While waiting an extra day for a package sometimes feels like your soul’s dying, the reality is waiting doesn’t hurt you. That doesn’t hold so true in the world of medical couriers.
Waiting even a few extra hours means the difference between viable medical supplies and a loss of life. That’s one reason that express medical courier services are booming right now.
With demands not just in time, but in the ways medical products are handled, this industry will see continued growth.
Read on to understand more about the pressures and demands of the medical courier field.
Why Medical Couriers?
The demand for last-mile delivery has created an intensely intertwined network of delivery streams. Most of these focus on speed, sacrificing elements of quality while making guesses at future needs.
Some goods are more commonly ordered at certain times of the year. This foreknowledge allows logistics companies to stockpile goods in the proximity of where they’ll eventually go.
Though there are some seasonal stockpiles that the medical industry can predict and accommodate for, such as flu season or spring allergies, most goods need to travel from manufacturer to endpoint rapidly.
Industry Pressures
The interval between an item being ordered and its arrival can come down to minutes. This means that medical couriers need to be ready and have contingency plans to avoid delays.
An iced-over airport or traffic jam can’t stop the delivery of organs or tissue samples. No excuse will ever seem reasonable with stakes so high.
Overcoming these challenges on the fly is why delivery and logistics knowledge matters. Click here to see how Mobile One deals with some of these challenges.
Time and Temp
Unlike most goods being shipped, medical supplies can’t weather a few bumps on the road by adding padding.
While some medical goods have long shelf lives, the ones that don’t aren’t simply fragile, they’re volatile. Even a few minutes outside of an ideal temperature range drastically reduces the efficacy of some medications.
IN the case of recent vaccines, going outside of the safe range means losing millions of life-saving doses.
Organs only remain viable for short periods of time. Any trauma to the package risks causing damage to the organ. Outside of a body they also risk picking up infectious agents. Even contact with the air risks the health of a recipient.
Industry Benefits and Future
Specialized services require ingenuity, planning, and capital to be successful. With the demand for medical courier service so high, the profitability and growth are built-in.
Trusted brands become trusted through a history of delivering excellent results. Given the risks, this also allows them to charge a premium for that trust.
North America features more state-of-the-art medical manufacturing plants and researcher laboratories than anywhere else in the globe. This creates opportunities for North American companies to take the lead in distribution and medical courier developments.
Worldwide Daily
Even though medical couriers face significant challenges, they reap appropriate rewards for their efforts. With increasing demand and an ever-changing landscape, it’s an industry to watch.
For more information about business, health, and more, check out our other articles.