trans-o-flex launches Pharma Service for B2C customers

Transport should not jeopardize the effectiveness of medications: Therefore, the express service provider trans-o-flex is now making deliveries to private households possible nationwide in temperature ranges of 2 to 8 and 15 to 25 degrees. The Corona pandemic has intensified the trend towards mail order with direct delivery of medications to the end consumer.

(Weinheim) The express service trans-o-flex, specialized in the transport of sensitive goods, especially in the pharmaceutical and health sectors, is now offering the B2C Pharma service, which has been developed for the actively temperature-controlled shipping of medications to end customers. “We are receiving more and more inquiries, for example from mail-order pharmacies, for whom untempered or only passively cooled shipping with a regular parcel service is too uncertain regarding the effectiveness of the medications,” says Wolfgang P. Albeck, CEO of trans-o-flex. “Therefore, customers can now also use our entire range of actively temperature-controlled services for shipping to end customers.” The timing for the service expansion has been deliberately chosen. “The mail order of medications has significantly increased during the Corona pandemic, and this trend seems irreversible,” says Albeck. “Therefore, it was time to offer a safe transport alternative for private deliveries in the room temperature range, where the majority of medications are transported.” The service is not limited to specific regions but is offered nationwide within 24 hours. A temperature profile, where the recipient can also view the temperature of their shipment throughout the entire transport, is also part of the offering.

Deliveries to private addresses as a separate offer

With B2C Pharma (business to consumer), trans-o-flex continues its strategy of specifically expanding the service for deliveries to private households in selected areas. Already in 2018, the express service, which transports most shipments between companies (B2B – business to business), included deliveries to private addresses as a separate offer in its product portfolio. This service is now being expanded, allowing customers to also choose the complete range of active temperature control for private deliveries.

“As a market leader in the area of nationwide transport of shipments for the pharmaceutical and healthcare industry, we see it as our duty to open our network for 2C shipments in the room temperature range to ensure with our active temperature control that the effectiveness of the medications is not jeopardized by excessively high or low temperatures during transport,” says Albeck. Trans-o-flex had demonstrated in 2020 with around 153,000 systematic temperature measurements in the cargo area of untempered trucks that there are practically no days in Germany when there is not a significant risk of falling below or exceeding the temperature range of 15 to 25 degrees Celsius, in which most medications can be transported without compromising their effectiveness.

Without temperature control, it gets too hot in the vehicle

The measurements showed that the temperature in the cargo area of an untempered vehicle follows the rise in outside temperatures throughout the day without significant time delay. However, the cargo area does not heat up slowly and parallel to the rise in outside temperature; instead, the temperature inside rises partly exponentially in relation to the outside temperature. Already at an outside temperature of 16 degrees, temperatures of more than 25 degrees were recorded in the cargo area in ten percent of all measurements. And at an outside temperature of 23 degrees, temperatures of over 50 degrees were measured on the loading areas. Additionally, the safety of the medications is jeopardized by significant temperature fluctuations, such as during weekend transports or night transports, where it is not uncommon for sub-zero temperatures to prevail in the cargo areas of untempered trucks.

Photo: © trans-o-flex