Can you freeze my chilled product in transit?

That is not what frozen freight shipping is for, and most reefers are not blast freezers. Freeze at the plant, then haul. Ask COL for chilled if the product is not already frozen.

Is LTL available for frozen?

Sometimes in specialized networks, with more door time. Dedicated FTL is the safer default for strict frozen programs. We will say if LTL is even offered for your pair.

What if the unit alarms in transit?

That is an exception COL wants immediately, not at delivery. Give a 24/7 operations contact on the tender so someone can divert or repair before the core climbs.

Do Mexican receivers accept U.S. pulp logs?

Many will still pulp on arrival. Bring both. Language on the BOL should state the set point in units the receiver uses. COL’s bilingual desk will not guess.

Shipment modes

Frozen Freight Shipping Without Breaking the Cold Chain

Frozen freight shipping is a deep-freeze set point on cargo that was already frozen. Transit is for holding temperature, not for turning chill into ice.

Updated 2026-08-20 · frozen freight shipping

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Frozen freight shipping is for product that must stay hard: frozen meat, seafood, ice cream, frozen fries, and similar SKUs that were frozen at the plant. The reefer holds a deep-freeze set point; it does not have the dwell or the airflow design of a blast tunnel. If you tender warm and hope, you will unload mush and a claim.

COL Freight Solutions treats frozen as a different conversation from chilled refrigerated freight shipping. Tell us the set point your receiver will pulp against, whether bulkheads are needed, and how long the doors will be open at each stop. We quote carriers who run frozen as a product, not as “reefer on low.”

Frozen freight shipping starts before the trailer

The plant freezer, not the truck, creates the frozen state. Palletize for airflow, keep the dock from becoming a thaw room, and do not stage pallets in ambient while you wait for a late truck. Every minute on a warm dock is a minute the core does not get back.

Receivers will pulp. If your outbound paperwork has no origin pulp, you are negotiating with a destination number only. Record it.

Set points people actually use—and still must quote

Many frozen food programs live at or below 0°F / −18°C. Ice cream and some novelties need colder. That is industry practice, not a COL SLA. Put the number on the BOL and the quote. “Frozen” without a digit is how chill and freeze get mixed.

Do not set a frozen unit at a chill band to “save fuel” on a mixed fantasy load. Mixed frozen and chilled needs a real multi-temp trailer or two shipments.

Doors, dwell, and multi-stop thaw

Every door opening is an attack on the envelope. Multi-stop frozen freight shipping needs a sequence that dumps the last delivery last, not a driver improvising the map. Strip curtains and fast unloading are operations, not niceties.

Border queues with the unit off are how frozen cargo becomes chilled cargo. COL will not treat that as an acceptable default on a frozen file.

Claims on frozen are core-temperature claims

Ice crystals, refreeze texture, and a pulp that missed the spec are the file. Photos of the reefer download, seals, and pulp logs beat a narrative. Build those habits at tender.

Carrier liability still has limits. High-value seafood should discuss declared value before the tender, not after the thaw.

Quote frozen as frozen with COL

Write the set point, commodity, and stop count. Request a frozen freight shipping quote, not a generic reefer line.

561-880-9808. If frozen is a weekly lane, say so. That is partnership freight, and qualifying volume can open a Transportation Cost Recovery Program™ review after the temperature file is stable.

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