The Logistics Challenges of COVID-19 Vaccine Distribution Prove the Need for Data Integrity

Logistics companies are often described as being in the business of moving goods from points of origin to end-use destinations, and that is, of course, true — but they are also in the business of data collection, processing, and analysis. That’s because efficient transport and delivery require data from sources such as real-time navigation systems, enterprise resource planning systems, transportation management solutions, analytics solutions, and more, as well as from sensors that track internal and external environment factors: location, the temperature of shipping containers, vibration, speed, sudden stops and starts, and so on.

But just having this data isn’t enough. To successfully navigate the intricacies of the global supply chain, logistics companies must also ensure data integrity — and the challenges of COVID-19 vaccine distribution are proving just how critical that is.

What is Data Integrity, and Why Does it Matter?

Transporting mission-critical supplies around the globe is innately challenging, but successful COVID-19 vaccine distribution is proving particularly tricky for a number of reasons. A high volume of vaccines must be quickly moved from a handful of pharmaceutical manufacturing facilities to tens of thousands of global locations ranging from government facilities to private pharmacies, and deliveries must be coordinated around cold-storage availability at the receiving end. Timing is critical, because the vaccines have a limited shelf life, and the stakes are sky-high. Any vaccines that don’t make it from port to end destination on time and in compliance with certain metrics, such as appropriate temperature thresholds, represent a lost battle in the ongoing war against the pandemic.

That’s why logistics companies need to ensure data integrity, which comprises:

Quality: Vaccine shipment data must be complete, unique, valid, timely, and consistent. For example, most vaccines, that must be kept frozen, can be shipped and stored between -58°F and +5°F (-50°C and -15°C), but Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine must be stored at -94°F (-70°C) to remain stable. Sensors must provide real-time, accurate readings of shipping container temperatures to ensure vaccines remain at the optimal temperature throughout transport, so they can be administered to people. About 25% of shipped vaccines are compromised due to poor temperature management, according to a 2019 report from the International Air Transport Association — an untenable figure for a vaccine on which global population health and economies depend.

Location intelligence: Location data, is often used, to help identify connections between people, places, or things at specific geographic places, and what exists or occurs there. The critical need for efficient last-mile delivery of vaccines, especially to rural and remote healthcare facilities, shows why location intelligence is so important. It takes more than an accurate delivery address to complete the last mile; logistics providers also need up-to-date data on weather, road conditions, road restrictions, and traffic along the route to the destination, as well as site-specific information such as loading dock location. Location data that is outdated, inaccurate, or lacking in context can make the difference between a community that receives viable vaccines, and one that doesn’t.

Enrichment: This gives context, nuance, and meaning to the logistic firms internal data by supplementing it with data from outside sources. For example, a logistics company must supplement its own routing and scheduling data with external data on cold-storage availability at end destinations. Without this context, drivers may arrive at facilities that have no room to store the vaccine shipments, and the vaccines go to waste.

Integration: All of the systems and technologies logistics organizations use to get shipments to the right place at the right time collect and provide their own data, but none of it is much good if the systems can’t talk to each other. Seamlessly integrated data provides complete situational awareness to support decision-making at each link in a supply chain. This helps companies get time-sensitive, mission-critical supplies like the COVID-19 vaccine where they need to go, exactly when they need to be there, using the most efficient path.

Data Integrity is the Key to Logistics Success

Accurate, consistent and relevant data, integrated across all platforms and enhanced by location intelligence and enrichment, help logistics companies achieve data integrity. This elevates data’s usefulness and usability, helping companies react quickly and in real-time to any issues, and make better overall business decisions.

The need for data integrity has never been more clear — and more urgent — than it is now, and lessons learned from vaccine distribution may redefine the way the logistics industry thinks about data. By achieving data integrity, logistics organizations are better equipped to get shipments to the right destination on time — and, in scenarios such as this vaccine distribution, play an integral role in saving lives and protecting global population health.

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Clarence Hempfield is the Vice President, Product Management, Location Intelligence at Precisely. Clarence has been with Precisely through the Syncsort and Pitney Bowes days and first joined Pitney Bowes in 2006. He holds degrees from the University of Pittsburgh and the University of Maryland. Clarence is based in the Washington D.C. area.

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Air Cargo Trends in a Pandemic World

February 2nd, 2021 Dominic Hyde Leave a comment

Previous predications in pharmaceutical transportation trends, highlighting declining air passenger numbers and air freight demand increasing, have been pandemic propelled. Coronavirus continues causing worldwide disruption, as it is anticipated its industry impact will continue throughout 2021 and beyond.

Pandemic Response – Preighters Take Off

Pre-pandemic passenger numbers were already on the downturn, however, the COVID-19 crisis significantly accelerated that trend.

The crisis capacity crunch came as passenger flights plummeted and the ensuing scramble to transport pandemic payloads saw the deployment of hundreds of passenger planes as freighters, known as preighters, take off.

Pioneering Portuguese charter operator Hi Fly led this trend and was the first to convert an A380 for freight, taking out the majority of seats to provide more cargo capacity.

Despite the sector seeing the grounding of hundreds of passenger planes, earlier than had been initially forecast, which led to a reduction in the availability of cargo space in the bellies of these passenger aircraft, we’ve seen more planes undergo conversions to freighters.

The preighters prevalence looks set to continue throughout 2021 and beyond. Although the air cargo industry faces continuing challenges, IATA predicts an anticipated 25% rise in freight tonne-kilometers this year.

Boeing projects growth in the global freighter fleet with the number of cargo aircraft in service forecast to increase more than 60% over the next two decades, resulting in 3,260 operational aircraft by 2039. (1)

However, the ongoing drastic downturn in travel means the loss of a lot of capacity in passenger aircraft and while freighter aircraft are still present and working hard, fleet growth takes time, so there will be a slower response to replacing some of the capacity lost from the passenger side of the industry.

