A reefer from Batumi to a Kakheti-road cold store

Last spring we sat on a dock off the Kakheti highway waiting for a reefer that had left Batumi “on time” according to the quay message. The truck was on time for a version of the morning that did not include a weighbridge queue. The cage key was with a supervisor who had gone to Tbilisi for a bank visit. The temperature log was in a pocket, not on the wall.

The map I drew afterwards had three clocks, not one. Quay release, roadside delay, dock open. Only the third clock belonged to the cold store. The owner had been arguing with the carrier about the first. Once the three clocks were on one sheet, the argument moved to who holds the key when a late truck is still worth receiving.

If you run reefers into Georgia, bring the person who actually opens the cage to the briefing. A temperature graph without a named handoff is a picture of weather, not of a chain.