Lack of proper cold chain infrastructure has been many-a brand’s greatest nightmare always. As a home delivery customer, melted butter, melting ice cream and refrozen meat are also your worst nightmares. Cold chain infrastructure problems are not new to any of us. With the increased focus on vaccine distribution and greater reliance on home delivery, this issue has been brought to the fore-front now.
Cold chain infrastructure problems arise mostly in tertiary and last mile distribution in India. Temperature controlled distribution of the last mile segment is not supported by conventional units as they cannot work on capacities smaller than a 1-ton vehicle. The currently available active cooling solutions for cold chain distribution require a continuous power source from a vehicle and runs on diesel, making them very expensive. Given the small package sizes, the large costs incurred in transportation makes conventional solutions unviable for most stakeholders forcing them to break the cold chain or use potentially hazardous substances like dry-ice* especially towards the consumer / retail end of the chain. This severely impacts product quality and creates opportunities for spoiling customer experience.