Some of the 747s which have comparatively low hours on their airframes will undoubtedly become 747 converted freighters and will be flying as freighters just to try to backfill some of that loss in capacity from the passenger numbers.

Large Widebody Aircraft – Grounded or Retired

Before COVID-19, it was predicted airlines would start cutting flights from schedules, mothball larger aircraft, decline production options, and look to utilize smaller, more efficient aircraft in the future for environmental and economical reasons. All of those decisions have been massively accelerated.

The forecast to park some of the larger, widebody aircraft has been brought forward significantly, due to the COVID-19 crisis.

The ongoing impact of the pandemic has meant the majority of all 747 freighter aircraft have or are being retired. The A380, which Airbus had previously announced it would stop deliveries of in 2021, has also been retired across the board by numerous airlines, except Emirates.

Increasingly airlines are globally grounding their A380s in favor of more modern, smaller jets, which can fly more efficiently than their four-engine aviation counterparts.

With far fewer passengers flying in a pandemic world, the travel downturn has ramped up decisions to park planes, some permanently, further impacting the already dwindling resource of global air freight capacity.

What we will continue to see is a lot more interest in leaner aircraft, like the A220, the Canadian Bombardier aircraft Airbus produced in North America.

Sea Change in Modes of Transport

There will be ongoing developments in the sea freight sector, which has an estimated 17 million TEUs (Twenty-foot Equivalent Unit) serviceable globally, of which six million containers are routinely turning and carrying freight.

Put in perspective, at its lowest level of trading during the onset of coronavirus, there were 135,000 TEUs a month traveling from China to the US. However during peak months, when the US retail sector’s stocking up for Thanksgiving and Christmas, this increases to 900,000 TEUs a month. This equates to 8% of the global free flow of sea containers just crossing the Pacific from China to the States.

Any delays will see a huge build-up of sea containers, which lead to availability issues, and rate rises, as seen during the pandemic when China stopped producing. What we saw with the initial emergence of COVID-19, China stopped producing, so wasn’t pushing out those sea containers so there were availability problems in the rest of the world because all the sea containers were piling up in China.

When China returned to approximately 98% of its production output in April other countries were then in lockdown, with some like the US, holding containers for two weeks in ports to quarantine them, compounded by shorthanded workforces operating in the docks.

As sea containers started to pile up in their markets and with exports to China impacted, shipping lines cut sailings from schedules, which saw sea freight prices spike by up to 50%.

Uncertainty in sea freight and air freight availability saw pharma companies initially ship everything they could, by any mode of transport available, to get it out to the markets.

Following months of disruption passenger airlines eventually started flying passenger aircraft with cargo in the lower decks and loose load cargo on the upper decks.

We are now back in the situation where that backhaul from the US and Europe, following seasonal shipments for Christmas retail demands, China now has availability issues again with reduced sailings, so there will not be any kind of normal flows until March 2021, at the very earliest. However as the UK is currently back in another national lockdown, with all non-essential retail effectively closed and production affected, and if this trend spreads further into Europe and possibly the US, then that will further affect the backhaul. So whereas I was hoping things might be back to some kind of normality in March, I am now inclined to add another quarter to that. So, I now think there will be exacerbated sea freight and sea container availability issues throughout the first half of 2021.

Given the sea freight situation, we will continue to see the utilization of air freight to transport pandemic payloads. When it comes to economics, without the passengers on the main deck it is a much more expensive operational option, however pharma customers are prepared to pay those premiums to move their product.

The volumetric efficiency of air craft is critical at the moment because it is such a scarce resource we need to ensure the best use is made of it. With air freight capacity a dwindling resource, it is even more important to have the very efficient packing density of temperature-controlled products on such limited air freight resources.

Vaccines vs. Virus – Rapid Response

As the development of successful COVID-19 vaccines continues at a rapid rate, the world’s first approved vaccines are already being administered as part of ongoing mass vaccination programs worldwide.

Temperature-controlled packaging manufacturers continue to play a pivotal part in the global deployment of these approved vital vaccines, including those developed by Pfizer/BioNTech, Oxford University/AstraZeneca, and Moderna.

As COVID-19 vaccines fall into different families of technology, some have frozen and deep-frozen temperature requirements, leading to a scramble to qualify existing solutions for shipping at those specific lower temperatures.

In a rapid response to the logistical cold chain challenges involved in the deployment of these potentially life-saving vaccines, we have adapted our shippers to meet those temperature requirements, as have other providers in the market.

There has been an impetus for innovation to support these temperatures in volume. Suppliers stepped up to meet the vaccine temperature requirements by adapting existing shipping solutions and the capacity is there, so I don’t anticipate it will be an issue going forward.

The focus is reverted back to the capacities in the transport modes and given the nature of these drugs people are paying whatever it costs to ship them, with rates rising sharply from $2.5 a kilo to $23; however, that’s starting to calm down.

Beyond all of the current vaccines being approved, there will be the need to provide boosters. It is going to create a recurring step up in the volume of vaccines being shipped, alongside the flu vaccines being transported and other pharmaceutical payloads every year.

There will not be a continuous crisis, it will be a continuing trend of smaller aircraft, with reduced airfreight capacities, moving that pharma product at temperatures that sea freight cannot do. It really can only fly.

However, there’s not going to be a modal shift from air to sea because sea cannot meet the temperature requirements necessary for these shipments. You get a displacement, whereby COVID-19 shipments, whether vaccines, test kits, and reagents or some of the therapies which help with recuperation, like Remdesivir, are flying at almost any cost on a dwindling resource.

