From now on, trans-o-flex ThermoMed, the specialist for actively temperature-controlled logistic solutions for the pharmaceutical industry, not only offers the shipment of the products at a constant temperature of between 2 and 8 °C but has also extended its services to include the range of between 15 and 25 °C. "Following this step, we meet all logistic demands that the pharmaceutical industry makes on the trans-o-flex Logistics Group: actively temperature-controlled shipments in the two required temperature ranges taken over by ThermoMed as well as the shipment of temperature-insensitive products taken over by trans-o-flex Schnell-Lieferdienst", says Carsten Glos, Managing Director of trans-o-flex ThermoMed. Both areas include the transport of parcels and pallets. "Our customers are now offered the complete service from a single source". The necessary capacity extension and re-organization was completed in less than six months.
In order to enable the closed cooling chain for both temperature ranges, trans-o-flex ThermoMed, from June 2009 onwards, re-organized its complete depot network as well as its entire vehicle fleet in Germany. The company acquired more than 100 new Mercedes-Benz Sprinter transporters with a specific chamber construction featuring two variable cold-storage cells arranged one by one. Depending on how many parcels are to be transported at either temperature, it is possible to move the partition wall between the two chambers. An additional fleet of more than 200 two-chamber vehicles is provided by Rhenus Life Sciences, which was acquired by trans-o-flex ThermoMed in July 2009 and discontinued its independent operations in September 2009.
With respect to the depot infrastructure, the company doubled its cargo-handling capacities at the 38 depots. A new module for the handling of the 15-to-25-°C shipments was put into operation in addition to the already existing handling module for the 2-to-8-°C goods. While the vehicles currently still dock directly to the cold-storage cells, these units will soon be connected by an additional handling module set up in front of the cold-storage cells. This module's gates offer enough space for both docking articulated lorries and transporters. This accelerates the handling process in general and also facilitates the sorting of palletized goods. The technology was tested and further developed within the scope of a pilot project that took place in the summer of 2009 in the company's location in Weinheim. From October 2009 onwards, the optimized depots will successively be put into operation in all locations of the ThermoMed network so that the whole re-organization will presumably be finished in the 1st quarter of 2010.