Smart reefer containers gain demand amidst disruptions

The global Covid-19 crisis has highlighted the importance of refrigerated container logistics to keep vital supplies of food and medicines, including vaccines, flowing around the world as nations locked down.
While temperature-controlled goods have indeed kept flowing, the pandemic triggered an ongoing cascade of disruptions to the bigger container shipping system that so many perishable producers, exporters, importers and supply chains now rely on. That includes delayed, diverted and rolled shipments, port congestion, landside logjams and shortages and displacement of empty reefer containers due to a clogged global maritime transport pipeline.
Real-time visibility and remote control are key drivers for today’s accelerated digitalisation in reefer container operations and the broader cold chain, not only because of the huge global vaccine distribution challenge but perhaps even more so to manage supply chain delays and disruptions impacting cross-border flows of food and other perishables.