Chiller van, freezer van or reefer truck?
Four names for what is essentially one piece of equipment: an insulated body with a refrigeration unit holding a set temperature. The differences that matter are size, temperature and who is allowed to drive it.
Terminology
What the names actually mean
In Dubai these words get used interchangeably, and suppliers rarely correct anyone. Here is what people usually mean.
| Term | What people usually mean |
|---|---|
| Chiller van | Any refrigerated van. The most common term in the UAE, and what most people search for. |
| Refrigerated van | The same vehicle. More common in written contracts and tenders. |
| Freezer van | A chiller van being run at the frozen end of its range, around −18 °C. Not usually a different vehicle. |
| Reefer / reefer truck | Trade shorthand, borrowed from shipping. Normally means the larger sizes — 5 and 10 tonne bodies rather than vans. |
| Cold chain | Not a vehicle at all. The unbroken temperature control from supplier to customer, of which the van is one link. |
So if a supplier quotes you a “freezer van” and another quotes a “chiller van”, ask both what temperature it holds. That is the question that separates them.
The machine
How a transport refrigeration unit actually works
Every one of these vehicles runs the same basic machine. Knowing what it does explains most of the advice on this page.
A refrigeration unit does not make cold. It moves heat from inside the body to the outside air, using a compressor, a condenser at the front of the vehicle and an evaporator inside the load space. Cold air is blown along the ceiling to the rear and drawn back along the floor, which is why a load that blocks that path leaves warm pockets behind it.
Most units on vans and light trucks are driven by the vehicle’s engine. That single fact explains why a long stop with the ignition off is a stop with no cooling, and why idling at a delivery is sometimes the right thing to do. Larger trucks can carry a unit with its own diesel engine or an electric standby that plugs in at a depot, which keeps a body cold overnight without the truck running; ask what the vehicle you are quoted actually has.
Capacity falls as the outside air heats up, because the unit has to push its heat into that air. A body that holds −18 °C comfortably in February is working far closer to its limit in July, and the same unit recovers more slowly after every door opening. That is why the summer advice on this page is not the same as the winter advice.
Passive or powered
What “insulated” buys you, and when boxes are enough
Not every chilled job needs a refrigerated vehicle. Knowing where the line falls saves money on the small jobs and prevents disasters on the big ones.
An insulated body is a box built from foam-cored panels, sealed at the joints and fitted with heavy door seals. On its own, closed and pre-cooled, it slows heat down considerably; with the unit running it holds a set temperature all day. The insulation does the work between door openings, and the unit does the work of putting the heat back outside.
For a short job, insulated boxes and gel packs in an ordinary van genuinely can be enough: a single twenty-minute drop of a few catering trays, a cake to a venue, or a small pharmacy delivery where the receiver signs immediately. The limits are exposure and repetition. A round with eight stops over four hours in August is not that job, and a box that is opened at every stop is doing none of what it was bought for.
The honest test is what happens if the trip takes twice as long as planned. With insulated boxes, an extra hour in traffic is often the whole margin. With a refrigerated body, the temperature is held whatever the traffic does, which is what you are actually paying for.
Temperature
The one number that matters
Every refrigerated body we run holds a single set temperature across the whole load space. Tell us the setting when you book and we run the unit down before handover.
Anything that leaves a cold store already frozen: meat, seafood, bakery and prepared meals. Retail ice cream sits outside it, specified nearer −25 °C, which is colder than these units hold.
The tight band. Fresh meat, fish, dairy and most cut flowers live here, and so does the risk: a few minutes too long with the doors open shows up in the product.
Fruit and vegetables, prepared food, catering trays and medicines specified at 2 to 8 °C. The majority of day-to-day work in Dubai runs at this setting.
The unit switched off. An insulated body still shields dry goods from direct heat, but nothing is being cooled and it should not be treated as though it is.
The body cannot be split between two temperatures. If you need frozen and chilled on the same run, carry the chilled portion in insulated boxes.
Choosing
Which one you actually need
Small chiller van
Tight residential streets, a single restaurant round, a florist. Fits where a 3-tonne body cannot turn.
3-ton chiller van
The workhorse. 4.2 m of insulated body, 3,000 kg, and what most cold-chain contracts in Dubai run on. From AED 380 a day.
Reefer truck, 5 or 10 tonne
Pallet work. Cold store to store distribution, bulk frozen, port collections. Needs a heavy licence, so it goes out with a driver.
Matching
Which temperature each kind of load wants
Setting the body to the product, rather than to a habit, is the part that gets skipped.
