- Aug 21, 2024
- 3 min read
Maintaining the cold temperature during the delivery of chilled and frozen food and pharmaceuticals can be ensured by predicting, monitoring and analysing temperature parameters and route data in real time, according to DODO, the experts in smart logistics solutions. The company has recently invested nearly 40 million HUF to reduce the ecological footprint of its transport refrigeration processes. The innovation, which replaces the use of dry ice, reduces the carbon dioxide emissions associated with keeping temperatures low by at least 150 tonnes per year.
The summer months bring increasingly hot weather and longer heat waves: July 2024 was the hottest July on record in Hungary since 1901, with an average temperature of 24.53°C, 3 degrees above the average July temperature between 1991 and 2020. There has also been a spectacular increase in the length of heat waves, with July this year being the longest, most intense and highest temperature period ever. Large cities are particularly affected by summer heatwaves, as paving materials used to build roads and houses absorb much more heat than natural surfaces. In Hungary, 72% of the population live in cities and more than two thirds (69.7%) regularly use the internet for shopping, which means that goods ordered have to be delivered in the metropolitan areas most affected by heat waves, which poses new challenges for the delivery of chilled goods.
Both for food safety and the usability of other products requiring refrigeration, such as medicines, it is essential to maintain a controlled temperature logistic chain. To this end, DODO, which specialises in last-kilometre, same-day delivery, uses innovative solutions that enable it to predict and continuously monitor in real time the external temperature, expected delivery times, road traffic information and the capacities corresponding to the refrigeration needs of each product.
Relying on its proprietary data-driven platform, the smart logistics provider can guarantee that the optimal temperature for the transport of chilled or frozen goods is ensured even during prolonged extreme heat waves. Couriers carefully measure the temperature of goods both when receiving and delivering different items, which is not only important for the safety of maintaining the cold chain, but also to improve data analytics. In addition to foodstuffs requiring refrigeration, DODO also assists its partners in the delivery of over-the-counter medicines, which also require a precisely defined storage temperature.
The smart logistics provider has recently implemented a major improvement to ensure that its refrigeration solutions for the transport of goods have lower emissions than ever before. An investment of nearly 40 million HUF has been made to ensure that the temperature in the cargo hold is kept low by using special deep-frozen "Delta T" refrigeration units. Until now, these units have been used mainly in the pharmaceutical industry for the transport of laboratory samples and various pharmaceutical products. With the introduction of this new process, DODO's door-to-door delivery services will become even more environmentally friendly, as it will result in at least 150 tonnes less carbon dioxide emissions per year compared to the dry ice used previously.
"The increasingly intense summer heat is creating challenges for the transport of goods requiring refrigeration that can be effectively addressed by using data-driven solutions that can predict and analyse multiple parameters simultaneously. Thanks to our latest development, we are able to maintain the cold chain in the hottest time of the year in an environmentally friendly way, with an even lower ecological footprint than before, so that our couriers deliver goods, whether frozen food or pharmaceuticals, at the right temperature every time," said Lukáš Gold, CEO of DODO Hungary.
