Perfectly chilled food delivered directly to the doorstep in the shortest possible time at unbeatable prices: That's what Max and Erika Mustermann expect from the refrigeration logistics of the future. Not feasible? With great challenges comes the opportunity for sustainable improvement! We show which trends the temperature-controlled logistics 2023 will not only be safer, but also more cost-efficient .

Refrigerated logistics for food 2023

Better, faster, cheaper: According to a study by management consultants McKinsey & Company, the online grocery sector is set to grow again this year. But that's not all: Max and Erika Mustermann not only plan to have more of their groceries delivered directly to their doorstep, but they also want to save money in the process and reserve as small a time window as possible for delivery.

The McKinsey study, which involved 10,000 consumers in ten European countries and 48 CEOs of the European food retail industry , examines the long-term consequences of the pandemic year 2020 for the food retail industry and analyzes the change in consumption behavior, which will pose new challenges for temperature-controlled food logistics in particular from 2022/2023. As key findings of the study, the consultancy summarized:

• Increasing price sensitivity: 37% of respondents said they pay more attention to price when buying food and want to save in the future.
• Greater awareness of quality: 34% of respondents said they would place greater emphasis on the quality of their food in the future.
• Growing lifestyle awareness: 58% of respondents said they would like to adapt their food purchases more to their lifestyle in the future.

With regard to the future of refrigerated logistics, the growing e-commerce for food is particularly significant. The study concludes that the Corona-induced shift from bricks-and-mortar retail to online purchasing will continue in 2023, but that many companies are not yet able to cope with the rising demand.

What refrigeration logistics must achieve in the future

While grocery retailers face the future challenge of expanding their online assortment and optimizing the shopping experience for users, retail and freight forwarding companies must find ways to ensure fast delivery times and the lowest possible cost per delivery to the door.

However, this is easier said than done, because the route to the end consumer, the so-called "last mile," is currently the most expensive and inefficient route in the entire supply chain for temperature-controlled food logistics. In order to remain competitive in the future, retailers and logistics companies must therefore find ways to sustainably reduce their sustainably reduce their refrigerated transport costs.

Last but not least, more online purchases in the private sector not only mean potentially higher costs for delivering companies, but also increased traffic in metropolitan areas and significantly greater environmental impact due to more actively refrigerated food transports (more on _{CO2 emissions} in food transport).

Here, too, refrigeration logistics will have to break new ground in the future in order to meet consumer demands. Daniel Läubli, McKinsey partner and co-author of the study cited, summarizes the situation as follows:

"The speed and magnitude of these changes will completely reshuffle the cards in food retailing [...]. Those retailers who boldly step ahead to address the big trends have a great opportunity to gain market share.'"

The 3 trends in refrigerated logistics

Retail and logistics companies that want to defend their place in the refrigerated logistics of the future will have to adapt to greater pressure on margins and more complex consumer requirements. They must therefore not only find ways to sustainably reduce their own costs, but in the future they must also be able to respond flexibly to customer needs without jeopardizing the quality of the goods. In this context, three major trends are emerging for 2023 that could make (frozen) refrigerated logistics not only more consumer-friendly but also more cost-efficient in the future.

Passive cooling on the last mile

The handling and transport of temperature-sensitive foods in Europe is governed by a number of legal regulations such as Good Manufacturing Practice( GMP), Good Hygiene Practice (GHP), the Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point (HACCP) concept, and the use of the Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point (HACCP). HACCP concept and the Food Hygiene Regulation are regulated. The common denominator of these regulations is compliance with the cold chain along the entire supply chain. For this purpose, logistics companies currently mainly use actively refrigerated transport vehicles.

While active cooling with a permanently installed power unit is difficult to replace on longer transport routes, it is not necessary for last-mile transport. Companies can both save high repair and maintenance costs and reduce their_{carbon footprint} by switching to passive cooling for delivery to the end customer.

Of particular interest in this context are transport boxes that reliably cool the goods without a power supply and in compliance with HACCP. As an expert for passive cooling solutions has developed temprify has developed (freezer) boxes for this purpose, which keep the goods at temperatures ranging from -25 °C to +25 degrees Celsius for up to 96 hours.

Since our declared goal is a sustainable last mile we also completely dispense with the use of dry use of dry ice. The above-average cooling capacity of our passive coolers is achieved by using powerful, maintenance-free cooling accumulators.

Refrigerated transport with electric vehicles

The idea of using electric vehicles for cooling transport is not new. However, it has not been possible to implement it profitably so far because the power unit for active cooling significantly limits the range of the traction battery. Here, too, switching to passive cooling can significantly reduce the cost per delivery.

For passive cooling of electric vehicles, we have developed rollable cooling modules, the so-called tempriRackshave been developed. These are charged in the temprify cooling container (more information about our pre-cooling infrastructure) and then simply pushed into the cargo space of any insulated vehicle. With regard to the future of refrigerated logistics, we see the following advantages in this solution:

• Smaller e-vehicles or cargo bikes are more flexible and can help reduce traffic, especially in urban areas.
• The increased use of electric vehicles leads to a reduction in traffic noise, as passively cooled e-vehicles not only get their cargo from A to B with zero emissions, but also silently.
• The increased use of electric vehicles for last-mile delivery helps to sustainably reduce _{CO2 emissions in} food transportation (switching from active to passive cooling saves about 65% of a company's annual_{CO2 emissions}). 

The cooling solutions for vans developed by temprify provide another important argument for the expansion of e-mobility in temperature-controlled transport: Our cooling modules have a similarly high energy density as Li-ion batteries, but are maintenance-free and extremely durable. This means that in the future, retail and logistics companies will no longer need to install Li-ion batteries, whose production is resource-intensive and unsustainable due to the short service life of the end product.

Pick-up stations and Click & Collect

In principle, of course, it is important to avoid empty runs and duplicate journeys as far as possible. This is not only important for the quality of the goods, but also essential with regard to the volume of traffic in our cities. In order to avoid transports without loads, logistics companies should cooperate more closely in the future and coordinate their deliveries wherever possible. In the future, delivery services could avoid duplicate trips by depositing the goods directly in refrigerated collection stations for pickup after the first delivery attempt.

Another trend in refrigerated logistics is click & collect. The click-and-collect principle saves transport distances and offers consumers the opportunity to flexibly integrate pickup into their daily routine. Retail companies can save the high acquisition costs for actively refrigerated pickup stations by relying on high-performance passively refrigerated storage containers here as well.

We see a pick-up station of a somewhat different kind in Asia. There, the convenience store 7-Eleven has been setting up refrigerated vending machines with selected products in busy residential areas for several years now. Such a solution could also help relieve the pressure on delivery services and traffic arteries in Europe.

The Future of (Deep)Refrigeration Logistics

Another change is emerging in the future of refrigerated logistics: safety is more important than ever before. This applies not only to product safety during transport, which is ensured by a consistent consistent temperature monitoring This applies not only to product safety during transport, which will become even more reliable in the future thanks to consistent temperature monitoring, but also to the storage of temperature-sensitive foodstuffs.

Companies active in refrigerated logistics face the challenge of not only operating their refrigerated and frozen storage facilities as energy-efficiently as possible, but also reliably protecting them against power outages. Here, too, we offer an ideal solution: with temprify, the cold storage facility becomes a buffer store for renewable energy. Our sustainable cooling elements serve as latent heat storage for solar and wind power, do not require maintenance and guarantee a stable energy supply even in the event of a blackout.

To the one-stop store for sustainable, cost-effective cooling solutions!

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