Galway, Ireland: The future of refrigerated transport is in good shape, says Thermo King in the laste issue of Cold Chain News, published this week.
Certainly from a financial perspective everything looks healthy, with the global market projected to grow from $15.5bn (estimated value for 2019) to $21.6bn in 2023, Thermo King says.
But aside from these predictions of growth, which equates to almost a billion US dollars a year for the next five years, what other factors are driving transformation across the industry? Thermo King considers seven major trends in 2020.
1 A stronger focus on food and pharma safety
Sure to be a high priority for cold chain distributors, due to recent changes that are encouraging significant upgrades:
• EU regulatory authorities also introduced new rules for pharma distribution (2013), requiring refrigerated transport for up to 80% of products and medicines
• In the US, the NDA has finalised new rules based on their 2011 Food Safety Modernization Act
• The big emphasis here is on traceability and standards, and being able to trace shipments back to source – alongside verifiable records showing that loads have been shipped at the proper temperature. Meeting this demand places the emphasis on strong telematics.
2 Connected insight
Connected Solutions, telematics, is another trend that’s generating a real buzz with distributors and their customers alike. This is because of the desire to put the vast quantities of data generated by cold chains to work in stimulating, smarter operations:
• Optimize routing, pick-up, and shipping configurations
• Monitor temperature conditions in a real-time, consistent way that can be clearly demonstrated for compliance
• Respond instantly to any potential issue to avoid spoilage
• Transform transport fleets for the challenges of inner-city distribution
3 Intelligent operations
Two other approaches to ‘putting data to work’ are analytics and artificial intelligence. Indeed, many commentators are predicting a greater emphasis on contextual intelligence to help reduce operating costs, better satisfy customers, and predict near/medium term futures.
Benefits include:
• Enhance planning of manpower and capacity requirements
• Anticipate service failures caused by weather, road works etc.
• Follow recommended ‘next best actions’ calculated by the system
4 Greater visibility
Continuing with the theme of technology in the cold chain, it’s also expected that cloud computing and IoT solutions will be big growth areas into next year. In fact, it’s estimated that the sector’s investment in this area will reach $40bn this year. The reason is simply the promise of greater visibility, accountability, and performance in both refrigerated transport and storage.
Many carriers already offer customers the option of remotely tracking the temperature of their shipments. With new IoT devices this also means remote alerts if conditions reach unsafe levels. With cloud and global 24/7 connectivity, logistics firms will become even more responsive to customer needs.
5 The expanded offerings of 3PLs
With logistics costs on the rise, many customers are finding it increasingly difficult to operate their own fleets. As a result they’re turning instead to 3rd party logistics providers (3PLs) and intermodal transportation to find new opportunities. In response 3PLs are ramping up the creative solutions and value-added services they offer, including:
• High-pressure processing for killing microorganisms for the food sector
• Sectional refrigerated trailers that can keep products in multiple temperature zones in the same trailer
Intermodal cold chain logistics are also on the up. This is set to continue this year as trucking capacity remains stretched, and supply chains continue on the path to being truly global. Hence the expanding role of sea, air, and rail transport.
6 Re-imagining the last mile
Maybe the area likely to experience the greatest levels of innovation is the ‘last mile’. Driven by regulatory concerns and changing consumer expectations, 2020 will see movement in areas that include:
• Rolling delivery robots that are already being tested on the streets of Europe
• Experimentation with flying drones – particularly for remote and rural areas
• Crowdsourcing, where people drive their own vehicles (like Uber) to deliver items in temperature-controlled packaging.
7 All-electric comes of age
Last but by no means least of the major trends for 2020 is electrification. This is of course not new: over the past decade, reefer solution providers have offered all-electric options. This is a trend that’s set to continue, with the refinement of units that don’t use a diesel engine to drive the compressor, and instead use a battery-based system.
The benefits of all-electric start with a compressor that uses fewer moving parts than traditional compressors. Add in electro-mechanical expansion valves, simplified wiring, accurate temperature sensors, and sophisticated control modules, and you end up with better temperature control, higher reliability, and fewer maintenance costs.
To get your copy of Cold Chain News call Tina Massey on +44(0)1326 340 or e-mail with you name, title, and business address: tina.massey@globalcoldchainnews.com.
