Moving anything from A to B under time and cost constraints can be a stressful business, but when managing the condition of what is onboard is at stake, the pressure continues to build. Temperature-controlled transport solutions and innovations are becoming more and more apparent, as operators find novel ways to control temperatures, improve efficiency and reduce waste in the event of an unplanned scenario while out on the road.
For example, Webfleet’s new Cold Chain platform provides real-time monitoring to give fleet managers visibility over temperature conditions across refrigerated trucks, vans and trailers. This technology not only ensures product quality but also enables operators to act quickly if temperatures slip out of range – preventing spoilage, reducing waste and safeguarding customer trust.
“Transporting temperature-sensitive goods – from food to medicines and electronics – requires precise control and monitoring. Even slight temperature fluctuations can lead to damaged goods, rejected deliveries and financial losses – not to mention risks to public safety. For fleet operators, ensuring consistent cold chain compliance has become a high-stakes challenge,” reasons Beverley Wise, Webfleet's regional director for Bridgestone Mobility Solutions.
One of the standout benefits of such platforms is simplified regulatory compliance. With detailed temperature records readily available, businesses can provide proof of consistency upon delivery, avoiding potential disputes or penalties.
Additionally, by centralising management through a single platform, operators streamline operations and enhance efficiency across their fleets.
“For businesses navigating the complexities of temperature-controlled logistics, telematics solutions such as Webfleet Cold Chain are more than an operational tool – they’re a strategic advantage,” argues Wise. “By protecting cargo quality and minimising risks, these innovations can help businesses stay competitive, while meeting the rising standards of sustainability and safety.”
PODS AND PERISHABLES
On the subject of sustainability, Coolrun has created pods that are designed to decarbonise food logistics and reduce the dependency on refrigerated vehicles.
Offering 30 hours of constant temperature control, the versatile pods can be loaded onto a vehicle by forklift or wheeled on, depending on the customer or product. Being pallet based, they can fit into a pallet network operation and are designed to fit into a standard trailer on, for example, an 18-tonner.
“Our solution isn’t designed to replace the articulated truck: what we are more centred on is the first mile and last mile elements of delivery,” explains Doug West, CMO at Coolrun. “Some operators need a fully refrigerated vehicle, even if only 40% of the capacity is taken up with chilled or frozen products.
“One of our clients has a 70:30 split of ambient to frozen products, but he has to freeze the whole truck, which causes a problem. They can’t freeze the ambient product so the company is wasting a lot of money in the process by running a truck that is needlessly producing more emissions than it should.
“Using our pods means operators have got scalability to use as much capacity as is necessary for that part of your truck, rather than just having a single solution.”
The wheeled-base version is particularly useful to multi-drop operators and can help with issues around congestion and costs. “If you‘re making a kerbside delivery to, say, Costa, you can take off an entire pod from the truck, wheel it into the store and then go to your next drop,” says West. “It can be simply wheeled around the store and even be used for the stocking and restocking – essentially it’s a mobile fridge for customers.”
Key to the temperature control is a thermal battery that sits at the top of the pod. West says that the company has patents pending around the air flow within the pod, which is necessary to ensure there is no stratification of temperature in the enclosed space. There are different zones within the pod, for multi-temperature options, and everything can be directly controlled via an app, which allows users to check on the temperature in real time.
“There is a lot of IoT technology in there, including how often and how many times the doors are opened, full visibility of the inside temperature and where the pod is, because it‘s got a GPS tracker,” explains West. “So, potentially from farm to fork, you‘ve got full visibility of your product, meaning that you know your compliance against the requirements for food service.
“At the moment, where something is transferred from one vehicle to another vehicle – or sat in a dock – you don’t have all the information you need. Using a pod, you know the full story and a lot of supermarkets are interested because they have to mitigate that risk and have a duty of care to customers regarding food safety.”
As the temperature-controlled transport industry experiences a transformation, Carrier Transicold is one of the companies leading the way in engineering innovations. One example is the company’s Vector HE 17 refrigeration unit, designed with advanced drive technology.
“The E-Drive 3.0 inverter system constantly adapts and optimises the system’s scroll compressor speed and energy consumption to match the required cooling demand, reducing fuel consumption by as much as 30% compared to the legacy Vector 1550 it replaces,” says Scott Dargan, managing director for the UK and Northern Europe at Carrier Transicold.
“This is a real step change in technology, and it also delivers improvements in weight and cooling efficiency. Weighing in at 720kg, this grants operators either an additional 110kg of payload allowance or reduced traction energy compared to its nearest competitor unit. Its cooling output has also been raised by 5% in diesel and 16% in electrical mode, while it also offers a 6dB(A) reduction in noise emissions compared with the Vector 1550.”
FUTURE BENEFITS
Dargan believes that telematics will play an increasingly important role in temperature-controlled logistics. “Our Lynx Fleet telematics system is now factory-embedded in all new Carrier Transicold units, allowing temperatures and routing to be monitored from anywhere in the world.
“Users can also operate their systems remotely, implementing defrosting and other functions. Geofences can also be set up so that delivery arrivals can be notified.”
It‘s not just on the temperature side that Lynx Fleet can deliver benefits, however, says Dargan. “A key point of focus is around energy management and sustainability,” he reasons. “For example, one area where savings can be achieved is by flagging any units that are being switched to continuous engine run on frozen operations. By allowing the engine duty cycle to be changed over-the-air to start/stop instead reduces fuel burn and lowers carbon emissions.
“Lynx Fleet can also identify instances where perhaps a yard shunter has dropped a trailer on the dock and hasn’t plugged it into the electrical standby system, switching it to run on diesel instead,” he adds.
“This can be around three times more expensive than running it on electricity, not to mention noisier, increasing the unit’s maintenance requirements while also creating direct engine emissions.
“Instead, Lynx Fleet alerts can automatically highlight this situation in real time, allowing for immediate interventions to be made on-site so that the power source can be changed before the savings opportunities are lost.”
Refrigeration gases are also a key area of focus for Carrier Transicold. “On our trailers, a single-temp fridge system can contain 5.5kg of refrigerant, while a multi-temperature unit would have upwards of 7.3kg,” explains Dargan.
“If using the refrigerant R452A, for example, each kilogram that escapes to atmosphere equates to 2.1 tonnes of CO2. Compared to R404A refrigerant, which is still widely in circulation, the impact is close to twice that.
“To combat this, we are introducing a new option in the Carrier Transicold trailer range, classified as a Low GWP refrigerant, which is initially being rolled out to our Vector HE 19,” he reveals. “Its key advantage is that it has a carbon impact that is 89% lower than that of the R452A gas, which is currently in use across the industry.”
