Your latest info on all things cold chain

Hello, and welcome to the coolest community in freight! Here you’ll find the latest information on warehouse news, tech developments and all things reefer madness-related. I’m your controller of the thermostat, Mary O’Connell. Thanks for having me!

All thawed out

Across the pond, a consortium is born and its name is Escalate. Thirty-seven members from 13 different countries around Europe have gotten together to develop and build vehicles for a project aimed at producing the next generation of heavy-duty trucks. So far five pilot vehicles are expected to come from this program. The consortium is focusing on powering trucking via renewable energy. 

Electra, a British company building one of the pilot vehicles, is looking at repurposing one of its existing models, the eStar LEM27-350. This time the company is putting an energy-efficient twist on the refrigeration unit by including lightweight solar panels on the top of the trailer. 

In theory the trailer could generate its own power to keep the reefer running even if it’s sitting in a drop yard waiting to unload. Bit of a game changer, except the solar panels might have a hard time getting charged in a country known for being overcast. 

Temperature checks

A beautiful friendship has been formed — well, maybe not a friendship, more like an acquisition. Trappers Transport has acquired Plett Trucking. Both companies are based in Winnipeg, Canada. Plett Trucking was a big deal for Canadian food producers and suppliers; it was a regular hauler for these industries, and Trappers now has a little piece of that pie as it looks to expand cross-border and intra-Canada offerings. While the financials are not disclosed, this deal will add to the more than 40,000 trucks that Trappers already manages. 

Meanwhile, Peli BioThermal, a life science partner from discovery to distribution, has opened a full-service station in Valencia, California. This new location supports more than 1,800 pharmaceutical and biotech companies with cold chain solutions. The new location is only 65 miles from the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach and near three major airports, including Los Angeles International Airport. Seeing as how Southern California is the home to two of the top 10 cities for pharmaceutical research and development, it’s a natural choice that Peli ends up there.

Food and drugs

People with a fear of needles might have just received the best news of their lives. CEPI, the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations, and aVaxziPen Ltd., a biotech company developing a novel needle-free vaccine delivery platform, have formed a partnership to advance the development of messenger RNA and protein-based vaccines. The cool thing about this partnership is that through aVaxziPen’s delivery platform, the vaccines that need to be kept at specific temperatures would become protected against degradation once outside that temperature window. Meaning people in underdeveloped countries or without access to ultra cold storage could still get the lifesaving medicine they need. 

According to a Pharma Web article, “In addition to being thermostable, aVaxziPen’s applicator device offers other potential benefits, including ease of administration (requiring no specialized-medical training), and it can be reused for 1,000 doses, helping to minimize waste. Its light and robust presentation also makes it ideal for shipment and storage.”

Should the initial trial prove successful, there is almost limitless potential for future applications, from vaccines to insulin to home allergy shots, as well as getting care to those who need it most.

Cold chain lanes

This week’s market is Ontario, California, home of what used to be the ports with the highest import volumes, Los Angeles and Long Beach. While import volumes aren’t what they used to be, outbound freight seems to be making a comeback to compete with the beginning of May. Rejections are climbing to their highest rates in the past six months. Reefer outbound tender rejections have risen 127 basis points week over week for a rejection rate of 7.28%, indicating that some inflated spot rates are right around the corner. Expect spot rates for reefer shipments to increase in the next week coming out of Southern California.

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Shelf life

ODW Receives Food Logistics 2023 Top 3PL & Cold Storage Providers Award

Refrigerated Transportation Market 2023 Growth Drivers and Future Outlook: Top Brands Tyson Foods, A.P. Moller-Maersk, Deutsche Post AG

NYC Weed Bodegas Have No Fear of the Crackdown

Increasing demand for IQF Fruit is driving us towards a sustainable future

Volta Trucks partners with Petit Forestier for refrigerated truck rental solutions

Wanna chat in the cooler? Shoot me an email with comments, questions or story ideas at [email protected]

See you on the internet.

Mary

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