AsstrA Goes the Exta Mile to Keep Cargo Extra Cold

During a pandemic, delivering deep-frozen cargo from one continent to another is an emergency request. The cargo, medical research supplies, needed to be shipped in temperatures no higher than -70 °C. Due to the complexity of organizing direct delivery from the USA to Belarus, AsstrA developed a combined three-stage scheme.

The first stage included auto delivery of the cargo to the airport in San Diego. This was followed by air transportation to the airport in Warsaw and final delivery by truck to the end consumer in Belarus. The AsstrA team instantly organized the collection of cargo from the United States and specified the appropriate storage conditions. To ensure the cargo’s safety, the experts organized regular temperature monitoring and replenishment of dry ice during transportation.

“The key success factor for such a transportation project is to correctly select the required amount of dry ice, monitor it at every stage, and add to it if necessary. At the sender’s warehouse, the delicate products weighing 5 kg were packed in a thermal box filled with 52 kg of dry ice. This amount was enough to deliver the goods without violating the temperature regime. However, to minimize risk, the team topped up the dry ice before the cargo was loaded onto the aircraft,” shares AsstrA Pharma Logistics Sales Specialist Anna Kurlovich.

 

Delivery of the cargo from the sender to the airport in the United States took 2 days. Air agents refused to take responsibility for the delivery of cargo to the final Belarusian recipient. Therefore, the task of finding and organizing delivery to Belarus fell to AsstrA.

“The cargo arrived in Warsaw with dry ice losses not exceeding 5% in its special box. Even so, to provide an additional layer of insulation around the box, the team picked up the cargo with a vehicle designed to maintain temperatures of -25 °С. Thanks to the cooperation with a trusted transport contractor who has specialized in such transportation for many years, the cargo arrived at its destination without visible ice loss,” comments Irina Seredich, AsstrA Groupage Department Freight Forwarder.

 

After 24 hours, the products were delivered from Warsaw to the Belarusian destination address. The thermologist confirmed that the temperature during transportation had not been above -74 °C.

“When transporting this type of goods, it is important to take into account possible complications and be prepared for each. Cargo may not depart or arrive on time. It may be delayed at the airport or at the border. But when we need to maintain a temperature of -70 ° C, every hour of waiting becomes "worth its weight in gold." The client’s successful project was built from numerous elements, like a mosaic. There were clear step-by-step instructions, monitoring and accountability at each stage, additions/repackings of dry ice, verification by thermologists and, of course, well-coordinated AsstrA teamwork in the USA, Poland, and Belarus,” sums up Mariya Vabishchevich, air freight forwarding agent.