The pharmaceuticals which have more normal temperature shipping requirements, like 2 – 8C degrees or 15 – 25C degrees, get displaced and in that situation, when the air freight rates get so high, sea freight would normally be seen as a shipping solution.

However, with all of the sea freight challenges, coupled with the fact that their transportation rates have also doubled, there has been some displacement but not as much as pharma companies would have liked, which is what has kept pushing the prices up in the region of the $23 a kilo figure for air freight we had seen previously in the market.

Sea freight will improve in the first six months of 2021 so some of that displacement can take place more efficiently. But aircraft will still be full of COVID-19 related products.

2021 will see the industry learning to operate in the new norm with everyone getting used to that new norm. Next year we might start to see some improvements and efficiencies but I think this year is about adjusting our planning, our capacities, and our operations around this spike in demand and the gradually improving capacity picture. Almost like wearing in a new pair of shoes.

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Dominic Hyde is Vice President Crēdo™ On Demand at Pelican BioThermal

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COVID-19, Remote Work, and Technology: Was 2020 just a blip?

January 30th, 2021 Heinan Landa, Founder & CEO, Optimal Networks Leave a comment

How did 2020 reshape your business?

While some organizations were better prepared for a shift to working from home, only 14% of businesses worldwide had fully remote workforces prior to the pandemic.

This means that, at some level, 86% of us had to make sudden, rapid changes to adjust to an entirely remote way of operating, communicating, and leading.

As Microsoft’s CEO Satya Nadella put it last April: “We’ve seen two years’ worth of digital transformation in two months. From remote teamwork and learning to sales and customer service, to critical cloud infrastructure and security—we are working alongside customers every day to help them adapt and stay open for business in a world of remote everything.”

Now that vaccines are beginning to roll out and the prospect of returning to our offices becomes more tangible, the next question we face is this: Which elements of 2020 will stick, and which will we discard as soon as it’s safe to do so?

COVID-19 ushered in 6 primary changes to the way we work

The most obvious change to our work environments is that we made a quick shift to remote work—with varying levels of disruption and success. If we zoom in a bit closer, we can pull out six major changes:

1 – We embraced collaboration tools.

Microsoft Teams has seen a 160% increase in users from March to October, Slack sold for $27.7 billion, and Gartner predicts the worldwide market for social collaboration tools to reach $4.8 billion by 2023. While these tools were plenty popular pre-pandemic, many businesses found themselves without a way to communicate with a fully remote team and quickly implemented one package or another (or, in some cases, multiple packages).

2 – Live document coauthoring finally got our attention.

With “old school” collaboration methods off the table, we finally jumped head-first into tools that many of us already had access to, but weren’t really using—namely Microsoft SharePoint and Google Drive. Instead of emailing documents back and forth or trying to whiteboard over Zoom, we posted links in our new Slack or Teams channels and edited our project simultaneously.

3 – Video conferencing exploded.

Between Zoom (up to 300 million daily participants), Teams (up to 115 million daily users), and Google Meet (up to 100 million daily participants), we were on so many video calls last year. In fact, we spent so much time using these tools that “Zoom fatigue” became a thing we say in real life. The market for these tools is expected to hit $50 billion by 2026.

4 – Virtual events… happened.

All of our networking, fundraising, recruiting, team building, and client appreciation events went virtual. We tried webinars virtual conferences, virtual happy hours, virtual magic shows, and on and on and on. These, from anecdotal evidence, were better than nothing, but generally hit or miss.

5 – We stopped caring so much about where employees and new hires live.

If we’re all working from home, “home” can be anywhere. With 70% of company owners open to letting their employees work remotely after offices can safely reopen, we open the door to hiring the best talent regardless of their geographic location. There are a few hurdles to clear when it comes to expanding your company’s footprint (taxes and healthcare, for example), but we’ve quashed all concerns about effective remote work.

6 – We took less time off and burned out more.

Lastly, the combination of working from home and diving into applications that generate notifications 24/7 has further blurred the lines between “work” and “home.” A recent Monster survey found that 69% of workers are feeling burnout, 59% are (still) taking less time off than they normally would, and 42% don’t plan to take any time off.

So, which of these trends should we expect to stay for the long haul? Which will go? Here’s my take.

Trends that will stick through 2021 and beyond

When it comes to practices that boost efficiency and expand access to something as invaluable as top talent, few businesses will scrap them.

We’ll stick with video conferencing. In the first few months post-vaccine, many of us will have been so starved for in-person meetings that we’ll schedule as many as we can. Over time, however, I suspect we’ll find a happy medium and balance video conferencing with face-to-face meetings—perhaps opting to make new connections in person and maintain them over video. This balance will be of particular value to those of us in metropolitan areas, where one hour-long meeting chews up half a day with traffic!

Document collaboration won’t budge. Once your teammates (and your clients!) have gotten a taste of how much more efficient real-time collaboration is, there will be no going back. It won’t be a matter of whether we keep this solution, but how we bolster it with the right policies and security measures.

Slack and Teams won’t either. We’ll see a new trend of businesses getting smarter with how they use Slack and Teams—and in cases where employees jumped into multiple platforms as a stop-gap, there will (should!) be some consolidation. But overall, we won’t be turning down the tools that have such power to amplify productivity and engagement.

We’ll expand our recruiting efforts. As long as a particular role does not explicitly require feet on the ground at or our office or at client sites, most of us will be much more willing to let go of geographic restrictions on our job postings in an effort to find the absolute best fit.

Trends most businesses will abandon post-vaccine

In other cases, our businesses will be happy to revert back to traditional approaches:

We won’t ditch our offices (at least not yet). Few of us are going to follow in Twitter’s footsteps and go all virtual all the time; we have years left on our leases, and will get our money’s worth once we can do so safely. When that lease is set to expire we’ll have a big decision to make as far as remote work is concerned. Even then, the majority of larger businesses plan to perhaps downsize, but ultimately keep a brick-and-mortar office as we still see value in the happenstance interactions and energy generated by working together in person.

