Taiwan government-sponsored Industrial Technology Research Institute's (ITRI) Service Systems Technology Center (SSTC) has developed a cold chain logistics solution based on sharing of cold chain logistics resources.
Supermarket operators face two major problems while establishing cold chain logistics systems: huge cost for freezing warehouses and low-temperature trucks; and maintainig quality of all fresh food because optimal temperatures vary from product to product, SSTC said.
To solve the problems, SSTC has set up a service platform to integrate cold chain logistics resources for sharing through collecting information on available freezing warehousing units and low-temperature trucks. The platform then matches the supply with demand for cold chain logistics services to reach efficient sharing of cold chain logistics resources, SSTC indicated.
Such a sharing-based solution is operated on a cooperative basis, with four local fresh food store chains and 14 operators of cold chain logistics services having participated in the program, SSTC said. The solution has resulted in 25% decrease in overall cost for cold chain logistics services, SSTC noted.