All thawed out
Life sciences as a cold chain development is getting tossed around more and more as the year kicks off. Most recently DHL Supply Chain announced it was investing $200 million to expand health care and life sciences capabilities in the U.S.
This investment will include five more warehouses by the end of the year. The warehouses will be built in Pennsylvania and North Carolina. The two locations were chosen because of the pharmaceutical hubs and research facilities in the surrounding areas.
Jim Saponaro, the president of Life Sciences and Healthcare for DHL Supply Chain, said in a Supply Chain Brain article, “Resilient life sciences and healthcare supply chains are critical to the well-being of communities around the world.”
Temperature checks
Valentine’s Day has come and gone, and florists around the globe are breathing a sigh of relief after the delivery of millions of flowers. Long before everyone starts preparing for next year’s holiday, let’s look at what happened to make this year’s go off without a hitch.
Giving flowers to a valentine dates back to the 17th century. King Charles II of Sweden learned the “language of flowers” on a trip to Persia and brought it back to Europe. Thus the tradition of giving red roses to symbolize deep love was born.
Fast forward to 2024. There are nearly 250 million roses grown in preparation for Valentine’s Day every year. From the time the flowers are cut, there is a very small time window to get the flowers to their destinations before they start to wilt.
The main hub for flowers coming to the U.S. is Miami International Airport. Eighty-five percent of cut flower imports enter through the airport, where they are inspected and shipped on refrigerated vans across the country. Ordinarily, there are seven flights a day from Latin America dedicated to flowers for that airport alone. During the Valentine’s Day season, that can increase to 35 flights a day.
It’s high stakes but when it’s February and freight volumes leave a little to be desired, it’s a good gig for reliable carriers.
Food and drugs
Speaking of increasing refrigerated freight hitting the market, for carriers for the Taco Bell world, there is some demand coming down the pipe. Channeling its inner tech bro, Taco Bell held a “Live Más Live” event, where it recognized Taco Bell consumers and announced innovations. Honestly, it’s the biggest flex for any fast food chain, and I am sad to not have attended in person.
This year, Taco Bell announced the following new and returning products:
- A new value menu, with 10 items priced at $3 or less – including a chicken enchiladas burrito.
- A chicken and steak enchilada grilled cheese dipping taco.
- Ducle de leche Cinnabon delights.
- Nacho fries out longer, with the end goal to be a permanent year-round offering.
- A secret Aardvark fry sauce collaboration.
- Customer voting on the Mexi-melt or the caramel apple empanada, with the winner brought back on Halloween.
- A cheesy chicken Crispanada, available now.
- A cheesy street chalupa.
- Chicken nuggets.
As with most of Taco Bell’s new releases, demand rises quickly. Any carrier currently working in or hoping to be in the Taco Bell network for the year should look to get involved now.
Cold chain lanes
This week’s SONAR market is none other than the home of all the flowers, Miami. Both reefer outbound tender volumes and reefer outbound tender rejections are on a downward trend. That trend is typical for this time of the year given that we’ve passed Valentine’s Day and demand is returning to normal. Reefer outbound tender rejection levels have dropped 84 basis points week over week, coming in at under 1%. That news should make any shipper happy as almost all reefer freight being tendered is getting picked up.
Is SONAR for you? Check it out with a demo!
Shelf life
Ryder continues shift toward less reliance on leasing, talks up Cardinal
The solution to feeding the world lies in the cold chain
30,000 vaccine doses to be tracked through Rwanda’s cold-chain system
The Light Load: It’s a mad, mad, mad, mad supply chain world
Wanna chat in the cooler? Shoot me an email with comments, questions or story ideas at moconnell@freightwaves.com.
See you on the internet.
Mary
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