Goodbye, virtual happy hours! To the business community’s credit, we have been getting extremely creative with virtual events that are fun and engaging. But once we can opt for an in-person happy hour versus a virtual happy hour, or a live lunch-and-learn versus a webinar… the choice becomes a no-brainer.

Hello, vacations! Finally—and thankfully—we’ll resume traveling and being more protective of our time “off the clock” once our options open up. This will be a welcome chance for our folks to step back from the many hardships that we’ve faced over the past year, rest, and reenergize.

Final thought

While these are my predictions on how these trends will fare over time, now is the time to crystalize the vision of what the future of your business looks like. Work with your leadership team sooner rather than later to address the following:

1. What is your stance on remote work post-vaccine, and how will you communicate that to your team?

2. How will you make sure you’re getting the most out of your collaboration tools?

3. What is your policy on file sharing, and does it take backup and security into proper account?

4. What guidelines will you set for video conferencing as communication, sales, and engagement tool?

5. Will you change your approach to networking, events, and celebrations?

6. Will you set geographic limitations on your hiring efforts?

7. What message do you need to send regarding after-hours and weekend work? Vacation?

We’re fortunate to be in a place where we can see the light at the end of the tunnel with regard to the pandemic. But even if we abandon some of our COVID-era trends in favor of more “normal” alternatives, the impact of 2020 on our businesses will not be undone.

We embraced new tools. We found new efficiencies. We know remote work works.

Why go backwards?

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How Will Ocean and Air Market Conditions Affect Your Shipping Decisions?

January 29th, 2021 Mike Short, president of global forwarding, C.H. Robinson Leave a comment

Global transportation—like many industries—has faced unparalleled disruptions over the past year. Now, as we head into 2021, there are new and different challenges added to the mix.

Many of our global shipping customers are up against the clock with Chinese New Year (CNY) approaching, while also navigating potential changes from a new U.S. administration. Of course, fast-changing consumer behaviors, port congestion, and continued uncertainty around the impact of COVID-19 continue to bring changes to the market as well.

Today I’m going to focus on how the ocean and air shipping markets have been affected and steps you can take to successfully account for these and other events.

Greater market demand overall

The global logistics market is forecasted to grow over 17% in 2021. And only a month into the year, that growth seems to be on track due to heightened demand across major global trade lanes. Volumes between China and the United States have increased by 30% compared to this time last year. It is likely the demand will continue past CNY, which falls on February 12, this year.

We historically see a spike in demand before CNY, but this year looks different from past years. Many companies are stockpiling and replenishing stock rooms in the wake of COVID-19 disruptions. And with a continued need for PPE and the dramatic uptick in ecommerce shopping, it’s no wonder there’s greater amounts of freight being moved right now.

Demand and disruption in ocean shipping

Ocean shipping capacity and port congestion

You’re most likely to see the most congestion and capacity constraints when shipping via ocean service in early 2021.

Significant increase in demand and equipment shortages in Asia have led to longer dwell times for vessels, which inevitably delays export shipments. In the United States, carriers continue to reduce the amount of exports in order to reposition empties back to Asia. Additionally, the uptick in vessel accidents due to inclement weather has added to the delays. Companies whose freight went overboard are not the only ones impacted, in fact the recent incident with ONE APUS resulted in all remaining freight being unloaded in Japan for further inspection. Inspections and transloading are likely to add considerable delays to a container’s journey.

Historically, ocean carriers announce the percentage of capacity that will be removed from the market during CNY. However, with the continued high demand and equipment shortages likely to continue through March, carriers have announced they will only remove 2-4%. This is down from the average 15-20% that we’ve seen removed in previous years.

Demand and disruption in air shipping

COVID-19 vaccine distribution

Air passenger travel is still down, and capacity for air cargo remains tight. Today, COVID-19 vaccine distribution has had minimal impact on capacity, but we’re closely monitoring the situation as it could and likely will change rapidly.

The majority of COVID-19 vaccines will not require inter-continental airlift, however, when doses do need to be transported via air, many airlines are already prepared to reposition capacity. When this happens, expect heavy demand from both Europe and India. And if/when this capacity is pulled from today’s already tight air market, your global supply chain may need to pivot in response.

With new COVID-19 strains and outbreaks, many countries are now requiring pilots and airline crews to quarantine or limit overnight deliveries. These changes will likely add to the inconsistencies and put pressure on air freight costs.

Successfully overcome shipping challenges

Monitor global events

Shipping across borders inevitably means customs and global compliance will play a vital role in your supply chain. It’s important to keep abreast of the changing global trade climate so your company can remain compliant and avoid customs delays. This is especially true with a new U.S. administration in place and Brexit in full swing.

While President Biden has indicated he does not plan to focus on trade and tariff changes immediately, he has already expressed his intention to approach trade differently than the previous administration.

Additionally, shippers both in and out of the UK will need to stay up to date on changing regulations as Brexit continues to progress, and any change may directly impact many supply chains.

Establish a plan for disruptions

Despite the challenges, it is possible to mitigate delays due to congestion and equipment shortages. We’ve been able to help multiple customers avoid 10+ day delays by routing shipments through a different port or shifting freight across modes.

Instead of trying to keep up to date about market changes from several news sources, you can trust a single information source to help you see how market trends will impact capacity and pricing. C.H. Robinson’s Global Forwarding Insights webpage provides a clear picture of rapid shifts in ocean and air capacity by aggregating current market information, like I shared above, in one easy to view place. With trade lane level detail, these market insights provided by industry experts are presented with an easy to understand summary of past and present market conditions so you can maintain flexibility, adapt to potential disruptions, and prepare for the most complex shipping challenges.

