How Climate-Controlled Shipping Works
In the past, when shippers wanted to maintain low temperature for products, they would pack them with ice and salt, but ship them in wagons and standard train cars. The emphasis during this period wasn’t on food safety, efficiency, or spoilage, but on simply delivering the products. This led to major losses, and over time, shippers developed safer and more efficient methods.
Today, temperature-controlled shipping is a careful balance between efficiency and safety. “Temperature-controlled” transportation means maintaining a specific environment for the entirety of the product’s journey.
Types of Temperature Controlled Shipping
There are four main types of temp-controlled shipping, each with its own use cases and differences.
- Refrigerated Freight maintains products at a shipping temperature above freezing, typically between 34°F-50°F (1°C-10°C). Refrigerated freight is commonly used to transport fresh produce, dairy products, beverages, healthcare products and pharmaceuticals that need to be kept cool but would be damaged by freezing.
- Frozen Shipping maintains products at temperatures below freezing, typically between 0°F to -22°F (-18°C to -30°C). Frozen foods such as ice cream, frozen vegetables, meats, seafoods, prepared frozen foods and some specialty ingredients are shipped via frozen shipping. In addition, certain pharmaceuticals and biological samples must be kept frozen to remain effective.
- Cryogenic Shipping maintains products at extremely low temperatures, typically below -238°F (-150°C). Products such as biological samples, pharmaceuticals and genetic materials for medical and research purposes are commonly transported using cryogenic shipping.
- Multitemp shipping allows for different sections of a transportation vehicle to be maintained at different temperatures. This capability allows for the transport of products that need to be maintained at different temperatures to be transported on a single vehicle. Multitemp shipping is commonly employed for mixed loads of refrigerated and frozen freight in the grocery and restaurant industries, for pharmaceuticals and medical supplies, chemical products and personal care products.
Key Components of Temperature Controlled Shipping
Ensuring the freshness and quality of temp-controlled products requires a variety of key components to be orchestrated in order to ensure success:
- Temperature-controlled transportation vehicles, ranging from refrigerated trucks (also known as “reefers”), less-than-truckload (LTL) and Sprinter vans to air freight and shipping containers
- Insulated packaging, including containers, thermal liners, and foam and gel packs
- Temperature monitoring and control systems
- Refrigeration units
- Thermal blankets and covers to provide additional product protection
- Route planning and logistics management
- Handling and training
- Documentation and compliance
- Technology integration
Best Practices for Food Shippers
Maintaining the safety and quality of their products throughout the supply chain is critical for food shippers. Here are some best practices that help ensure success.
- Understanding and adhering to regulatory requirements, including maintaining proper documentation.
- Implementing robust temperature control methods, temperature monitoring, and regularly calibrating equipment
- Utilizing packaging that is appropriate for the product being shipped, including insulated packaging, sealed containers and coolants such as gel packs and dry ice.
- Maintaining proper hygiene and sanitation of facilities, vehicles and staff helps prevent cross-contamination.
- Ensuring efficient supply chain management, from route planning to inventory management and cold chain integrity.
- Employee training and ongoing education on food safety practices, handling procedures and regulations.
- Leveraging technology including Internet of Things (IoT) and data analytics for real-time tracking, monitoring, and predicting potential issues.
- Regularly conducting risk assessments and contingency planning.
- Maintaining communication and collaboration with all stakeholders including suppliers, transportation providers, logistics service providers and customers.
- Regular audits and control checks throughout the supply chain.
Refrigerated Freight Enables Food and Product Safety
When transporting fresh produce, frozen foods, seafood, flowers, vaccines, and other temperature-sensitive goods, speed to market is very important. An effective cold chain is achieved when all key stakeholders, including producers, growers, manufacturers, shippers, carriers, and vendors, understand the importance of these practices. More importantly, temperature-controlled shipping requires flawless recordkeeping and transparency to adhere to FDA standards. Safe cold storage and transportation protects consumers and reduce a shipper’s risk of costly recalls and fines.
Best Practices for Refrigerated Shipping
Clear goals – The starting point of any successful cold chain is to focus on what matters most to the people at the very end. It’s easy to point to regulations and risk avoidance as the goal of refrigerated shipping, but these are only guidelines. Real product safety stems from looking at climate-controlled shipping from the consumer’s perspective.
End-to-end collaboration – All key stakeholders along your cold chain have to work together to mitigate risk and keep products safe. This is done through established processes and transparent reporting.
Consolidated technology – Cargo temperature monitoring and real-time communication are powerful tools for any cold chain. GPS tracking systems can monitor temperature fluctuations, humidity, and even light exposure, so all aspects of the product’s condition are controlled.
Choose an Experienced Logistics Specialist
If your organization is struggling with temperature-controlled shipping solutions, Sheer Logistics has an answer. Even small inefficiencies in your cold chain can drive up costs and expose your company to risk.
When you work with a specialist, you improve load qualities and optimize results, making you a more reliable vendor during a time when all controlled temperature transporters need to be as dependable as possible. Sheer helps you with:
Supply Chain Consulting – At Sheer Logistics, we provide all of our clients with the most cost-effective and efficient logistics solutions that are backed by the latest supply chain technologies. We aim to solve your transportation issues, develop real answers to problems, optimize your shipping processes and establish permanent procedures that elevate your logistics to become one of your core strengths.
Logistics Optimization – We bolster your supply chain strategies, giving you a top-down look at how your cold chain integrates with your vendors and distributors.
Transportation Management Solutions – 3PL software shows you where freight is all along the supply chain, what their status is, and when they can be expected at their destination. Every transaction, every contract signed, and every mile driven generates data that can be analyzed and packaged to help your entire business make more informed decisions.
If you’re struggling with your cold chain or looking to expand your product base to include temperature-controlled freight, reach out to Sheer today. We can guide you to success.
