Cold chain
Refrigerated truck rental in Dubai
Reefer trucks from 3 to 10 tonnes for temperature-controlled transport across the UAE. When the pallet count has outgrown a chiller van but the cold chain still cannot break.
From AED 380 to AED 800 per day
−18 °C to +5 °C
3, 5 and 10 tonne bodies
Driver supplied
Sizing
Which size do you actually need?
The mistake we see most often is renting one size too small and running the route twice. Payload is rarely the limit on chilled goods; body length and pallet footprint usually are.
| Vehicle | Body length | Payload | From, per day |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1-tonne chiller van | Small insulated body | 1,000 kg | On request |
| 3-ton chiller van | 4.2 m | 3,000 kg | AED 380 |
| 5-tonne refrigerated truck | 5.2 m | 5,000 kg | AED 500 dry, refrigerated above |
| 10-tonne refrigerated truck | 7.5 m | 10,000 kg | AED 800 dry, refrigerated above |
A refrigerated body is priced above the equivalent dry rate, and at truck sizes we quote per route rather than per day, because a fixed daily figure for a job we have not seen is a guess. Send the pallet count, the temperature and the route and we will price it properly.
Cold chain runs are often scheduled around road access. Dubai’s current position on truck movement hours is in Dubai truck timings.
Size guide
Every vehicle, drawn to the same scale
Payload is rarely what runs out first — length is. Compare the load spaces side by side before you decide, because the difference between a Transit and a 3-ton body is one trip instead of two.
Figures are the internal load space of each body, taken from the specification on that vehicle’s own page. Bodies vary slightly between units, so if your load is close to the limit send us the dimensions and we will check the exact vehicle before you book.
Sizing decision
One 10-tonne truck or two 5-tonne trucks?
On paper the payload is identical. On the road the two options behave very differently, and the right one depends on where the load is going rather than how much of it there is.
Two 5-tonne trucks carry the same 10,000 kg as one 10-tonne truck, but not the same load. On the published body sizes, a 5-tonne box takes 8 pallet positions and a 10-tonne box takes 14 industrial pallets, so the pair actually carries two more pallets. The single truck gives each pallet more weight, though: about 714 kg per position against 625 kg. Dense frozen product such as boxed poultry reaches the weight limit long before it fills the floor, and that favours the bigger truck. The van and truck dimensions guide shows how those pallet counts are worked out.
Cost and staffing pull the other way. On the dry rate card one 10-tonne truck is AED 800 a day and two 5-tonne trucks are AED 1,000, and each truck needs its own driver with a heavy vehicle licence — AED 250 a day each if the drivers are ours. Refrigerated bodies are quoted per route above those dry figures, so treat the dry rates as the floor of the comparison rather than the answer.
Two trucks win in three situations. When the drops split between two parts of the city, say Jebel Ali and Deira, two trucks run both halves at once instead of one side waiting half a day. When the delivery points include basements, older streets or loading bays built for smaller vehicles, a 5.2 m body gets in where a 7.5 m body does not. And when frozen and chilled stock travel on the same day, two trucks can hold two set points, which a single body cannot. There is a quieter advantage as well: if one unit develops a fault, half the stock is exposed rather than all of it.
One truck wins for a single-drop transfer between cold stores, for import stock collected from one terminal in one go, and for any job where a second heavy-licence driver is harder to find than a bigger vehicle.
Uses
What a reefer truck gets used for
Cold store to store distribution
Supermarket and grocery replenishment from a central cold store, where a chiller van would need three runs to do one truck load.
Wholesale market collection
Bulk collection from Al Aweer and the fish market out to kitchens, caterers and shops, usually starting before dawn.
Frozen distribution at −18 °C
Frozen distribution at −18 °C, where the body has to hold through a long multi-drop round in summer heat. Note that true deep-freeze work — ice cream to a retail standard sits nearer −25 °C — is colder than our units hold; see freezer van and truck rental for where the line falls.
Pharmaceutical and clinical freight
Volume medicine and consumable movement where the documented range is part of the supply contract rather than a preference.
Port and airport collection
Chilled and frozen import stripped at Jebel Ali or the airport freight zone and moved inland the same day.
Temperature
What the body will hold
Every refrigerated vehicle we run holds a single set temperature across the whole body. Tell us the setting when you book and we run the unit down before handover.
Meat, seafood, frozen bakery and frozen prepared food. Load it already frozen — the unit holds a temperature, it does not pull one down.
Fresh meat, fish, dairy and cut flowers. The tightest band, and the one where ten extra minutes with the shutter up costs you stock.
Produce, prepared food, catering trays and pharmaceuticals. Most restaurant, grocery and clinic work sits here.
Dry goods, when the vehicle is going out anyway. The insulated body still keeps the load out of direct sun.
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 or ask us about a partitioned unit.
Practical
Before you book a reefer truck
Check the delivery point
A 7.5 m body will not enter many Dubai basement car parks or narrow compounds. Send the address and we will tell you honestly whether it fits before you pay for a truck that cannot get in.
The licence is the real constraint
A 5 or 10-tonne truck needs a UAE heavy vehicle licence. If nobody on your team holds one, take it with our driver at AED 250 a day.
Load cold, not warm
A refrigeration unit holds a temperature, it does not pull one down quickly. Product loaded warm arrives warm, whatever the display on the unit says.
Loading
Planning the load on a truck body
A 7.5 m insulated box is loaded once and emptied in stages. The plan made at the cold store decides whether the last delivery of the day still arrives cold.
