Sending and receiving temperature-sensitive products requires knowing what the regulations are and having a knowledgeable temperature-controlled transport partner. Explore all the bare necessities for transporting temperature-controlled goods and how the right logistics team can help.
What Is Temp-Controlled Transport?
Temperature-controlled transport—sometimes shortened to temp-controlled transport—is the process of moving temperature-sensitive products. It’s typically done without ever exposing them to temperatures outside their required range during transit.
Some of the common categories for temp-controlled transport include:
Refrigerated: Trucks and containers within this category have internal refrigeration systems that protect the temperature of the goods they’re carrying. These mainly keep temperatures above the freezing point while still keeping them cold enough that heat-sensitive reactions or bacteria growth are less likely to occur.
Frozen: In this case, products must be kept below freezing, but don’t necessarily need to be below 0º Fahrenheit. This category includes most types of frozen food products.
Deep-Frozen: By contrast, most products that need deep-freezing must be kept at or below 0º Fahrenheit with no exceptions. Common examples of this situation include vaccines and other temperature-sensitive medicines.
How Does Temperature-Controlled Logistics Work?
Storing and transporting temperature-sensitive products requires caution, plus proper equipment and logistics considerations. These are the most common factors that your temperature-controlled transport partner should address.
Maintaining Compliance
Numerous industries and agencies such as the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) have strict regulations that warrant the use of temperature-controlled trucking for perishable food, pharmaceuticals, and other goods that people can consume.
Staying compliant with these regulations requires working with a temp-controlled trucking and logistics company. Working with a specialized organization like this makes it easier for you to keep your products within the temperature range they need to stay fresh and usable.
Using the Right Equipment
Shipping refrigerated, frozen, or deep-frozen goods requires more than simply storing products in styrofoam boxes before they ship. Instead, it often requires specialized equipment, such as:
Having the right refrigerated shipping equipment available to you with a temperature-controlled freight partner guarantees you have the right equipment for your products that have temperature sensitivities.
Warehousing
It’s not always possible to have your cargo shipped from Point A to Point B in a single trip, especially if the destination is in an urban or extremely remote area. For the stops between temp-controlled trucks, having a cold storage warehouse or distribution center makes it easier to keep your products cool or frozen.
Many cold storage warehouses have multiple rooms with unique temperature requirements. They also have humidity controls to protect a product’s integrity and monitors to track the temperature and other conditions in each area of the facility.
Choosing the Right Partners
It’s important to find a transportation partner that knows temp-controlled trucking inside and out. Here is what you should look for in a cold-chain logistics partner, no matter what types of products you need to ship.
Transparency
Your temperature-controlled transport partner should provide transparency at every stage of the transportation logistics process. Whether that means providing transparent, itemized pricing or enterprise-oriented delivery scores, they should be able to provide information about their operations and services without hesitation.
At Mulder Brothers Brokerage, we provide must-arrive-by date (MABD) scores for our shipping customers upon request. We’ll always guarantee you have the most accurate information possible on a weekly basis whenever you need it.
Reliability
For temperature-controlled transportation partners, you can tell a lot based on their delivery rates. They should have consistently high deliverability rates and always aim to provide your products on time, without fail.
However, some delays—such as severe weather, ice storms, or backlogs due to rail or maritime disruptions—are challenging to avoid. If these situations come up, your temperature-controlled transportation partner should be able and willing to communicate with you about what you can expect and what’s causing the delay.
Experience
No matter how long your partner has been in business, they should have ample experience with providing nationwide coverage and world-class support for deliveries. Always be willing to ask your temperature-controlled transportation partner about the experience that their truckers have with refrigerated and frozen shipping. They should be willing to talk about each person’s level of experience and dedication to ensuring that your products are delivered on time and in good condition, no matter their temperature needs.
How Mulder Brothers Can Help
Mulder Brothers Brokerage has the experience, transparency, and reliability you need as a producer, distributor, or retailer.
We have dedicated our lives to being stewards of our resources and caring servants to our customers, so you can always guarantee that we’ll do the right thing for your business—even when nobody is watching.
Talk to Our Team
Mulder Brothers is always ready to provide the temperature-controlled transportation services you need. Request a quote today to see how we can support your business.
Sometimes, the services everyday people need the most are the ones they notice the least. That’s particularly true for goods requiring refrigerated transportation. Explore how we can help you transport your refrigerated products wherever you need them to go—whether it’s 10 miles away or 1,000 miles across the country.
How Does Refrigerated Transportation Work?
Explain refrigerated transportation, including the basics of temperature-controlled shipping. Discuss why refrigerated transport is crucial for preserving quality, safety, and shelf life of temperature-sensitive goods.
