Have you ever wondered how you can get farm-fresh vegetables from faraway fields? Or, how does the seafood caught in the coastal areas still retain its freshness at the supermarket? More importantly, how do vaccines and medicines prepared in one country reach another without losing their efficacy? It is now possible to send and receive products sensitive to temperature across continents – with the help of refrigerated transport.
Recent statistics indicate the value of the refrigerated logistics market has reached $16.11 billion in 2020. People globally can now enjoy seasonal fruits and vegetables for the whole year. Here we have discussed everything about refrigerated transport and how it transformed the logistics industry.
What Is Refrigerated Transport?
The logistic system used for transporting products requiring constant temperature to remain viable is called refrigerated transport. This system can use vehicles like trucks or containers with temperature control or built-in temperature. The control system keeps the products fresh during transportation and increases the shelf-life.
Refrigerated transport is not a new concept, but it has become an essential part of the financial trades. 90% of Australian food is transported this way. Although, the food industry is not the sole benefactor of this particular mode of transport. Many companies are undertaking refrigerated transport Perth to deliver their temperature-sensitive products.
The Applicable Products
It is a familiar concept that refrigerated transport is used by the food and crop business. However, several other companies use refrigerated logistics to deliver their products. Many other industrial and consumer products are transported through this method. You can find some examples in the list below:
- Medical and pharmacological supplies
- Valuable reagents and research consumables
- Exotic animals
- Art and sculptures
The process of temperature control is not new; in the 1800s, cargo transporters would place ice and salt under the perishable goods in train cars. However, the process was non-effective, as the products inevitably went terrible and caused significant losses in the goods price and profitability.
From the 1900s, improvements in refrigeration technologies produced cold-chain logistics – which has become an industry with substantial size and continues to grow.
Reasons For Its Growth
The growth of the refrigerated cargo industry is evident from the available statistics. The business has shown a compound annual growth rate of 12.44% from 2014 to 2019 and will reach 3.25 billion tons by 2022. There are several reasons for this growth, which is also a great indicator of its effect on the logistics industry.
Maintaining The Cold Chain Worldwide
According to the experts at Hofstra University, a cold chain is defined as “The passage of temperature-sensitive products along a supply chain through thermal and frozen packing means and the logistical planning to protect the efficacy of these consignments.”
As said before, worldwide business for refrigerated products has increased and is continuing – and this has resulted in a demand for quick transfer of perishable goods. So, the logistics industry had to devise specific protocols depending upon the products’ perishability, which had to satisfy the regulatory compliance related to those products.
Moreover, to fulfil the demand of international markets, the regional and statewide transport had to upgrade themselves. Depending on the product and destination, the logistics companies had to engage several refrigerated containers– from temperature-regulated containers to reefer trucks.
Globalization of refrigerated transport has increased economic development, as the consumer countries have designed their entry to have minimum barriers.
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Government Regulation For Refrigerated Service
Food or fresh crop delivery needs temperature control to maintain its taste and freshness for its saleability and prevent any food-borne illness. The FDA has increased its vigilance in delivering fresh foods or other products that require temperature control from the manufacturer to the end-user.
In 2015, it implemented the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) that directed the transporters of refrigerated cargo to implement procedures compliant with temperature control provisions and report this information to both the shipper and the end-user.
Firmer regulations made training for temperature management and reporting mandatory for each consignment. These developments have made the freight companies dealing in perishable product transfer adapt to the rules, necessitating a necessary change in the logistics industry. Companies abiding by these regulations have become long-established and have profitable businesses.
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Development Of Life-Science And Pharmaceutical Products
With the improvement of scientific technologies, the pharmaceutical and life science industries have also experienced tremendous growth. As per the recent report, these industries will reach a value of 16.6 billion. The medicines, reagents, and scientific products require a temperature-controlled environment to retain their efficacy, so the global cold-chain logistics involved in distributing them worldwide has experienced a growth in demand. With the continued discovery and preparation of products requiring controlled temperature, the market and utilization of cold-chain transport have gradually improved the logistics industries.
The Need For A Third-Party Refrigerated Logistics Provider
The companies producing perishable foods and products seldom have their logistic services. The reason behind it is the specialized nature of the transports, and the training required by the handler to correctly complete the delivery is complex and costly – even costlier than the transportation of dry goods. For example, a 40-foot container will cost around $5000 to transport dried products, but a refrigerated container of the exact dimensions will need more than $30,000.
Moreover, the charges vary greatly, depending upon the vehicle used for the transport. Intense competition, the specialized nature of services, a requirement of complex training, and the cost of maintaining an experienced workforce stops many transport companies in this particular field.
On the other hand, people will need fresh meat, milk, fish, food, medicines, and other products to maintain their daily livelihood. So, companies who can support their fleet of specialized vehicles and have the core competence to manage it – have a special place for operating in these sectors. They will increase efficiency and save money for the manufacturers and will provide considerable profit for the shippers.
Choosing The Appropriate Company
It takes a lot more to transport cheese blocks than cinder blocks because the transporter has to keep in mind the integrity of the food product and inhibit any food-borne diseases. For that, they need to have specialized training, knowledge of handling their consignments, and the need to report the state of the cargo. Therefore, with the increase in demand for temperature-sensitive goods, the logistic industry is projected to experience distinct changes in its operations.