The transportation industry is one of the most important in the economy because it provides consumers with access to products. A refrigerated trucking company, in particular, specializes in a wide range of items for transport, including frozen foods, medical products, and chemicals. This type of cargo may require special temperature controlled transportation that only a refrigerated trucking company can fulfill.

The first refrigerated trucks came in the form of ice wagons, which used ice cut from special pools or lakes. The first successful ice wagon was used to transport meat in and around Chicago in 1877. A system was developed that enabled the circulation of air through the ice and then the entire wagon to efficiently chill it and was the basis for the success of the Union Stock Yard and the Chicago area slaughterhouses to transport meat throughout the United Sates. Later manufactured ice was used, giving way to other means of cooling, such as dry ice, and later engine-powered refrigerator.

Today’s modern refrigerator truck designed to carry perishable freight at specific temperatures, from simple insulated and ventilated vans (commonly used for transporting fruit), neither of which are fitted with cooling apparatus. Refrigerator trucks can be ice-cooled, equipped with any one of a variety of mechanical refrigeration systems powered by small displacement diesel engines, or utilize carbon dioxide (either as dry ice or in liquid form) as a cooling agent. Most of the long-distance refrigerated transport by semi-trailer trucks.

A business plan for a refrigerated trucking company is similar to the business plan for a standard short- or long-hauler trucking company in that a prospective business owner would need to solicit a private investment, obtain a bank loan or line of credit to start up a new business. A business plan for one should:

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