Frozen food goes in at −18 °C and must arrive frozen, because nothing on the vehicle can re-freeze it. Fresh meat, fish and dairy want the tight 0 to +2 °C band, and fish is the least forgiving of all. Fruit, vegetables, prepared meals and catering trays are comfortable at +2 to +5 °C, which is also where most medicines specified at 2 to 8 °C travel safely. Medicines carry rules on top of the temperature, set out in moving medicines and vaccines in Dubai.
Cut flowers are a special case. Most varieties keep best just above freezing, but tropical flowers such as orchids and anthuriums are damaged by cold and need to be kept warmer than the rest of a florist’s order. Ask the florist for the setting rather than assuming the coldest option is the safest.
Two common loads fall outside what these vehicles do at all. Chocolate and confectionery want roughly 16 to 18 °C, and wine is usually specified around 12 to 14 °C. Our units run from −18 °C up to about +5 °C, so neither can be held properly: in a Dubai summer those loads need an air-conditioned vehicle or insulated packaging, and we will say so rather than set a body to +5 and hope.
Buying it
What to ask any supplier before you book
Five questions separate a vehicle that will hold your load from one that merely has a unit bolted to it. They work on us as well as on anyone else.
Ask what range the unit holds, and specifically whether it holds the low end in summer rather than in the showroom. Ask whether the unit runs off the engine or has standby power, because that decides what happens during long stops and overnight.
Ask what the vehicle can record. If a customer or an inspector wants proof of temperature, the answer needs to be specific about what the unit produces, and if it produces nothing useful, a data logger in the load is the honest fix. Ask, too, what permits the vehicle holds for the goods you are moving, and in which emirates.
Finally, ask what happens when it fails, because eventually something will. A supplier who can tell you how fast a replacement reaches you, and what to do in the first fifteen minutes, is describing a service. One who has never thought about it is describing a van.
And get the setting itself in writing. A booking that says “chiller van” tells nobody anything; one that says the body will be at −18 °C when it arrives at seven in the morning is a commitment that can be checked at the door. It costs a supplier nothing to put it in the confirmation, and it is the simplest test of whether they intend to hold it.
Getting it right
Four things that break a cold chain
The vehicle is half the job. These are the mistakes we see most, and all four are avoidable.
Loading warm product
A refrigeration unit holds a temperature, it does not pull one down. Product loaded warm arrives warm, whatever the display says.
Doors open too long
In a Dubai summer the body warms in minutes with the shutter up. Sequence your drops so door time is short at each stop.
Overpacking
Cold air has to circulate. Stacking to the roof and blocking the vents leaves a warm pocket exactly where the expensive stock is.
Engine off at stops
The unit runs off the engine. A long stop with the ignition off is a long stop with no refrigeration.
Cold chain questions
Is a freezer van a different vehicle from a chiller van?
Usually not. It is the same insulated body with the unit set lower. What you should check is the range the unit can actually hold, and whether it can keep −18 °C through a long multi-drop round in summer.
Can one van carry frozen and chilled together?
Not in a single compartment — the body runs at one temperature. Run frozen and carry the chilled portion in insulated boxes, or ask us about a partitioned unit.
Do I need a permit to move food in Dubai?
Dubai approves the vehicle rather than the company, through its Food Safety Department, and the permit is tied to that vehicle. Other emirates run their own systems. Tell us the goods and the emirates on the route, and you will get it in writing before you book.
How much does a chiller van cost in Dubai?
Day, week and month on the 3-ton chiller are AED 380, AED 2,200 and AED 6,500, with 150 km, 1,000 km and 3,500 km included. A driver is AED 250 a day, and the deposit is AED 2,000. The chiller van page carries the full breakdown.
What if the refrigeration fails mid-route?
Ring us before you do anything else, and keep the doors closed while you talk. Recovery and a replacement vehicle come with the hire, but the load is on its own clock, so the first fifteen minutes matter more than the next two hours.
Does a bigger body hold its temperature better?
Not by itself. A large body carries more stored cold, which helps on a long run between two stops, but it also has a bigger door opening and usually a busier round. A small van opened five times a day will hold its setting better than a 10-tonne body opened thirty times. Door discipline beats size.
Is a reefer truck the same as a refrigerated container?
No. A reefer container is a shipping unit: it needs external power or a clip-on generator and is designed to be lifted onto a ship or a trailer. A reefer truck is a vehicle with its own insulated body and unit, which drives to your door. We run trucks, not containers.
What temperatures can these vehicles not do?
Anything above about +5 °C and anything below −18 °C. That rules out two common loads: chocolate and confectionery, which want roughly 16 to 18 °C, and retail-standard ice cream, which is specified nearer −25 °C. For either, ask us first and we will tell you plainly that this is not the vehicle.
Tell us the temperature and the route
We will set the unit before you arrive and confirm which size and which permits your load needs.