If your small business is predominantly shifting goods that need to be kept chilled, your livelihood depends on ensuring that your chilled delivery service is capable of keeping its promises.
Chilled courier services are utilised by a wide range of businesses, and while uncooked meals, dairy products and other cold food items are probably what springs first to mind, there are plenty of other consumer goods that require a chilled transit.
Read on to discover more about the importance of chilled delivery services, explore the types of businesses that use this kind of service and get some information about the types of requests you can make to ensure your product arrives safely at its destination.
Who uses Chilled Delivery?
Cold chain shipping is an integral part of the supply chain for many small producers supplying supermarkets and restaurants all over the country. If your customers are waiting on your fresh oyster or your boutique ice cream flavour from the other end of the country, you will be totally reliant on an efficient refrigerated delivery system.
Product quality and freshness are paramount when shifting food around, so you must choose a courier who understands the importance of precise pickup and delivery processes. Outside of food, there are applications across floristry, medical and pharmaceutical supplies and the engineering and fishing industries – to name a few.
Types of Chilled Delivery Services
There are different types of chilled delivery services for items that need to be kept at different temperatures. You can opt for refrigerated delivery in a purpose-built van that keeps refrigerated goods at 5 degrees or lower, or for larger deliveries, you may need to book a temperature-controlled container. If you are looking at shipping frozen goods, they must be properly packed in insulated boxes with dry ice or gel packs and sent on a same-day delivery basis.
Shipping Rules
New Zealand has very specific regulations around food safety and hygiene for regional shipping and export. It’s important that you do some research about what is required from you in the way of licensing and certifications. You must also understand your obligations as a small business and your responsibility to ensure that the company you use for chilled delivery services complies with food safety and hygiene standards.
Coverage & Service Area
Along with enquiring about compliance, you should also shop around to ensure that your courier can service your key markets and cover all the geographic areas you are looking to supply. If you want to move goods across both islands, it’s imperative that you choose a courier that runs chilled goods swiftly between regions, has an urgent service priority system that you can access, and that you can be assured of same-day, door-to-door deliveries that never fail.
Reliability & Reputation
Choosing the right chilled delivery service could spell the difference between success and failure for your small business, so make sure you do your homework. Urgent Couriers has been in the chilled delivery business for over 25 years; we have strong networks, extensive experience, and references and reviews to back our work. Check out the testimonials on our website to better understand what we offer our customers in the way of exceptional, reliable service that literally goes the extra mile.
Monitoring & Controls
Chilled items need to be kept at a steady temperature across the entire journey, so when they leave your premises in one of our vehicles, we have systems that ensure your delivery arrives in pristine condition. Our team is trained to carry out strict monitoring and documentation processes, and you can access our documentation on request to ensure that processes are being adhered to.
At Urgent Couriers, we also have strong emergency response protocols, so if a breakdown occurs across the system, there is a response triggered immediately to ensure that your goods are taken care of.
Flexible Approach
When you are looking to build a strategic partnership with a chilled delivery service, you need to know that they have strong systems and processes. You also need to know that there is a certain level of flexibility and customisation built-in that will allow them to address your unique needs. It may be that you always send the same products, or there may be instances where you have an unusual request, so it’s good to know that alongside safety and reliability, you can rely on your courier to be able to shift gears when it’s necessary – even at short notice.
Customer Focused Service
Alongside flexibility, monitoring and the right coverage area, you want to be sure that when you – or your customers – reach out to your chilled delivery service, they will be responsive and fair and that they are focused on providing 100% customer satisfaction. While nothing in life is perfect, Urgent Couriers aim for perfection every day – and we hit it more often than not. We provide 90-minute local deliveries, an easy to use App, nationwide coverage, and we have over 500 dedicated couriers on our team.
Get in Touch
If you are ready to experience exceptional service that includes instant tracking through every stage of the journey, it’s time to talk to Urgent Couriers.
We offer same-day and urgent delivery, only send your product out with professional drivers, and ensure our business reflects well on yours with safe, reliable shipping available to all our valued clients.
Partner up with New Zealand’s best chilled delivery service to elevate your shipping game and ensure freshness every step of the way.