As zory suggests, evaluating reefer profitability is not just about the reefer itself but about the whole truck. There was a discussion a few years ago about determining the value of the reefer itself and most seemed to agree that the whole package is best to consider. So too with a lift gate, pallet jack or other special equipment. There are too many variables to tie a particular component load into particular component rates and costs.
For example, the reefer load we are on right now is actually two loads but they are connected. The first leg required the reefer. The return leg does not. But both legs were dispatched together. There are two run numbers and two BOL's, but one run would not have been dispatched without the other, so as a practical matter it is one run that would not have been given to us if we had no reefer. How do you figure that into reefer costs and pay? I know of no good way.
I remember when we were at FedEx Custom Critical, we sometimes got dry loads dispatched to us that we might not otherwise have received because dispatch wanted our truck someplace else in the country to be ready to cover reefer freight there. Those were dry loads but reefer related. How do you figure that into a reefer? Again, I know of no good way.
As many stated in the discussion a while back, best to look at a reefer truck as a package, not as its components.
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