Over $500K a year saved shifting international air shipments from active to passive pallets

A multi-billion dollar pharmaceutical manufacturer shipping temperature-sensitive products internationally, with drug product stored in vials that has to be maintained at 2 to 8°C.

Pharmaceutical cold chain, where there is little tolerance for temperature variation and the cost of getting it wrong is the product itself.

To determine if passive shipping systems could reliably sustain 2 to 8°C, it was necessary to analyze dozens of different factors, including all storage and transport legs and method of cooling at each building, flight and truck; time for each leg; efficacy of holding the temperature; and every cost element to ensure an accurate cost comparison. Larger-sized passive pallets are relatively new, so significant data had to be gathered from vendors on packing methods and materials.

Trans-solutions determined that, for the specific lane examined, annual savings of $203,000 was possible with a shift from active to passive pallets for a percent of shipments.

The analysis clearly indicated the criteria required, product type, origin, airport used and transit time, to trigger use of a passive pallet option. That means the client can apply the decision themselves on lanes we never looked at.