Fleet Management News & Business Info | Commercial Carrier Journal
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28 COMMERCIAL CARRIER JOURNAL | JULY 2015 O ne proven way fleets can help drivers be healthier and hap- pier on the road is to provide a way for them to keep their favorite foods and drinks cold and close by. Fernando Mejia, national sales man- ager for Dometic, says the company's surveys consistently show that an in- cab refrigeration unit is the first piece of add-on equipment that drivers buy when they're given a new truck. "Food in restaurants is really expen- sive," Mejia says. "It's first and fore- most a cost-saving factor for drivers, but there's also not a lot of choices at many truck stops. If you're a driver who's trying to eat healthy, you're going to want to bring your own food on the road with you." Some fleets are realizing the benefits to the driver when they equip their trucks with a refrigerator, says Andrew Wittington, sales manager for Truck- Fridge. "This is no small investment, with an average cost of $500 per unit," Wit- tington says. "Fleets really need to un- derstand the benefits of a dedicated on-highway refrigerator compared to a less-expensive unit designed for domestic use." Don't skimp, stay cool Many less-expensive thermal electric coolers consume 140 amps in 24 hours and can kill a battery overnight. Also, they often are not rated for food stor- age in warmer ambient temperatures. A typical household refrigerator running on an inverter would con- sume about three times that amount of power and is not designed to take the daily bouncing and pounding of truck travel. "The compressors break internally from the abusive roads and some- times even take out the inverter," Wittington says. "Many drivers go through several household units until they finally decide to buy a truck refrigerator." Other important factors include an- ti-idling laws and power management for efficient auxiliary power unit use. Dometic units draw 1 amp of electric- ity per hour, Mejia says. "Our units also have a very robust design to handle shock and road vibration," he says. "A more durable design means a reduced fire risk. Do- mestic-grade products don't respond well to vibration." With any small refrigerator, efficient insulation can be a problem because designers don't have as much room for insulating materials as they do with larger units. This, Mejia says, causes many inverters on non-highway units to work much harder than designed, and when coupled with road shock and vibration, the fire risk from these units increases greatly. Other ways to be cool In addition to dedicated refrigerators, a variety of in-cab units can make drivers' lives easier and more comfort- able in regional or local-haul appli- cations. One such product is the Go Cool in-cab air conditioning unit. While Go Cool units primarily are climate control-oriented, they also can help keep drinks and some food items cool. "We sell a lot of Go Cools to the trucking industry – mainly indepen- dent drivers watching their bottom line," says Bonnie Floyd, chief execu- tive officer for Comfort Innovations. The Go Cool pulls 1.6 amps when everything on the unit is running and less than 1 amp when only the fan is running, so it won't run a truck battery down. "While we do not recommend the Go Cool to be used for keeping food cool, it does very well with cold drinks," Floyd says. in focus: IN-CAB REFRIGERATORS Fleets find in-cab refrigerators indispensable for drivers' quality of life BY JACK ROBERTS Cold and close at hand The Go Cool in-cab air conditioning unit also can help keep drinks cold. Dometic's CRX 50 rugged built-in refrigerator has a 50-liter overall capacity. TruckFridge's TF 49 is a 12-volt DC built-in model that fits most truck models.