Cold Chain Shipping Innovations: South Africa is Getting Onboard
The cold chain shipping market and the demand there-of is growing, especially in South Africa. The logistics around cold chain storage and shipping is a key part of ensuring your temperature-sensitive goods remain in top condition during transit, and reach their destination at their highest quality.
What this means for cold chain shipping services in South Africa, is that we have to be onboard with the latest technology and innovations, in order to ensure our clients are adequately serviced. It’s no secret that there has been huge investment in cold chain warehousing and storage facilities by major players in the shipping industry this year, so let’s take a deeper dive into what cold chain storage and shipping is and how South Africa is getting onboard.
Cold chain shipping services entail transporting temperature-sensitive goods from point A to point B. This includes items such as food items, pharmaceutical products. Any product that requires controlled temperatures is considered a temperature-sensitive item. This logistical process of cold chain shipping services includes the warehouses, or facilities, where the goods are stored, through to the transport used for distribution.
As with all things, technology is constantly being advanced and providing the cold chain shipping services industry in South Africa with ample opportunity to provide the highest quality services, and state-of-the-art facilities to its clients.
Let’s take a look at 3 innovations within the cold chain shipping industry that are making waves:
1. Highly intelligent refrigeration technology
The number one (and most basic) factor to consider when it comes to cold shipping innovations is that of refrigeration. Without this you have no service whatsoever, and improving the refrigeration has been a massive and integral advancement for cold chain shipping.
An overview of updated technology on cold chain shipping services in South Africa:
- State-of-the-art fridge units: the evolution of refrigeration units over the years has meant far more consistent and reliable services. Updated progress includes better insulation, energy efficiency, and accurate control of temperatures. Thermoelectric coolers and absorption refrigerators are some examples of this new technology.
- Energy efficiency and environmental friendliness: we recently wrote an article that spoke to the rise of ESG policies, and as such, being energy efficient and environmentally friendly in cold chain shipping services in South Africa, places your company in a good reputational space. Solar powered refrigeration and phase change materials (PCMs) both provide an answer to the above dilemma.
- Impact on operational costs and your carbon footprint: advances in technology are present to improve efficiencies and save costs, yes, but they are also vital to lower energy consumption, reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
2. The Internet Of Things (IoT) and active monitoring
Whilst refrigeration is the number one factor to consider in cold chain shipping and storage, being able to monitor and improve refrigeration through advanced technology is incredibly beneficial.
Two innovations shaking up the industry:
- IoT devices: when you think of IoT devices, think of smart technology that will make life a lot simpler! Here we’re referring to smart sensors and RFID tags that will help you continuously monitor temperature, humidity and other conditions of your cold chain shipping services. Technology is built to improve our way of life, and what better way to improve things than to hold it all, and control it, from the palm of your hand.
- Real time monitoring: a lot of the above allows you to do everything in real time. What does this mean? Essentially, you can monitor, activate and change things such as temperature and humidity in your cold chain storage with the touch of a button. Alerts will come through to you to let you know of changes in the cold chain environment, and you are able to take corrective action immediately. This minimises your risk of spoilage and ensures you are always adhering to laws and regulations.
3. Blockchain technology
According to Amazon Blockchain technology ‘is an advanced database mechanism that allows transparent information sharing within a business network.’ Essentially the data is stored in ‘blocks’ that are linked like a chain. In the cold chain shipping services industry in South Africa this provides ample opportunity to improve and provide a more secure way of doing business.
Reasons to be utilising Blockchain technology:
- Logistics: As a decentralised method of recording transactions, your data integrity is sure to be maintained. Over and above this due to the information sharing and storage all actions are traceable – providing you with peace of mind and more security.
- Traceability: every time cargo is moved or transactions are made it is recorded on a blockchain. This means that it can’t be altered by human intervention, meaning less room for human error, and to top it off, the action is always traced back to its place of origin. Blockchain provides a trail that can be audited and protects all involved in the process.
- Compliance and trust: we’ve all heard the saying ‘we’re all human’, and yes we are. We’re prone to making mistakes. Implementing Blockchain technology in your cold chain shipping services reduces this potential of human error, increasing trust between all parties. Added to this compliance is almost a guarantee, with a record of all actions being stored.
The above are just three ways in which innovation is certainly shaking up the cold chain shipping services industry in South Africa. In years passed, many pharmaceutical products and fresh produce have been ruined, with millions lost due to poor cold chain shipping issues. Today with both the private and public sector on board there are many innovative projects on the go, and already active, with huge investment in shipping preservation. Whilst we are still rattled with energy and electricity issues across the continent, great strides are being made to combat this and implement innovations that will transform cold chain shipping services, improve product life spans and ultimately benefit the economy as a whole.
Inter-sped is your partner in the warehousing of pharma care and cold chain storage, as well as the distribution of these goods throughout South Africa, and across the world. Our team of experts in freight forwarding will help you tailor a solution for your perishable food shipments through world-class refrigeration in storage, through to air, road and sea freight.
Shipping refrigerated items is a skill that Inter-Sped has proudly mastered over years of experience and practice and we continue to strive toward providing our customers with the highest care in their temperature-sensitive goods.