To dig deeper, connect with your logistics provider to develop a disruption action plan which is key to creating an agile, flexible, and well-rounded supply chain.

Air Cargo, Archives, Global Logistics, Global Trade Daily

TECHNOLOGICAL ADVANCES HAVE COOL PHARMA SHIPPERS LOOKING TO THE SKIES (AND WATER?)

January 2nd, 2021 Matt Coker Leave a comment

For a sense of how upside down the world is now, consider this from Bill Villalon, president of APL Logistics.

“The shortage of air freight capacity as a result of disrupted supply chains from COVID-19 has been difficult for many customers to manage. … OceanGuaranteed is uniquely positioned to deliver sustainability solutions in one product, while still ensuring expedited, on-time delivery.”

OceanGuaranteed is Scottsdale, Arizona-based APL Logistics’ service that ships freight by ocean as opposed to the air. Never mind the geographical challenges posed by the previous sentence—an inland desert company touting its deliveries by sea—you are probably more than aware that air cargo operations came into being because they can move precious shipments more quickly than their wet-bottomed competitors.

However, clashes with Big Ship are not deterring air carriers, with or without the menace of a global pandemic.

Before anyone heard of COVID-19, United Cargo had already supported a variety of customers within the healthcare industry for more than a decade. Its TempControl, LifeGuard and QuickPak logistics solutions protect the integrity of vital shipments such as precision medicine, pharma, biologics, medical equipment and vaccines. And in April, Chicago-based United became the first U.S. carrier to lease temperature-controlled shipping containers manufactured by Germany’s DoKaSch Temperature Solutions.

“Providing safe air cargo transport for essential shipments has been a top priority since the pandemic began,” says United Cargo President Jan Krems. “While the entire air cargo industry has had its challenges, I’m proud of how United Cargo has adapted and thrived despite a significant reduction in network capacity and supply. We remain committed to helping our customers make it through the pandemic, as well as to doing everything we can to be prepared for the COVID-19 vaccine distribution when the time comes.”

One way United Cargo has prepared is by assembling a COVID Readiness Task Team “to ensure we have the right people in place and are preparing our airports as we get ready for the industry-wide effort that comes next,” says a spokesperson.

By United Cargo’s count, it has helped transport nearly 145 million pounds of medical supplies to aid in the fight against COVID-19, using a combination of cargo-only flights and passenger flights. To date, United Cargo has operated more than 6,300 cargo-only flights and has transported more than 213 million pounds of cargo worldwide.

While United Cargo looks back fondly at 10 years in the healthcare game, Delta Cargo is celebrating the 50th anniversary of DASH, the Atlanta-based carrier’s service for same-day express shipping for small packages throughout the county—including packages filled with life-saving organs for transplant.

“Delta was one of the first airlines to offer a same-day express shipping option in the U.S. and today it is one of our most popular products and perhaps the one for which we are best known,” says Andy Kirschner, Delta’s director-Cargo Sales Americas. “Over 40 percent of domestic cargo that we transport annually is carried as DASH, and we carry everything from wedding dresses, films reels, trophies, movie props and human organs for transplant, to passports and other urgent documents.”

Among Delta Cargo’s customers is MNX Global Logistics. “At MNX, our customers rely on our precision logistics services to deliver life-saving therapies to patients and mission-critical parts to help businesses succeed,” says Bert Mesa, vice president-Global Field Operations at MNX . “When every moment matters, we need more than just a provider, we need a partner. And with Delta DASH, we have a partner that enables us to deliver on the speed, precision, efficiency and rigor that our customers demand.”

COVID-19 has put the spotlight on shipments of vaccines, something Qatar Airways Cargo prepared for in September, when the “World’s Best Airline” signed an agreement with SkyCell for Hybrid Pharma Containers.

“The logistics around pharma transportation is complex and being at the forefront of time and temperature-sensitive transportation, we understand the intricacies of a seamless cool chain,” says Guillaume Halleux, Qatar Airways’ chief officer-Cargo. “Through this agreement with SkyCell, we are glad to expand our container offering under QR Pharma and present customers with more options to transport their sensitive products. The hybrid container establishes an entirely new product offering for our clients that is both safe and sustainable for our businesses and the planet.”

“Qatar Airways Cargo is a leading air cargo carrier with a specialized pharmaceutical offering and an extensive network,” says Chiara Venuti, director of Business Development and Airline Partnerships at SkyCell. “The cooperation will meet the growing demand for hybrid containers as safe and sustainable pharma solutions for sensitive and critical drugs such as vaccines.”

In June, cargo.one was the first to launch digital booking of passively cooled shipments across multiple airlines, including Etihad Cargo, AirBridgeCargo and Lufthansa Cargo were among the airlines to participate in the launch.

“The mission of cargo.one is to make the air cargo markets more productive and thus more successful,” commented Oliver Neumann, founder and managing director of Berlin-based cargo.one. “Extending the range of commodities on the platform is an exciting next step towards fulfilling our mission. This wouldn’t have been possible without the trust of our partner airlines, who experience our performance as a key revenue stream first hand and have thus always supported our desire to innovate. The result is a uniquely simple and quick way to book passively cooled shipments.”

As we come to grips with our brave new cool world, Puerto Rico is being propped up as a central location for air carriers toting temperature-controlled pharma. This comes courtesy of an air cargo and passenger transfer designation for the U.S. Territory by the U.S. Department of Transportation this past spring.