Equipment
Transporting goods that require refrigeration means using specialized equipment. At Mulder Brothers, we have the experience and access to equipment that simplifies the complex process of transporting goods that need constant refrigeration. Some of the equipment we provide includes:
Refrigerated trailers and trucks: These specialized trailers have onboard cooling units to maintain lower set temperature ranges than the ambient temperature.
Climate-controlled containers: These battery-operated containers keep products refrigerated to prevent spoilage in transit.
Monitoring equipment: Most types of refrigerated trucking equipment have built-in monitoring devices like sensors and data loggers to monitor the internal temperature of the load in real time.
Packaging materials: Some types of cargo need additional insulation to prevent their temperatures from fluctuating. Thermal packaging and foam boxes or cooler bags help with the regulation process.
Warehousing
Products that aren’t actively in transit still need to be refrigerated when they’re in warehouses before they reach their destination. These refrigerated warehouses and cold storage facilities protect products from rotting or exposure to pests like insects. Many have vapor absorption or compression systems to keep the products inside safe.
Depending on the warehouse, your products may also be stored within specified zones inside the warehouse depending on their specific refrigeration requirements.
Processes
To keep up with the FDA and other requirements, Mulder Brothers and other refrigerated transport services like ours have strict processes to protect your products.
For refrigerated LTL shipments, we can provide smaller refrigerated panel vans or box trucks, or we can combine your order with others on a refrigerated tractor-trailer for a more cost-effective method. While many shipping providers cannot offer this type of service, we specialize in it.
What Is Shipped with Refrigerated Transportation?
Food and Beverages
Many food products—including produce like fruits, vegetables, and mushrooms or fresh meat and seafood—need to be kept refrigerated. Doing so prevents spoilage or rotting and reduces the likelihood of foodborne illnesses.
Other products, such as tobacco and certain types of alcohol, also need to be protected from more extreme heat.
Pharmaceuticals and Medical Supplies
Certain types of medical supplies, medicines, and the majority of vaccines must be kept refrigerated before use to prevent spoilage. Refrigerated shipping keeps these products stable and safe during transportation so they can improve and save lives after delivery.
For example, insulin is less effective when it is shipped or stored at temperatures over 86º Fahrenheit. Other medications like eye drops to treat glaucoma or rescue inhalers for asthma must be kept at lower temperatures as well.
Cosmetics and Personal Care Products
Lipsticks and certain types of cream concealers or eyeshadows can melt above certain temperatures. Similarly, perfumes can lose their distinctive scents with heat exposure. Many high-end makeup and fragrance brands use refrigerated trucking to maintain the quality of their products during shipping.
Electronics and Sensitive Equipment
In hot summer or warm-climate temperatures, some types of electronics can become damaged with enough heat exposure. This expensive equipment requires temperature regulation. Refrigerated trucking and warehousing can provide the safety that electronics need to function once your customers take them home.
Agricultural Products and Plants
This includes anything from lettuce and other leafy vegetables to most of the live Christmas trees sold in the United States each year. Refrigerated trucking keeps all types of plant products fresh during transportation and protects them from insects and other pests that could eat or destroy them.
How Mulder Brothers Can Help
As an industry leader in cold-chain and refrigerated transportation, Mulder Brothers provides warehousing and transportation for even the smallest refrigerated loads. We specialize in LTL trucking for standard, refrigerated, and frozen cargo. When you work with us, you can guarantee that we’ll streamline your refrigerated transportation and storage logistics for industry compliance, monitoring, and efficient delivery.
Talk to Our Team
Mulder Brothers has the logistics and cold-chain transportation capabilities to keep your products safe and cool. Request a quote from our team today to see how we can make the difference for your refrigerated transportation needs.
For providers and producers who create refrigerated and frozen products, figuring out logistics and transportation can be a challenge all its own. Working with the right cold-chain transportation expert makes it easier to ensure your products get there safely and with the quality your customers and end users expect—every time.
What Is Cold Chain Transportation?
Cold-chain transportation is the process of shipping temperature-sensitive products in a climate-controlled environment such as a refrigerated or frozen truck or shipping container. This process ensures that products maintain their quality and safety as they move from one end of the supply chain to the other.
As a form of transportation, this requires careful coordination of schedules and required temperatures to keep products stable and safe for use.
Why Effective Cold Chain Transportation Is So Important
Product Integrity
Fluctuating temperatures can be disastrous for products that need consistent refrigeration or freezing. Even a few degrees above the freezing point can cause spoilage and give foodborne illnesses an environment where they can thrive. This also extends to potentially destroying life-saving vaccines before they can be used or compromising the compounds in temperature-sensitive chemicals.
