Do you ship temperature sensitive products?

[doc_choc]

We sell chocolates and continually monitor the weather conditions for shipping to ensure the product arrives to the customer in top quality. We monitor our dispatch location and the delivery location weather conditions. 'Fortunately' we do not have extremely hot weather here in the UK (we get the odd hot weather spike) and the duration the product is in the postal system is less than 24hrs.

I was wondering how other businesses around the world in bigger countries, with more extreme weather deal with shipping temperature sensitive products such as ice cream, chocolates, cheese, candles etc?

[AdamB]

I'm curious about this, too. I've ordered Italian sausage and ice cream and both came boxed in a foam container packed with dry ice. Now that I'm thinking about, I might need to get more of both. 😂

[doc_choc]

@AdamB ,ice cream the scientists have you covered there, apparently its possible make an ice cream that doesn't melt for up to 24hrs outside of the freezer. Sorted. As for Italian sausage, might be easier to buy yourself field and pig! 😁

Geek stuff....made using similar tech to 'pykrete' (whole interesting story in itself), fruit fibres added to the ice cream mixture before freezing it, helps insulate from the inside and allows it to withstand 24 hours outside the freezer. 🍦

[Hailey]

This will be a future fun fact for me to share! 🤣

[AdamB]

Fascinating... was it still safe to eat during that time frame?

[Sam_400º]

I had gelato issues when my supplier started delivering it. They did it on their own refrigerated vans, but seemed to always leave me to the last drop off of the day and I kept having to refuse it as it had melted. 

Eventually they got their act together though! 

[Sam_400º]

It was worth it though! 

 

[dimo10]

looks delicious 😋

[dimo10]

Always have to be firm with suppliers if they are not delivery the goods

[isabelle]

Great q @doc_choc !!

@JG_Brewing I feel like you have to ship temperature sensitive products, right? @JessPoynter are any of your products temperature sensitive? 

[JessPoynter]

@isabelle Somewhat? I have to put hazardous material stickers on packaging when shipping my aerosol cans. Overall, though, no, I don't have temperature sensitive products when it comes to shipping. Now, obviously, with the hazardous sticker, it sends the message 'don't keep in a hot car for an extended period of time because it's flammable' -- I'm assuming. 🤷‍♀️

[Minion]

I personally don't, but I did pick up a plant for my girlfriend last March, being cooler temps they did pack some what packs in with it (separate charge of course).  They also waited until the beginning of the week to ship it out, so it didn't sit in a cold truck or warehouse longer than needed.

[doc_choc]

@Minion, have to say I didn't think about the challenges of shipping plants. I guess some are Hardy than others. 

We generally do a free upgrade to 24 hour shipping during warm times, it just gets the package through the system quicker. The problem is it may be 20 to 25'C outside, but if it hangs in a delivery van for a few hours midday it can be disastrous for chocolate. 

But thankfully it's chocolate and it makes people happy so customers are always nice when hot weather hits.

[dimo10]

The upgrade to express is a great idea with the warmer weather

[dimo10]

have you tried putting a cool pack or ice pack in the packaging to see what effect it has on the chocolate?

[HC_Charlie]

I've ordered from a few meal/grocery delivery services, and they usually ship from regional hubs in areas around the U.S. All of my boxes have been "insulated" with a padded, silver colored foil material that keeps cold inside, along with some frozen ice packs. Boxes usually arrive with the ice packs not totally melted, and it seems to keep produce and meats at a good temperature.

[DinaLRosenberg]

at one point we were selling eucalyptus bundles. We made sure to ship them priority to get them to the customers as quickly as possible.

[maxpete]

+1 to this! My wife ships live succulents and definitely need to send priority to make sure it gets there on time.

[tranguyen]

Such a great question @doc_choc and not something I've ever really thought of.

Curious to know too if you shop around for delivery partners to ensure optimal delivery time, or have you always use the same delivery partner since the beginning? We have had a lot of issues with different delivery services in Ireland (FastWay and GLS being one of the worst, from general consensus!) so wanted to hear how it is like for you!

P.S: I still need to try your chocolate salami!!

[doc_choc]

@tranguyen we try not to move service providers where possible. We have used a couple over the years, they all have their positives and negatives so we normally just adapt our business to their limitations. It usually comes down to the quality of the services when items are lost, cost is another big driver and also ease of use of their portals when handling fulfilment as this can be time consuming and a significant cost to the business if too clunky. We had a lot of issues a couple of years back with industrial strikes affecting services on the run up to Christmas, many companies then moved to other courier services only to find these services were overloaded due to the reduced capacity in the system which caused headaches in itself. 

[maxpete]

This is a great question! My wife ships succulents and live plants across the US and it definitely is a science behind packing them so that they stay in great condition for travel, but also when to ship them to better optimize for delivery. We'd love to ship international but unfortunately the product just wouldn't make it in time. BUT, she is working on having products with longer shelf life such as moss kits so that shipping won't be such an issue anymore!