When conducting thermal tests, the purpose of which is to determine the heat transfer coefficient of the body of an isothermal car K, the study of measurement errors affecting the accuracy of the obtained value plays an important role. The results of such experiments may contain various measurement errors that can introduce significant deviations into the resulting values of the desired coefficient. Obtaining accurate results when conducting this kind of experiments is impossible without a preliminary study of the causes that affect the final result. The article presents the types of measurement errors that affect the accuracy of determining the heat transfer coefficient of the body  of an isothermal car when conducting thermal tests. It was noted that the magnitude of labor costs and energy losses during the further operation of this body significantly depends on the accuracy of the value of this coefficient. It was emphasized that one of the main types of random errors arising from measurements and compliance with the established procedure for conducting typical thermal tests is a voltage drop (“slump”) in the electrical network, leading to significant errors in the calculations of the heat transfer coefficient of the isothermal car body. The values of this coefficient are presented, which were obtained as a result of heat engineering tests performed using the equilibrium mode method and the express method. It is shown that the use of the express method to determine the heat transfer coefficient of the bodies of isothermal cars reduces the risk of random errors due to the minimum experiment duration (from 5.5 h), allows to obtain exact values of the desired coefficient (with an error not higher than 3 % of its value of long-term equilibrium method) and use this data for practical purposes.