The measure “may make Puerto Rico the No. 1 Air Cargo Hub in the nation,” states Invest Puerto Rico, a public-private economic development partnership on the island. “New flexibilities provided by the waiver will expand the island’s crucial pharmaceutical production capacity–a space poised for swift growth as the U.S. eyes domestic drug production.”

The partnership expects the designation to benefit manufacturers, increase trade and employment and lead to long-term economic prosperity . . . while also spiking air traffic to and from Puerto Rico.

Do you know how you can tell the partnership may be on to something. Cargolux, DHL Aviation, FedEx Express and UPS Airlines already have a presence on the island, as does Amazon Air, which is now expanding its ground operations at Luis Muñoz Marín Airport.

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“School of Cool” Prepares Distributors to Meet Cold Chain Demands

December 20th, 2020 GT Staff Leave a comment

With news of the COVID vaccine in the deployment phase, pharma-focused logistics processes are at the top of mind for global distributors preparing to meet demand in transporting these and other pharmaceuticals requiring temperature-controlled packaging. Pelican BioThermal’s recently launched School of Cool aims to inform, educate, and prepare its global network of distributors and customers on how to effectively prepare and utilize its temperature-controlled solutions product line.

“The events of 2020 require rapid change and innovation for businesses, as does serving a global network,” said David Williams, President of Pelican BioThermal. “School of Cool shows our continued commitment to ensuring our customers, distributors, and new employees have access to information on how to use our high-performance temperature-controlled packaging when they need it most.”

Through this on-demand and self-service style training, the leaders at Pelican BioThermal provide a four-module training process that focuses on key aspects of cold chain logistics for healthcare, pharma, biotech, and general business markets. The online learning platform currently offers four modules beginning with “What is Temperature Controlled Packaging?” and finishing with “Phase Change Material Conditioning.”

Within these four modules, distributors and customers have the opportunity to learn about the types of temperature-controlled packaging available, types of phase change materials, payload capacities, temperature ranges, and more. Pelican BioThermal confirmed additional modules are on the horizon addressing temperature ranges, parcels versus pallets, dry ice shippers, and more information on the NanoCool™ push-button cooling technology.

To register for the online training module or learn more about School of Cool, click here.

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Ringing in the New Year: 2021’s Global Logistics Outlook

December 18th, 2020 Mike Short, president of global forwarding, C.H. Robinson Leave a comment

It’s safe to say that 2020 will not be a year easily forgotten. This past year has been full of adjustment. Around the globe, our personal and work lives were upended with very little warning. As the pandemic spread, spending time with friends and family, water cooler conversations with co-workers, and even dependence on a resilient supply chain turned out to be necessities we had taken for granted. And normal has yet to return.

As the New Year approaches, it’s time to look at ways you can make a smart plan for global shipping in 2021. But, before I share what the outlook for 2021 looks like, I want to say thank you to the ocean and air carriers, port and airport operators, truck drivers, customs agents, and the many other logistics professionals who work hard to bring a little normal to our doorsteps and grocery store shelves.

Current events impacting global shipping in 2021

“By staying on top of supply chain management trends and issues, you can make sure that your company can readily adapt to changes”. — FinancesOnline

Headlines and news can significantly impact trade—either regionally or globally. While it’s impossible to predict all that 2021 has in store, you can at a minimum prepare for the following:

The ongoing Brexit situation

If you export from the EU to the UK and vice-versa, Brexit will mean extra administration chores and delays for your shipments. It is also to be expected that new customs charges and other fees will be introduced as of January 1, 2020.

For more information about Brexit and the impact it may have on your business, read our recent blog on the topic.

Global trade and tariffs

There are several things that may influence trade and tariffs in the coming year.

For example, some significant changes were made to the Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) recently, most notably that certain Thailand-origin goods are no longer GSP eligible as of December 1, 2020. More broadly, the entire GSP is scheduled to expire on December 31, 2020 if Congress does not renew.

Check out our Trade & Tariff Insights for more details on these and other updates.

Global demand for coronavirus vaccines

Of course, similar to 2020, the pandemic may be the largest disruptor on the shipping market again in 2021. Vaccines have started hitting some markets already and full global rollouts are expected in early Q1 2021.

The initial vaccine distribution will also coincide with the Chinese New Year when we historically see a large influx of retail merchandise ahead of the weeklong holiday in China.

With vaccines likely moving via air freight, we expect peripheral products, such as syringes, gauze, cotton to move via ocean, which could mean tightened capacity for both air and ocean shipments.

Expect challenges from 2020 to continue in 2021

Looking at the ongoing events around the world, many of the challenges we’ve experienced in 2020 are not going away—and there are potentially new challenges on the horizon. If there is one thing the supply chain industry needs to learn from these ongoing challenges, it is agility. Supply chains need to be flexible enough to absorb these shocks, major or minor, that comes on its way.

Through our technology and global suite of service offerings, including ocean, air, customs brokerage, trade compliance, and surface transportation, we help customers mitigate the unplanned risks and changes of global shipping. Our people are willing and eager to help you plan for shipping in the coming year.

Airports, Archives, Global Trade Daily

The Role of a COVID-19 Vaccine in the Travel Industry

December 17th, 2020 Christian Kruse Leave a comment

Hope got rekindled in the heart of individuals, organizations, and nations following the news of producing a potent vaccine that could help end the COVID-19 menace. There has been a recorded increase in the travel industry’s activities with the renewed energy in people to resume travels.

Nations that earn primarily from the participation of foreigners in business, investment, tourism, and so on are hopeful that they can restore their economy and improve their citizens’ living standards when the virus’s vaccine is in use.

As we are expectant of the proper circulation of a vaccine, we should take a moment to analyze the changes the pandemic outbreak has made in our lifestyle, particularly traveling habits.

