Logistics, a system with no guarantees, can still encounter challenges even when every person involved is executing their role perfectly. This unpredictability is particularly evident in cold chain packaging and winter shipping. Without acknowledging the potential factors that can disrupt winter shipping, a logistics enterprise may find their shipments unprepared for cold chain packaging challenges such as:
Road Blocks
There are some instances where severe winter storms can block roads, thus making it impossible for road-based vehicles, like freight-hauling trucks, to take their usual route or even start a journey. It’s important to remember that even with good cold chain packaging, it has no bearing on the power of winter storms to make normal shipping routes inaccessible.
It’s crucial to have contingencies in place to compensate for potential delays. Even rail lines are not immune to this, as extreme cold can cause tracks to crack and become unsafe for trains to travel or risk derailment. Storms can be just as risky for maritime shipping, forcing ships to either reroute or delay travel to avoid putting cargo at risk.
Accidents
Sudden storms can also affect roadway conditions, which, even if they don’t affect a vehicle itself, may still have an impact on the road. For example, if sleet or frozen roads cause a traffic accident that involves multiple vehicles and blocks the road, this can still have an impact on logistics that can no longer access that road.
Worse yet, vehicles can be subject to accidents themselves. Even a heavy freight-hauling truck is not immune to losing traction in icy road conditions, possibly even leading to sliding off the road and damaging whatever is shipped inside.
Cold Chain Packaging Preparation Is Crucial
These reasons are why it is important for logistics businesses to never operate under the assumption there is no need to prepare for emergencies. The unpredictable nature of winter conditions from year to year and even week to week means that logistics businesses that prepare for these events will suffer the most.
Cold chain packaging is one such contingency businesses can take. With proper insulation in packaging, the appropriate shipping temperature for cargo, whether that is warmer or cooler, is preserved within the shipping environment. This means that even in the event of a delay or a disruption to external environmental temperature maintenance systems, the cargo inside retains its optimal shipping temperature.
If you’re shipping temperature-sensitive products and want to know the best way to get those products to their destination safely, we can help. Contact us to explain your shipping needs and obtain a quote.
