In pharmaceutical logistics, there’s no room for error. A temperature change can destroy a six-figure shipment or make medications unsafe for patients. Audit failures can result in serious penalties. And pharmaceutical companies will only work with carriers they can trust.
UPS Healthcare is one of those carriers. Leading multinational pharma companies trust them to transport their sensitive shipments — often exceeding one million US dollars in value — across the globe. When a shipment of life-saving plasma or vaccines needs to stay within a temperature range of -15°C to -25°C for the entire journey, every moment counts. So, when our long-standing Italian customer Vercesi became part of UPS Healthcare, they called on our expertise and support to strengthen their cold chain monitoring and compliance capabilities.
The company runs regular cross-border routes throughout Europe, so the first priority was addressing the 2G sunset. Switzerland has already shut down its 2G network, and plans to phase out 2G coverage across Europe are already in motion.
By upgrading to ZF’s latest SCALAR EVO onboard devices, both on trucks and trailers, they solved the immediate network issue — and ensured faster, safer, more stable connectivity for years to come.
But for a company committed to keeping 99% of shipments within temperature range, this was an opportunity to do something bigger: get ahead of pharma clients’ ever-rising demands for more transparency, more control, and more visibility.
Our solution captures certified temperature readings every six minutes, directly from the truck’s onboard recorder. That’s ten readings per hour instead of the usual four. And these are real-time readings, not 15-minute averages. This means that a brief temperature spike that would have gone unrecorded on a standard 15-minute printout can now be captured, documented, and acted on. For shipments where even a few degrees of deviation can spoil a product, this level of precision can make a world of difference.
The company now feeds the enriched temperature data directly into their clients’ own monitoring platforms. When a quality manager in Hamburg wants to check on a shipment crossing the Alps, they simply log into their own system and see temperature readings updated every six minutes.
This reduces the friction of constant status requests and deepens trust. Clients can see for themselves that protocols are being followed, temperatures are stable, and their products are travelling under the right conditions.
The system also addressed a requirement that might seem minor but is in fact critical: GDPR-compliant driver messaging. In the European Union, protecting driver privacy isn’t optional, and the company needed communication tools that meet regulatory standards without adding complexity. The integrated messaging solved that problem cleanly.
With this foundation in place, UPS Healthcare has even more advanced capabilities for reporting and quality for all cold chain needs. Clients can monitor shipments directly, which reduces phone calls, back-and-forth emails, and manual checks. The company is now exploring video telematics to add visual verification to their temperature data — providing an extra layer of assurance.