Ways in Which the Pandemic Outbreak Positively Affected Travels

As much as COVID-19 has presented us with significant challenges, the pandemic outbreak did not leave us without some blessings. In response to the deadly virus, several changes got incorporated, which has improved traveling for good.

The continuation of these changes despite the vaccine’s availability will do both the travel industry and passengers a great deal of good. These changes and policies adopted include the following:

Flexibility

Airlines became a lot more flexible with their payment and refund policies since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. Various airlines offered a full refund of fares for booked or paid flights to countries with travel bans. Several airlines employed different means to make payment a lot more comfortable for their passengers.

Maintaining flexibility, regardless of the vaccine, could change travel for good. Not to be too hopeful, these airlines might withdraw some of these leniencies, but many would remain.

Traveler’s Behavior

Travelers now prepare adequately for travels. It makes it a lot easier for airlines to control boarding. People are more careful about their health and, as such, are more responsive to regulations. This habit has been a good chance for travels since the onset of the pandemic.

Health and Safety Protocols

The airline now prioritizes safety and health protocols. Airplanes are now well cleaned and sanitized to ensure a virus-free environment.

One would also notice a very high degree of orderliness at the airport due to the social distancing protocol. People do not have to crowd themselves in the queue, making traveling a lot more stress-free for passengers.

Expected Positive Impacts of the COVID-19 Vaccine

With a proper circulation of the vaccine, where everyone can have access to vaccination at an affordable price, travel will experience a significant change for good. Considering how much influence the pandemic outbreak had on our traveling habit, we expect to record the following changes:

Improved Travel Experience

With the release of the COVID-19 vaccine, traveling will be a lot easier. Several boarding protocols that stress out travelers, like getting tested for COVID-19, maintain social distancing at the boarding gate, arriving at the airport many hours before take-off time, may be relaxed. We can finally return to a more comfortable process with the provision of the vaccine.

Cheaper Fares for Travelers

With the vaccine, airlines can allow more passengers on board a flight. It will help reduce flight fares as more people can share the burden of transportation cost per trip. A lesser fee will make transportation more affordable, and people can plan for more trips than before.

Assurance of Safety

The major discouragement with travels was the fear of safety. Several travelers canceled their trips except when it was inevitable. The vaccine would mean that people can now tour the world without fear of contracting the coronavirus disease. They also do not stand as a threat to others’ safety while visiting new places, so long as they have the necessary vaccination.

Reduced Cost on Maintenance of Health

People now have to spend less on maintaining their health with the vaccine. Airlines can also reduce the cost of ensuring a highly hygienic travel environment by the COVID -19 standard. Several regular travelers had to forfeit planned trips because they cannot afford the potential cost of maintaining their health condition if they probably got down with the virus. With this out of the way, traveling will become much more feasible.

Even with the hope of a new vaccine, we have to ensure that we plan adequately for safety ahead of a trip. It would be best if you had all you will need while in another geographical location. You must get an international driver’s license in the likelihood that you will have to drive yourself around while on your trip.

Significant changes have begun already, with the news of the vaccine around the corner. We all cannot wait to experience our world once again, without the fear of a pandemic.

Archives, Commentary, Global Trade Daily

Why A Vaccine For COVID-19 Won’t Restore Small Businesses Overnight

December 17th, 2020 Terry Monroe Leave a comment

The vaccine for the COVID-19 virus recently began shipment. The Wall Street Journal states it will take until sometime in March of 2021 to vaccinate the first 100 million individuals with the highest priority of getting the vaccine. That would leave well over 200 million Americans still in need of the vaccine as we head into spring.

The stock market is doing very well as it hovers around 30,000 – an unbelievable achievement never seen before, even though millions of people have lost their jobs and people continue to lose their jobs on a daily basis. The stock market is based on the theory of expectation, and what it is telling us is that with a vaccine, the economy will begin to turn around and will be much better going forward.

But let’s look at this through the eyes of small businesses.

Outside of government, companies with less than $7 million in sales and fewer than 500 employees are widely considered small businesses by the U.S. Small Business Administration. And the expectation for small businesses to return to what we considered normal pre-pandemic is not going to happen anytime soon.

Here’s why. Multiple states have banned indoor dining at what remaining restaurants are still open. As of Dec. 1, nearly 17% of U.S. restaurants were “closed permanently or long-term,” according to a study by the National Restaurant Association. That percentage amounts to over 110,000 service-industry businesses across the country.

The last known numbers reported at the end of September for businesses in total that had closed were approximately 170,000. And since that time, the total has possibly exceeded 200,000. It is hard to determine how many people have been affected. In November 2020, the national unemployment level of the United States stood at about 10.74 million unemployed persons, which equates to a little over 10%. However, this number only tracks the number of people who are unemployed. It doesn’t record the people who are not drawing unemployment benefits and are out of work. So, in reality, the number is larger than the 10.74 million.

With businesses closing and laying people off, no jobs for people to replace what they lost, and no income for the owners of the businesses, vaccine or no vaccine there is not going to be anyone working to turn the economy around. It will take most of 2021 to make the vaccine available to the millions of people who will want it, but many of the unemployed still will have no work to go to after they get the vaccine and the economy continues to sit.

The economists tell us there will be a surge in business once a vaccine has been made available and administered to the public, but the numbers tell us differently. And here is the biggest kicker of all that the economists have not figured into the equation: People’s habits have changed over the past year.

People are not buying as many clothes as they used to because they have nowhere to go. There is little dining, virtually no entertainment, and no gatherings, so there is no need to buy new clothes. Fuel sales are down because people are not commuting to work like they used to. Any business or venue that needs a gathering of people to remain in business is either closed or ignored due to government restrictions.

