Refrigerated Transport Gold Coast — Chilled & Frozen Freight from Brisbane

We run chilled, frozen and fresh produce freight between Brisbane and the Gold Coast along the M1 Pacific Motorway. The work splits into two kinds: pallet freight for manufacturers and wholesalers in the industrial estates, and smaller drops to hotels, restaurants and cafes along the beachfront. They need different vehicles, so the delivery address shapes the quote as much as the load does.

Two Gold Coasts: the industrial north and the tourist strip

The northern end — Yatala, Stapylton and Ormeau — is an industrial corridor with a concentration of food and beverage manufacturing. Freight here is mostly palletised and moves dock to dock. Further south there are industrial areas at Arundel, Molendinar, Nerang and Burleigh Heads that supply the city’s venues and retailers.

Then there is the strip: Main Beach, Surfers Paradise, Broadbeach, Burleigh and Coolangatta. Hotels, resorts, restaurants, cafes and event venues take frequent, smaller deliveries of chilled and frozen stock, often into buildings that were not designed around trucks.

The M1 and the holiday calendar

Almost everything travels on the M1, and it is congested at peak hour in both directions. We do not promise transit times on it. If your receiver has a fixed window, tell us when you book so the pickup can be planned to suit, rather than set a deadline that only works if the road is clear.

Demand on the Gold Coast follows the tourist season. School holidays and summer bring more visitors, bigger orders from venues and more events, at the same time as the heat is at its worst. Vehicles are harder to find at short notice in those weeks, so book ahead where you can.

Beachfront and high-rise deliveries: why smaller vehicles win

High-rise hotels and beachfront restaurants commonly receive through a basement dock or a short kerbside zone. A large truck may not fit, and a long walk from a distant parking spot is time out of refrigeration. As a guide:

• Refrigerated van (1 pallet equivalent, up to 1 tonne) — single venues in Surfers Paradise, Broadbeach or Main Beach with low or tight entries.
• Small truck (2–4 pallets) — a run of several venues, or a hotel taking a few pallets.
• Medium or large truck (6–10 or 12–14 pallets) — industrial estates at Molendinar, Nerang, Arundel and Burleigh Heads.
• Semi-trailer (22–24 pallets) — full loads to and from manufacturers around Yatala and Stapylton.

Our fleet page lists each class, and the guide to what size refrigerated truck you need walks through the choice. If you know the dock’s height limit, include it.

Summer heat, ice cream and the last few metres

A lot of Gold Coast freight is frozen dessert, seafood and other product that does not forgive a warm dock. Industry guidance (the Australian Cold Chain Guidelines) is that frozen food should never be warmer than −18°C, with ice cream preferably at −22°C or colder. Heat-shock damage to ice cream cannot be reversed by refreezing it.

The same guidelines suggest ice cream spend no more than 20 minutes out of refrigeration during handling. In practice that means the receiver should have freezer space cleared and someone ready at the door before the vehicle arrives. We read and record probe temperatures at pickup and delivery, so there is a record at both ends of the frozen run.

Quoting a Gold Coast job

To quote, we need the pickup and delivery suburbs, the product and its temperature, pallet or carton count, the receiving window and how the site receives. We respond within 24 hours, and often the same day on routine routes.

Freight for the Gold Coast often starts in Brisbane or passes through the distribution precincts of Logan; we run refrigerated freight to and from both.