For some years Envirotainers have been the standard in specialist containers for the shipment of perishables. First with its dry ice and battery models, and since 1995 with its RKNe1, a condensor-driven active heating and cooling container, the Swedish company has dominated the market. But now new entrants are coming into the market offering rival products and businessmodels.
Examples include Unicooler, which is backed by Lufthansa; Skycooler which uses containers made by Van Riemsdijk (see separate story); and the AcuTemp RKN Thermal Pallet Shipper, which ismarketed by AmSafe Bridport.
The AcuTemp product, which is now undergoing final FAA certification, is a condensor-driven container, like the RKNe1. It can run on battery or mains electrical power and can maintain temperatures from minus 4 degrees C toplus 25 degrees.
Steven Boyd, US director of sales for AmSafe Bridport, explains that it also uses a new insulation material called Thermocor, which has 5-7 times the insulation power of the conventional polyurethane. Though it is also a little heavier, the Thermal Pallet Shipper uses a thinner layer of it, giving three times the insulation properties with noweight penalty.
Like the RKNe1, but unlike conventional battery and dry ice Envirotainers, the AcuTemp product also includes integral data loggers, which record container temperature, ambient temperature, all opening and closing of doors, and whether the condensor is being powered by battery or mains electricity. This data can be uploaded at the end of the journey to provide a full audit trail for the consignee, something that is increasingly vital for the pharmaceutical shipments at which the AcuTempcontainer is aimed.
One other thing that makes the new container different from Envirotainers is that it is being offered to airlines and forwarders on a long term leasing model– that is on leases of a month or more,compared to the single trip pool modelpioneered by Envirotainer.
“The market is moving away from the trip lease model,” says Boyd. “There are significant issues around it and doesn’t always work the way it’s supposed to. Airlines prefer to have their own stock.” Ian Kentfield, Sri Lankan-based director Asia for AmSafe Bridport, agrees. “These containers are expensive assets and you need to get the best utilisation from them that you can. But the best people to do that are the airlines themselves.”
He declines to say if the Thermal Pallet Shipper is cheaper than the Envirotainer, but does admit that “if we offered 3-5 day leases with the global network that entails, our rates would certainly be much more expensive, because after a 3 day lease it can take up to two weeks to get the container back into position.” He anticipates great demand for the Thermal Pallet Shipper in Asia, pointing to the booming pharmaceuticals industry in India and China, and the use of countries such as Thailand to conduct clinical trials.
“These trials generate a huge amount of activity, with drugs coming in, being sent to remote areas, and results then sent back for analysis,” he says. “The value of products moved can be over $200m for a single pallet, so the cost of using the RKN container is insignificant.” – Peter Conway
