Back when side-load equipment ruled the beverage industry, refrigeration generally was an afterthought, with just a few refrigerated trucks dedicated to delivering dairy products and limited varieties of draft beer. But as product mixes have expanded, a paradigm shift is taking place in the equipment world.
Side-load equipment always has been tough to configure for refrigerated cargo, even with a mix of roll-up doors and swing doors on a “hybrid” trailer. But as SKU proliferation has led to preselling and palletizing of orders, the result has been a major shift to end-load bodies and trailers that open up a wide range of off-the-shelf refrigeration solutions for beverage delivery.