The true cost of a refrigerated transport run

Most cost-per-mile and cost-per-kilometre calculators are built for dry freight. Run refrigerated work through one and the answer comes back wrong, because refrigeration reaches the fuel bill in a way a dry-freight model has no line for.

The four costs every calculator counts

Fuel from the truck's real consumption figure, driver wages, tolls, and depreciation per kilometre or per mile. Take these from your own records, not industry averages. The spread between fleets is wide enough that an average is a guess, and on refrigerated work it is a guess in a predictable direction: too low.

Why refrigeration breaks a dry-freight model

There are two kinds of refrigeration unit, and each defeats a generic calculator differently.

Engine-driven units

The compressor runs off the truck's own engine, so the fridge has no separate fuel bill. That does not make it free. It raises what the truck consumes, which means a refrigerated vehicle's real figure sits above the dry-freight average for a truck of the same size. Cost a reefer run off a published average and the fuel line is understated with nothing on the page to show it. The truck in the example below returns 18 L/100 km (about 13 mpg US) on metropolitan work, measured over real runs.

Independent units

Common on semi-trailers. The unit carries its own engine and its own tank, so none of its diesel appears in the truck's consumption figure at all. It also runs on time rather than distance: it burns while the truck is parked at a dock, and it burns overnight, because a loaded trailer is not switched off at a motel. A distance-based calculation cannot see any of it.

What a real run cost

The figures below are from our own refrigerated fleet, because YowieTech is built inside a working transport business. A 10-drop metropolitan delivery run returning to depot: 291.5 km (181 mi), about six hours, engine-driven refrigeration. The method is what transfers. Put your own prices in.

The toll figure is worth its own note. A public toll calculator quotes car rates by default. A heavy vehicle pays roughly A$40 more than a car on this run, so a quote built from the car figure is A$40 light before anything else goes wrong. That is half the margin.

What that A$418 leaves out

Four lines are what this run can evidence, and they are not the whole cost of running refrigerated. A reefer unit has its own service schedule, separate from the truck's. Its failure mode is different in kind: a truck breakdown strands a vehicle, a refrigeration breakdown can write off the load it was protecting. Temperature record-keeping takes paid time, because someone checks, logs and files those readings. None of it is in the A$418, which means the 16% margin above is the optimistic reading, not the pessimistic one.

How to cost a run before the truck leaves

YowieTech prices the run at planning time, using fuel from that vehicle's own consumption figure, wages, tolls and depreciation per kilometre or per mile, so you see cost against revenue before you commit to the work rather than in the accounts a month later. It also produces the per-run CO2 figure, 140.6 kg on this example, that larger customers increasingly ask their carriers for.

Common questions

What does a refrigerated delivery run cost per kilometre?

Our own refrigerated runs cost between A$1.10 and A$1.50 per kilometre (A$1.77–A$2.41 per mile), moving with overtime, accommodation and meals. The run costed above came to A$1.43 per kilometre and A$2.31 per mile: A$418 over 291.5 km (181 mi), covering fuel, driver wages, tolls and depreciation. Your own figure will differ, and the gap between fleets is wide enough that borrowing someone else's number is guesswork.

Why can I not use a standard cost-per-mile calculator for refrigerated freight?

Because a dry-freight model has no line for refrigeration. On an engine-driven unit the fridge raises the truck's fuel consumption above the dry-freight average, so using that average understates the fuel invisibly. On an independent unit the fridge burns from its own tank, on time rather than distance, and a distance-based calculation cannot see it at all.

Does a refrigeration unit use its own fuel?

It depends on the type. An engine-driven unit runs off the truck's engine and has no separate tank, so its cost is already inside the truck's measured consumption figure. An independent unit, common on semi-trailers, has its own engine and tank, and keeps running while the truck is parked and overnight.

What do refrigerated operators most often leave out of a quote?

Three things. Heavy-vehicle toll rates, which ran A$40 above the car rate a public toll calculator quotes by default on the example run. Refrigeration servicing, which is a separate schedule from the truck's. And the paid time spent checking, logging and filing temperature records.

How do I work out what a run costs before it leaves the depot?

Total the four measurable lines against that specific vehicle and that specific route: fuel at the truck's own consumption figure, driver wages for the planned hours, tolls at heavy-vehicle rates, and depreciation per kilometre or per mile. Compare the total against what the run invoices before you accept the work. That is the calculation YowieTech runs at planning time.