Cold Chain Shipping Facts

Cold chain shipping is a vital process for transporting items that are sensitive to changes in temperature. This often includes shipping items for the medical industry, such as samples, vaccines, antivenom and medications that should be kept at an optimal, cool temperature for the entire duration of the journey until their use becomes necessary, or until they can be placed in storage.

Cold Chain Shipping Facts

What is Cold Chain Shipping?

Cold chain shipping is a specialized form of shipping, and not all shipping companies offer it. There are some shipping companies that specialize in transporting cold chain cargo such as samples and medication from one place to another – and sometimes getting your cargo to the end-destination will be the difference between life and death for someone on the other end.

The Three Elements

Did you know that there are three elements considered to be crucial to the cold chain shipping process? Without one of these elements, the cargo is put at unnecessary risk. These three elements are:

• transport
• specialized storage equipment
• right, trained personnel to accompany the cargo that’s being shipped

The Ideal Temperature

Of course, it’s obvious that there are different types of cargo that can be transported through a cold-chain – but generally, it’s of a very sensitive nature. This means that the temperature of a cargo chain shipment should be controlled exceptionally carefully – and the optimal temperature is generally between 2 and 8 degrees Celsius, at least when we’re talking about vaccines.

When we’re talking about shipments like organs for transplantation, plenty of studies have been done exploring hypothermic temperatures for safe organ cooling and shipment.

Cold Chain Equipment

It almost goes without saying that specialized equipment might be necessary when transporting precious cooled-down cargo – but it’s also worth noting that there are plenty of new technologies that can make this easier, including special coolers that bring the temperature of the shipment down and keep it there until you’ve reached your destination.

Cannonball Express Transportation

Cannonball Express Shipping Company has been providing top-of-the-line service at a reasonable rate. Based in Omaha, Nebraska, we provide nationwide refrigerated LTL services, as well as, local delivery services. Contact us today!