Page 23 - Logistics News - March_April 2022

C O LD CH AIN

COVID-19 fundamentally

changed cold chain companies

By Connor D. Wolf, courtesy Transport Topics

The coronavirus vaccine rollout required rapid adjustment by cold chain companies that
continues to influence technologies and operations more than a year later.

“ here have been new technologies built

around the track and trace of vaccines,
T certainly the active containers and
packaging that hold them and then even modes of
transportation. There’s also been a lot of innovation
with drones,” says Dan Gagnon, Vice President of
global health care strategy at UPS Inc. UPS has
continued to drive enhancements and investments
in those areas since the early days of the rollout,
resulting in the technologies becoming more refined
and widely used today – for instance, better and
more granular integration of tracking technologies
within its operations.
DHL constantly developing new
“The technology has allowed us to deliver solutions
99.9 percent effective on-time, which is a pretty “DHL is constantly developing new solutions
significant milestone,” says Gagnon. “So, as we see and using technology to enhance compliance and
other critical shipments within health care that need efficiency,” according to the DHL Life Sciences and
that kind of service level, whether it be tissues or Healthcare global team. “The pandemic accelerated
other specialty pharmaceuticals, it’s being expanded. the development and focus, especially in areas related
So, it’s covering more than just vaccine doses.” to risk management, real-time visibility, intervention
management, digital quality control and data
Gagnon pointed to freezers as an example of analytics.” DHL also invested in its network to add
innovation. He noted they now come in smaller sizes capacity to supply and transport dry ice and validated
to handle limited batches. They also are more mobile aviation networks to transport active data loggers. The
while still being able to keep a -70°C temperature. importance of communication, collaboration among
business units and visibility also were major lessons
“I think COVID-19 was a driver of these learned.
investments for sure,” adds Gagnon. “And I think it
made, perhaps, the implementation and execution a “The DHL global presence, expertise and
little more expedited. But here’s the amazing thing: infrastructure were validated and shown to be dynamic
we didn’t build a church just for Easter Sunday when and integrated as logistic solutions were designed in
we built this technology. As you look to the future, collaboration between multiple units, such as freight
these mRNA technologies are now moving to chronic forwarding, express, specialty courier and charter L O GI S T I CS NEWS
diseases. So, there will be a lot of medicines that will solutions, with the common vision to maintain the
require frozen and cold supply chains. And they’re integrity of the vaccines, expedite the delivery to the
critical.” global community and save lives,” DHL added. •

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PHOTO BY DAVID DIBERT FROM PEXELS