specific climates to prevent contamination or spoilage. Understanding what makes these vehicles so multifunctional will help give you greater insight into how companies can use them for purposes other than food transportation.

Take Control of Your Deliveries

Having your own refrigerated truck makes it easier to manage the transportation and preservation of your products. With your own truck, you do not need to rely on shipping services. In addition, this puts you in total control of monitoring how products get treated, ensuring that you protect them from spoiling, cross-contamination, withering of natural plants, etc.

Much More Flexibility With Time

You can make and receive on your own time without worrying about another shipping service’s schedule. Of course, this benefits you, but it also allows you to give excellent customer service by meeting your clients’ timetables.

Meet FDA Regulations and Climate-Control Needs

Since many consumable goods are subject to FDA restrictions, safe shipping and maintaining a constant temperature are essential for compliance. The driver has complete control over the thermostat in the refrigerated truck. They ensure that temperatures remain consistent. This consistency can be a must if you’re transporting a wide variety of perishable or delicate products.

We hope that this list of five alternative uses for refrigerated vehicles demonstrates how adaptable these incredible forms of transportation are. Emerald Transportation Solutions is proud to offer the best refrigerated trucks and vans for sale to meet all your perishable product delivery demands. Feel free to contact us with any questions about our products.

5 Alternative Uses for Refrigerated Vehicles

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Feel Free To Contact Us If You Have Any Questions

What does under DOT mean?

Questions regarding DOT requirements come up often. 10,000 lbs GVW (gross vehicle weight) and over are commercial vehicles that fall under the Department of Transportation regulatory requirements.

What is the difference between GVW and payload?

GVW or Gross Vehicle Weight is the entire weight of the vehicle including the payload. The payload weight represents the amount of cargo you are hauling.

What is a self-powered unit and a vehicle-powered unit?

A self-powered unit has its own fuel source and will run independent of the truck. This is the heaviest and most expensive option. While vehicle-powered units run off the engine via a compressor mounted on the engine. These are less expensive and lighter in weight but you must run the truck or plug the electric standby into shore power.

What does K-factor mean and why is that important?

K-factor is a term that stands for the overall insulating value of the container (truck body). Quite simply the lower the K-factor the better the truck body will be able to maintain a given temperature and require less energy to do so.

How much lighter is a Poly Van vs a US spec body?

Poly Van bodies are very light. On average we estimate we are 75-150 lbs per foot lighter than a traditional sheet and post foamed in place body. These weight savings translates to less fuel burn and less CO2 emissions, along with added payload, the most important benefit.

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