While it is still uncertain when the corona vaccine will be ready, the transport and logistics sector is already making preparations. Seventy companies have joined forces at the initiative of Schiphol, the trade association Air Cargo Nederland and KLM Cargo. The task force they have formed is to ensure that the vaccines are delivered to the right place quickly as soon as they are available.
Little known
“It will be a huge operation”, says Maarten van As, director of Air Cargo Netherlands, who heads the task force. “We do not know where it will be produced, we do not yet know by whom. We do not know what quantities it is, nor under what conditions the vaccines must be transported,” says Van As.
Because much is still unknown, the task force works with different scenarios. “That is the only way to prepare well.” This mainly concerns the manner of transport, storage and making customs formalities as smooth as possible.
Vaccine stored in dry ice
Especially the temperature at which the vaccines will have to be stored plays an important role in the preparation. “There is still a lot of uncertainty about this. There is talk of -20 to -80 degrees, but also a temperature of just above zero.”
Much depends on that difference in temperature, says John Twisk, director of Cyberfreight Pharma Logistics in Nieuw-Vennep, a company that focuses on the transport and storage of pharmaceutical products. Because: the colder, the more complex. “If vaccines are to be kept at -80 degrees, then a lot of dry ice is needed.”
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