Plan, procure, execute, & track transportation for every shipment across your supply chain & logistics operations
A SaaS solution to help grow your business by achieving 100% perfect order execution at high volumes
Increase vehicle capacity utilization and customer promise adherence
Grow your business with omnichannel presence and automated pickups
Consolidate shipments for hub to hub movement across land and air
Real-time customer communications and collect accurate PODs
Orchestrate logistics operations with multiple 3rd party carriers
Achieve cost effective, scalable, sustainable, and customer centric deliveries
Orchestrate all your cross-border logistics operations with ease
Improve address accuracy, ensure first-attempt delivery success, reduce costs and boost customer experience
Gain end-to-end shipment visibility, get proactive alerts, and send customers live tracking links
Grow business in a dynamic world and manage operations across First, Middle & Last mile
Delight customers by seamlessly managing store and online orders across own fleet and 3rd party
Reduce freight costs & get end to end visibility across shipments
Let’s start with the definition of cold chain logistics. Cold Chain logistics is the transportation of temperature-controlled goods such as food & beverages, medical goods, temperature-sensitive chemicals, and more, from one place to another. This transportation doesn’t only include delivering goods to the end-customers, but it also incorporates raw material procurement, manufacturing, and storage at a certain temperature. Any rise or fall in the temperature during any logistics phase can spell disaster for the frozen goods.
That’s where cold chain logistics management comes into the picture. It focuses on maintaining the required temperature of the goods throughout the entire transportation. Besides, it also pays attention to the right packaging, timings, routes, and other factors to ensure the transportation of frozen items in their pristine condition.
Cold chain logistics management is not as easy as it appears. Companies, dealing with the frozen products, have to face many challenges to ensure safe and damage-free transportation of the goods. Here are five main problems companies face with cold chain logistics management-
Equipment Breakdown
Sudden malfunctioning of equipment is one of the biggest challenges in cold chain logistics management. Power outages or electricity fluctuations can cause the breakdown of the powered cooling systems. Apart from this, coolant failures and poor cooling circulations can also affect the cold chain logistics management.
Excessive heat exposure
This problem could occur during the loading and unloading phase of the temperature-controlled goods. Heat exposure for a prolonged time can degrade the goods. It requires a great deal of management to maintain the temperature during both these phases.
Human errors
Cold chain logistics management is not like usual logistics management. It requires highly trained professionals who are conversant with all the processes and protocols. Moreover, the professionals should also have hands-on experience in operating various cold storage and transportation equipment. Lack of efficiency and experience such as bad handling, wrong practices, and insufficient paperwork can cause further issues and increase the cost of cold chain logistics.
Damaged goods
Improper placement of goods or not maintaining the right temperature in the trailer can damage the shipments and affect profitability. Therefore, it is imperative to maintain the same either by using tech-enabled platforms or by hiring specialized professionals to take care of the same.
Higher cost
As aforementioned, cold chain logistics management is not normal management. One has to invest heavily in getting the right equipment and fleet. Besides, hiring a third-party logistics provider for this purpose also requires a considerable amount of cost. This is one of the biggest challenges ahead for companies dealing in cold storage products.
Cold chain logistics management issues can be fixed by relying on technology-enabled logistics management platforms. Yes, you read that correctly. Integrating logistics software can help you get rid of all the logistics-related problems. Such software facilitates sensing data in real-time to bring useful outcomes from it. Besides, it can also help in acting on insights via timely intervention.
A shipment may face delay due to any reason, which can cause refrigerator malfunctions or coolant problems. With real-time monitoring, you can send a recovery at the right time to avoid damage to goods. To get such a solution, you can contact Shipsy, a leading SaaS-based logistics software suite provider.
