With a third pharmaceutical supplier announcing this week successful trial results of a COVID-19 vaccine, it appears a wide range of fleets, not limited to mega-carriers and possibly including non-refrigerated trailers, will play a role in nationwide distribution starting next month and lasting well into 2021.
That supplier, Astrazeneca, came under fire Wednesday after acknowledging an error in its study and other irregularities and omissions, it was widely reported.
Vaccines in the works by Astrazeneca and Moderna have much more lenient tolerances for temperature and time requirements than the first one announced, made by Pfizer. It requires distribution at -94 degrees Fahrenheit, which poses logistic concerns, though Pfizer says it has distribution plans in place.
Using separate mobile freezer units, Pfizer’s vaccine may able to be moved in trailers cooled to around -30 degrees Celsius (-22 Fahrenheit), which is not uncommon for refrigerated hauls.
“I think the big 3PLs, UPS and FedEx are already in contracts to haul for Pfizer and Moderna,” said Dwayne Cowan, a sales vice president with Thermo King, a major producer of mobile and fixed refrigeration equipment. DHL is also on that list, according to a published report.
However, with a target of reaching the entire population, “There may be opportunities for smaller fleets to support different parts of the supply chain,” Cowan said. The large carriers and 3PLs are no doubt “already working with multiple carriers to get their products to different locations.”
That’s especially true when it comes to the final-mile challenges of moving vaccines from larger cities to small towns and rural areas. In the case of Pfizer’s vaccine, that could prove quite difficult as points of storage and dosing lack the equipment or trained personnel to maintain the proper temperature over certain times.