Working with an effective cold-chain transportation partner ensures that your products will have around-the-clock refrigeration, no matter where they may be.
Regulatory Compliance
Cold-chain transportation companies play an essential part in keeping products safe and compliant with regulatory bodies. For example, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has numerous regulations in place to keep consumers safe, including strict rules about temperature controls for different products.
Some of the most notable regulations the industry has to follow include:
FDA: There are dozens of guidelines in place to prevent foodborne illness and product spoilage, such as the Sanitary Transportation of Food and other regulations around the temperature regulations for different types of products.
World Health Organization (WHO): The WHO has set standards for refrigerated road vehicles worldwide to prevent the spread of foodborne illnesses.
Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points (HACCP): This industry standard for trucking is internationally recognized and sets regulations for monitoring, logging, and storing food safely.
Other regulations may also exist at the state level, particularly for goods being transported in states with warmer climates. Working with a company specializing in cold chain transportation makes it easier to stay compliant with these regulations and always understand local, national, and international standards.
Customer Satisfaction
No matter which industry you’re in—be it food and beverage, pharmaceuticals, chemical supply, live plants and botanicals, or anything in between—maintaining a proper cold chain ensures your products will be just as high quality upon delivery as they were when they left your facility.
Working with the right partner for cold chain transportation makes the process easier. In turn, you’ll be more likely to deliver a high-quality product and build trust with your customers.
A Guide to Reliable Cold Chain Transportation
Proper Equipment and Procedures
Whether you’re working with a full or LTL shipment, it’s important to have the proper equipment available during the transportation process. Some of the necessary equipment and procedures for cold chain transportation include:
Temperature-controlled trucks: Refrigerated or reefer trucks use a combination of double-wall insulation and an active refrigeration system powered by a motor to generate correct temperatures. Double-walled trucks provide passive insulation. The temperature requirements and other risk factors of the cargo determine which type of climate control is most appropriate.
Cold-storage warehouses: These climate-controlled warehouses keep temperature-sensitive products at the correct temperature before and between different legs of their journey. Climate-controlled warehouses can be either an entire refrigerated building with different areas for refrigerated, frozen, and deep-frozen goods or a standard warehouse with a specially designed portion that has an active cooling system.
Dry ice, gel packs, and other packing materials: As a measure of passive temperature control, some cold-chain transportation providers use these packing materials to insulate frozen products. Liquid nitrogen packs and insulating quilts in or around packages can also trap the cold air inside the product packaging to reduce melting.
Monitoring and Communication
Constant temperature monitoring and tracking is a must in cold-chain transportation, as well as tracking of humidity levels in the warehouse or trailer. A good broker or carrier will be familiar with the risks to products and end users, any margin of error, and non-negotiable factors such as the types of trucks that can be used. They should also have the ability to monitor the temperature in or around your product during every leg of the journey.
Transparency is vital here—your cold-chain transportation partner should always be willing to communicate with you about the types of trucks they’re using, their consistency with must-arrive-by dates, and any potential issues that may arise during transit.
Route Planning
Your cold-chain transportation partner should offer flexibility in the routes they take. Their logistics team should also be able to alternate with a moment’s notice if needed.
For example, if you need to deliver a frozen order from Denver to Indianapolis and there’s a major blizzard passing over I-70 and I-76 that will slow down their progress, they should be able to easily find comparable routes along I-80 or US 50 to keep their delivery on time and safe from temperature fluctuations.
Emergency Protocols
This isn’t a situation anyone likes to think about. However, a good cold-chain storage and transportation provider should have contingency plans should their warehouse or vehicles experience an equipment failure or unexpected temperature excursions.
These backups should include:
Having other potential options for transport standing by
Using emergency cooling packs and liquid nitrogen
Recruiting technicians who can repair the affected equipment on-site or roadside as needed
Working with reefer trucks provides an economical, flexible choice because routes can be easily altered depending on needs and sudden changes. However, most carriers adhere to strict schedules and may have longer delivery times if there are multiple scheduled stops.
How Mulder Brothers Can Help
Cold-chain transportation requires expertise and experience to ensure your products maintain their safety and quality. Choosing a partner that specializes in cold-chain transportation and logistics means you won’t have to wonder if your temperature-sensitive products are being handled properly or if your end users will be safe when using them.
Mulder Brothers is committed to making sure your product is delivered on time and with the temperature specifications you need. Cold-chain transportation is our area of expertise. With our extensive background in trucking, you can count on us for reliable transportation and support.
Talk to Our Team
See what Mulder Brothers can do to safely transport your refrigerated and frozen products from anywhere in the United States! Schedule a consultation or request a quote from us today to get started.
