{"id":131284,"date":"2026-02-12T15:15:27","date_gmt":"2026-02-12T15:15:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/131284\/"},"modified":"2026-02-12T15:15:27","modified_gmt":"2026-02-12T15:15:27","slug":"cant-imagine-driving-a-refrigerated-truck-this-winter-these-staten-islanders-are-doing-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/131284\/","title":{"rendered":"Can\u2019t imagine driving a refrigerated truck this winter? These Staten Islanders are doing it"},"content":{"rendered":"

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y.\u2014For Christopher \u201cParatrooper\u201d Maloney, owner of Paratrooper Produce in Huguenot, winter isn\u2019t just a season\u2014it\u2019s a test of endurance. He\u2019s been delivering fruits and vegetables across Staten Island long enough to know that cold weather changes everything.<\/p>\n

\u201cOn days like today, when it\u2019s single digits or close to it, the inside of the truck is warmer than the outside,\u201d he said, explaining that lettuce and herbs like parsley and cilantro are especially persnickety in winter. Their delicate leaves freeze fast. Tropical fruits have an even rougher time. They\u2019re used to warm climates and don\u2019t tolerate temperature swings. Avocados and bananas turn black, basil does too and pineapples are a disaster. Oranges survive it; pineapples don\u2019t stand a chance.<\/p>\n

\"FrozenEven in single\u2011digit cold, Paratrooper Produce of Tottenville keeps the restaurant industry alive and moving.(Advance\/SILive.com. | Pamela Silvestri)<\/p>\n

Maloney runs three refrigerated trucks, each one essential in weather like this. \u201cIn the winter, when you open the door, the cold stays in there. In the summer, you open it and the humidity hits you like a sauna and kills the product,\u201d he said. \u201cWe use our trucks differently in winter than in summer. In the winter, the natural heat gets pushed out. The refrigerated cold keeps everything stable.\u201d<\/p>\n

For drivers and delivery crews, the temperature swing is constant\u2014stepping from winter air into a chilled warehouse, then into near-freezing storage rooms. The cold affects everything: how long trucks can stay open, how quickly product must be moved and how workers dress and pace themselves. It\u2019s a logistical tango shaped by temperature, timing and the need to keep produce and seafood fresh from the loading dock to restaurant and market distributor.<\/p>\n

Delivering in winter adds layers of complexity. Trucks must maintain stable temperatures, workers move more slowly on icy docks, packaging becomes fragile, and even minor delays can disrupt the tightly timed flow of goods. Nowhere is that more evident than at the New Fulton Fish Market at Hunts Point, one of the coldest commercial environments in the city. The massive indoor shed where vendors operate is kept at roughly 40 to 45 degrees\u2014cold enough to protect seafood while still allowing workers and forklifts to move safely\u2014while individual walk-in boxes drop even lower, typically 32 to 38 degrees, just above freezing.<\/p>\n

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) doesn\u2019t have a specific cold-weather standard, but under the General Duty Clause it requires employers to protect workers from cold-stress hazards. That includes training workers to recognize hypothermia and frostbite, providing proper protective gear, using engineering controls like heated shelters or windbreaks, scheduling warm-up breaks, monitoring weather and worker health and adjusting work practices as conditions change. Workers are encouraged to layer clothing, protect extremities, stay hydrated, take breaks to warm up and watch for symptoms such as shivering, numbness, confusion or reddened skin.<\/p>\n

Maloney keeps his own system simple: layers on layers, lightweight and American-made. \u201cYou just layer up\u2014one layer, two layers, three layers, put it on, and you\u2019re good. Lightweight, easy, all made in America,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

He also notes that modern-day delivery workers have it easier than their predecessors. Since the late 1700s, Hunts Point has grown from a handful of produce vendors on Manhattan\u2019s cobblestones into the powerhouse that now feeds New York City\u2014a historic market that moves millions of pounds of fruits and vegetables from around the world to the restaurants and grocers that keep the city running every day.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn this kind of weather, I really don\u2019t know how they did it back in the day,\u201d Maloney said by phone as he continued over the Outerbridge into New Jersey, racing to get deliveries to restaurants by lunchtime.<\/p>\n

\"SnowSnowbanks choke Castleton Avenue down to one lane outside C\u2011Town, turning routine deliveries into a crawl.Restaurants feel the strain<\/p>\n

For many Staten Islanders, snow brings an appetite\u2014and a sudden crunch across the food-service industry. Behind every hot meal are delivery workers hauling fish, produce and beverages through some of the toughest winter conditions.<\/p>\n

Pedro Canello, owner of Il Sogno in Annadale, says the snow creates challenges far beyond the kitchen: \u201cIt\u2019s easier to park in Midtown than to get deliveries here on Staten Island with all the spots taken by the snow.\u201d<\/p>\n

Regarding major delivery days from his purveyors, Canello puts it bluntly: \u201cDelivery day is something we all dread\u2014and we even have a parking lot!\u201d<\/p>\n

At Marina Cafe, owner Rosemarie Saladino said her team has managed to keep the menu steady despite the weather. \u201cWe are lucky enough to have no issues with the menu. One issue was the timing of deliveries\u2014some were coming late at night,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

She added, \u201cUnfortunately, the inconvenience of not getting products in a timely fashion is not something we can control, but we make the best out of the situation.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"STATEN ISLAND, N.Y.\u2014For Christopher \u201cParatrooper\u201d Maloney, owner of Paratrooper Produce in Huguenot, winter isn\u2019t just a season\u2014it\u2019s a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":131285,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[9,24,63,134,136,135],"class_list":{"0":"post-131284","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-staten-island","8":"tag-new-york","9":"tag-new-york-city","10":"tag-nyc","11":"tag-staten-island","12":"tag-staten-island-headlines","13":"tag-staten-island-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131284","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=131284"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131284\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/131285"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=131284"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=131284"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=131284"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}