It is obvious that small businesses are not going to return to pre-pandemic levels with so many businesses closed in such a short time period. We are looking at 2022 at the earliest before the idea of normalcy begins to occur. And when the economy does begin to turn around, some of our favorite businesses we used to visit will be gone. Businesses cannot survive as long as the states keep changing the rules, which creates volatility in the marketplace. Entrepreneurs and investors seek opportunities but shun regulation and volatility, which can disrupt the flow of business. We eventually will see a surge in small businesses opening, but until then small businesses are on a declining slope.

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Terry Monroe (www.terrymonroe.com) is founder and president of American Business Brokers & Advisors (ABBA) and author of Hidden Wealth: The Secret to Getting Top Dollar for Your Business with ForbesBooks. Monroe has owned and operated more than 40 different businesses and sold in excess of 800 businesses. As president of ABBA, which he founded in 1999, he serves as an advisor to business buyers and sellers throughout the nation. As an expert source he has been written about and featured in The Wall Street Journal, Entrepreneur magazine, CNN Money, USA Today, CEOWORLD, and Forbes.

Air Cargo, Archives, Global Logistics, Global Trade Daily, News

Chapman Freeborn on COVID-19 Vaccine Transportation: “We are in a ‘perfect storm’ scenario”

December 13th, 2020 Neil Dursley Leave a comment

With the first approved vaccine and a number of others in the final stages of testing, eyes turn to the aviation industry with a burning question – can it be transported? According to Chapman Freeborn, a worldwide market leader in aircraft charter solutions, vaccine transportation poses a number of difficult challenges but one that can be overcome with the right approach in place.

Currently, 58 vaccines are in clinical trials on humans, one of them is already approved for use in the United Kingdom and a few are already showing promising results. Pfizer, Moderna, and the University of Oxford vaccines proved to be up to 95% effective with the right dosage. While the trials are promising and the chances of returning to our normal lives are exciting, vaccine transportation might prove to be an overwhelming challenge.

“The main challenge that the aviation industry faces right now is planning,” said Neil Dursley, Chief Commercial Officer at Chapman Freeborn. “Currently we are in, what I would call, a ‘perfect storm’ scenario. The aviation industry, usually dominated and funded by passenger travel, is currently experiencing losses as the majority of those passenger fleets are grounded due to a lack of travelers. There has been an enormous demand for freighter capacity and huge global demand for PPE (Personal Protective Equipment) during the first three quarters of 2020, many of the Commercial Passenger Airlines converted their passenger fleets to passenger freighter aircraft by stripping out the seats and loading the passenger hold with boxes of PPE.

We are now in the ‘peak period’, where traditionally large volumes are flown from predominantly Asia to Europe and the United States, additionally, half of the Worlds AN124 (world’s largest freight aircraft) fleet grounded for maintenance, taking a large capacity away from the market, so the potential of an urgent need for Covid-19 vaccine transportation puts air freight industry in a difficult position,” Neil Dursley summed up the situation.

According to the experts, the biggest issue the industry will face is large-scale movement of vaccines over a short period of time. “We don’t have answers to many incredibly important questions yet. Where will it be manufactured? Will the vaccine require a single dose or multiple per person? What temperature will it have to be transported in? All these factors are important in preparing for logistics,” shared Chapman Freeborn’s CCO.

Vaccines, that currently show the most potential, have to be transported in a controlled environment, low temperatures. The most challenging to the industry would be the transportation of Pfizer vaccine that requires shipments to be transported in near minus 70 degrees Celsius (-94°F) temperature, while Moderna requirements are less stringent – ‘only’ -20°C (-4°F). The University of Oxford vaccines would be the easiest to transport as it can be stored in regular fridge temperatures of 2 to 8°C (35.6 to 46.4°F).

“Under normal circumstances, vaccines and pharmaceuticals are handled by approved Global Freight Forwarders. These companies have invested millions over decades in ensuring that their staff are fully trained and their facilities in strategic locations are GDP(Good Distribution Practice) accredited. Likewise, many airlines have also gone through this process to be CEIV (Centre of Excellence for Independent Validators in Pharmaceutical Logistics) accredited. However, depending on the temperature range of the vaccine, all aircraft capacity will be required to move this enormous volume.

Many airlines and other companies are getting ready to support this global logistics requirement and are upgrading facilities, testing ‘sky cells’ and ‘Envirotainers’. At origin points and destinations, once the aircraft are offloaded, the product will need to go into warehouses at airports with ‘Cool Chain’ capabilities. They will then need to be transported using ‘reefer trucks’ to ensure the integrity of this precious commodity so the entire supply chain needs to be working together. We have multiple Airlines within our Group of companies with multiple assets and capacity to support the global distribution of the vaccines and all supporting equipment combined with our many commercial Airline partners, ground handling companies and trucking networks. This is something that Chapman Freeborn and the Avia Solutions Group is working towards,” Neil Dursley explained.

About Chapman Freeborn

The Chapman Freeborn group was established in the UK in 1973. The company has offices worldwide including North America, Europe, Africa, Asia and Australia. In the cargo market, Chapman Freeborn Airchartering specialises in the charter and lease of aircraft for a wide-ranging customer base, including freight forwarders, multinational corporations, governments, humanitarian agencies and a host of industries around the globe. In addition to freight services, Chapman Freeborn offers specialist passenger services including private jet charters for executive travel and large aircraft for crew rotations and international group travel.

Chapman Freeborn is a family member of Avia Solutions Group, the largest aerospace business group from Central & Eastern Europe with 83 offices and production sites providing aviation services and solutions worldwide.

Avia Solutions Group unites a team of more than 7000 professionals, providing state-of-the-art solutions to the aviation industry and beyond.

For more information about Avia Solutions Group, please visit www.chapmanfreeborn.aero and www.aviasg.com