Refrigerated transport is used to maintain a cold or frozen temperature for products during shipping, from food to medicine. It can be expensive due to fuel costs and special precautions, but is essential for industries such as healthcare and food.
Refrigerated transport is a form of climate-controlled transport that is designed to maintain a cold or frozen temperature, depending on the product being transported. The development of refrigerated transport was a key step in the development of modern food safety, as this form of transport ensures that food is kept at safe temperatures as it is shipped, and has a number of other uses, from medicine even physics. Many shipping companies offer this type of transport for an additional cost, and some companies actually specialize in refrigerated transport.
Many people have engaged in the cruder form of refrigerated shipping, which involves packing the temperature-sensitive product in a cooler or box with ice packs, dry ice, or loose ice. The ice maintains the cold temperature during shipment for a period of time that can vary from a few hours to a few days. This can be used to move a small amount of a material, such as refreshments for a picnic or biological samples from an outbreak site.
On a larger scale, refrigerated transport requires a refrigerated vehicle. Refrigerated trucks, rail cars, and cargo holds use massive compressors and refrigeration equipment to maintain a constant temperature that can be adjusted to accommodate specific products. For example, some vaccines need to be shipped at very cold temperatures, while products simply need to be kept below room temperature so they don’t age too quickly or rot.
This type of transportation tends to be fuel intensive, as energy is needed to keep the shipping container cool during transit, especially if freezing temperatures are needed. Fuel costs and the base cost of building a refrigerated unit for shipping can make refrigerated transportation more expensive than conventional shipping, especially since the shipping company may also have to take special precautions. Refrigerated trucks, for example, are generally not driven in extremely hot climates, because the cooling system could potentially fail when faced with very high temperatures.
Most users of refrigerated transport are large companies and institutions, because individuals rarely require large volumes of refrigerated materials. Hospitals and medical research facilities rely on this type of transport for specialized medical supplies such as vaccines and drugs, while scientific researchers use refrigerated transport to transport certain chemicals and supplies that are vulnerable to temperature variations. Refrigerated transport is also a big part of the global food industry, ensuring that fish, meat, dairy and fragile products can be safely transported over vast distances to satisfy hungry consumers.
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