Load in reverse drop order
From the rear doors you can reach the last one or two rows of pallets without moving anything else. Every row further forward only becomes reachable once the rows behind it are off. So the first delivery goes in last, beside the doors, and the final delivery sits against the front bulkhead. On a round of more than three or four stops that stops working, because every drop means shuffling pallets with the doors open, and several smaller vehicles usually do the job better. The restaurant supply run guide works through that kind of round.
Keep the air path open
The refrigeration unit sits on the front of the body and pushes cold air backwards along the ceiling; the air returns to the unit along the floor. Two loading habits break that loop on a truck. Building the front of the load right up to the ceiling throws the cold air straight back into the unit and leaves the rear of the body warm. Laying cartons flat on the floor closes the return path. Pallets hold the load off the floor, and a hand’s width of space under the ceiling along the whole length lets the air reach the doors.
Spread the weight, and check the width
Heavy pallets belong along the length of the body, not grouped at the doors. A load concentrated at the rear takes weight off the front axle, and the truck steers and brakes worse for it on a fast road such as Sheikh Zayed Road. Strap or bar each row so nothing slides forward under braking. Before you plan a layout, confirm the internal width of the refrigerated body: insulated walls are thicker than the sides of a dry box, and a few centimetres decide whether euro pallets fit three across or only two.
Food safety
Carrying food in a hired refrigerated truck
In Dubai the food transport permit belongs to the vehicle. Your own trade licence does not cover a truck that has not been approved, so check the truck itself, not only the company renting it.
The permit follows the plate
Dubai Municipality’s Food Safety Department approves vehicles that carry food after an inspection at a vehicle testing centre it has authorised, and those centres are accredited by the Emirates International Accreditation Centre. The permit is issued digitally and is tied to the vehicle’s plate and chassis number. That has a practical consequence when you hire. The question is not whether a rental company can carry food, but whether the specific truck arriving at your cold store holds a valid permit for your goods. Tell us what you are carrying and we confirm it in writing for the vehicle allocated to your job; check that the plate on that confirmation is the plate on the truck.
Dubai Municipality also sets the limits the load is judged against: chilled food at 5 °C or below, frozen food at −18 °C or below. Abu Dhabi runs its own system through ADAFSA, the Abu Dhabi Agriculture and Food Safety Authority, so a route that crosses into Abu Dhabi has to satisfy both.
Keep your own temperature record
The number on the unit’s display is the temperature of the air near the unit, which is why the guide to a chiller that stops cooling warns against reading it as the temperature of the product. For a record that a receiving team will accept, put a small data logger inside the load itself, near the rear doors where the temperature climbs first every time they open, and download it at delivery. It costs little, it stays with you, and it answers the question every rejected delivery raises: was the stock warm when it left, or when it arrived?
What to check before the first pallet goes in
Five minutes at handover prevents most arguments later.
- The unit has reached the set temperature and holds it with the doors closed.
- The door seals are whole. Torn or flattened rubber shows up as a line of frost or condensation around the frame.
- The body smells clean. A box that carried fish yesterday will taint dairy or produce today.
- The floor channels and drains are clear, with no standing water to freeze at −18 °C.
- Any damage to the insulated panels is photographed. A punctured panel lets heat and moisture into the insulation behind it.
Refrigerated truck questions
What is the difference between a chiller van and a reefer truck?
Only scale and licensing. Both are insulated bodies with a refrigeration unit holding a set temperature. A chiller van up to 3 tonnes covers city multi-drop work; a 5 or 10-tonne reefer carries pallets and needs a heavy licence.
How much does a refrigerated truck cost per day in Dubai?
A 3-ton chiller van starts at AED 380 a day. Refrigerated 5 and 10-tonne bodies price above the dry rates of AED 500 and AED 800, and we quote them per route because distance, drop count and hours change the figure more than the vehicle does.
Can I hire a reefer truck without a driver?
Only if your driver holds the right UAE heavy vehicle licence. In practice most refrigerated truck hires go out with one of our drivers.
Do you rent refrigerated trucks monthly?
Yes, and that is how most cold-chain contracts run. Monthly pricing on a fixed route is substantially cheaper than the daily rate, and you get the same vehicle and driver each day.
Can it hold −18 °C in a Dubai summer?
Yes, provided the load goes in already frozen and the doors are managed. Heat gets in through open shutters, not through the panels, which is why drop order matters more than the outside temperature.
Do you cover the other emirates?
Yes, the whole UAE. Standing routes into Abu Dhabi, Sharjah, Ajman and Ras Al Khaimah are priced per route on a monthly contract rather than per day.
Chiller truck, fridge truck, reefer truck — are they all the same?
In practice, yes. Chiller truck rental, fridge truck rental and reefer truck rental all describe the same vehicle: an insulated body with a unit on the front holding a set temperature. Reefer is the shipping word, fridge truck is the everyday one. What actually differs is the temperature it is set to, not the name.
Does a refrigerated truck need a Dubai Municipality permit to carry food?
Yes. Vehicles carrying food in Dubai need approval from Dubai Municipality’s Food Safety Department, and the permit is tied to the individual vehicle’s plate number rather than to the company. Tell us what you are carrying and we will confirm in writing that the truck allocated to you holds it.
Get a refrigerated truck quote
Send the pallet count, the temperature and the route. We will tell you which size fits, whether it can reach your delivery point, and what it costs for the whole job rather than per day.