Logistics solutions for the COVID-19 situation. 117 years in the making.

We're committed to using our resources in any way that is needed to deliver the vaccine to locations like low income countries where infrastructure is lacking. We work with 343 ports and terminals, each of which is equipped with Reefer plugs. Also, every one of our Reefer containers is GDP compliant. This means that wherever there's a Reefer plug, we can offer the local community a cold chain storage facility.

Today, the world is leaning towards Air transportation because of its agility. When vaccine volumes shoot up, cargo airlines will turn to their commercial passenger counterparts, as they always have, to deliver on their promises.

The way we see it, the reality of the task at hand and our customer's needs will define which mode of transportation we use. Our strategy will always be to correctly modulate the flows within a supply chain by picking the right mode of transport for the right time.

For instance, for customers looking to serve cross-continental locations where infrastructure is lacking, shipping could play a key role. In areas within the same continental land mass, possibly going through a second phase of the pandemic, air will be our preferred mode of transportation.

When speed and economic feasibility need to go hand in hand, Air Freight becomes an important piece of the logistics puzzle. We use it strategically to time our customers’ deliveries. Not just when they need quicker response times, but also when reducing inventory is a priority. Needless to say, for the critical transportation of the COVID-19 vaccine, we are committed to using our global Air Freight network to ensure fast and efficient deliveries.

There's more to vaccine distribution than simply managing the cold chain. Multiple supply chains carrying syringes and PPE required to administer the vaccine, need to work in harmony.

For every pallet of vaccine, a 40-foot container of syringes needs to be transported just to make sure that all vaccines can be injected. Scale this up to 10 billion doses, and we could find ourselves in the middle of an enormous flow control challenge.

Here's where our end-to-end capabilities come in. Not only do we have the depth of expertise and the width of resources to synchronise systems and processes, we're doing everything we can to develop robust flow control plans for our partners. One way in which we strengthen our plans is by rigorously stress testing non-live cargo. This helps us not only to anticipate problems but also to experience them and find practical, economically viable, and scalable solutions.

At Maersk we've always believed that there's no such thing as too much care. So, when we started preparing for the COVID -19 vaccine distribution, we brought some of our top talent together. It soon became clear to us that any solution we envisioned needed to be quick to implement and yet work in the long haul.

A completely novel solution could create new challenges like the need to train a large number of stakeholders within a very small timeframe. On the other hand, utilising our tried and tested network in innovative ways, would enable us to do what we do best and help the world heal.