With the changing of the seasons in full swing across most of this great nation, you can expect to see some picturesque sights that come along with that change. Things like the tree leaves changing colors, 
tall grass turning light brown as it blows in the breeze, and of course sheets of dew blanketed across short green grass areas. The latter of these seasonal changes is actually caused by the cooling of the warm daytime air, which converts water vapor in that air into liquid water. It causes a beautiful layer of moisture on lawns, golf fairways, and short grass fields during these fall months.
What most don’t realize is that this beautiful act of mother nature can also be an area of worry for those that haul dry vans, or even other forms of enclosed trailers. I recently found this out first hand. It was a typical drop and hook delivery on an early and cool morning for me. I hooked the empty after dropping the load and proceeded 
to pre-trip it and look for any damage, since my next customer was pretty picky in regards to having containers to load that are in top shape. As I rounded the back of the trailer, I noticed condensation, formed much in the same way that dew did on the grass that morning, but it was along the entire ceiling of the container. I walked along the empty row to see if there were any without this moisture in them, but was not able to locate a completely dry trailer due to this particular customer leaving the doors open on all empties that they had pulled out of doors.
After deciding that the moisture was not that bad on the one I had hooked, I drove to the guard shack to outgate it with the doors open, per their inspection policy. Once I got through their inspection to make 
sure it was empty, I exited the gate and pulled to the side of the driveway to close my doors. What I found when I went to the rear of the trailer was not good at all. The condensation that I had thought wasn’t terrible had faced the wrath of speed bumps and gravity, now forming a layer of water on the inside wood floor of the trailer! Thank goodness that I carry old spare bath towels for things such as this. Since all of the water was now on the floor and not the roof, it was as simple as a nose to tail wipe-down of the floor of the trailer. I couldn’t help but think of the trouble someone might be in if they didn’t have a towel and just happened to have a food-grade customer to load at next!
Be aware of the things that temperature fluctuations during this time of the year can do to your equipment. In cold climates moisture like this can form ice inside the roof of the trailer at 
night, melt once the sun hits the metal roof in the daytime, which will leave your product inside rather soggy! Lucky for me the customer I loaded at was putting the product in on pallets and not on the floor. I have been rejected for a situation similar to this and lost about an hour of my day trying to locate a customer wiling to switch out trailers for me. Be prepared for the changing of the seasons in more than just the usual ways and you will be more productive in the long run for doing so!