I dont have type perl but which perl produced /usr/local/bin/perl which checks out ok. I added it to the shebang and the /etc/crontab PATH variable. Looks like its running ok now. Thanks for all the help.
Ah. So you're using some form of csh, instead of one of the Bourne-type shells (usually bash)? Why? Don't you know csh is unhealthy, deficient and a general PITA?