There’s plenty of ways to transport medical supplied from point A to point B. To make sure your supplies, samples and records get where you need them to in the most efficient possible way, you should take certain aspects of your courier’s business into account, one of which is their fleet.
Does your courier own their own fleet? What kinds of vehicles do they use? How have they assembled their fleet to ensure you’ll get the quality transportation service you need without overspending? This week, we’re talking about the importance of choosing a medical courier with the right fleet, what to look for and why.
Company-Owned Fleet
The first thing you should check when deciding on your medical courier service is whether or not the company actually owns their own fleet of vehicles. When courier services don’t own their own fleet, it’s typically an indication that the company may be young and inexperienced—far from the qualities you’re looking for when considering who you’ll trust to transport sensitive medical supplies and information.
Choosing a courier who owns their own fleet means choosing a company who has thought through every aspect of what a vehicle offers, including things like fuel efficiency and reliability. Better gas mileage means you’re not paying more for inefficient vehicles, and reliability ensures your deliveries make it on time, every time.
Tracking Capabilities
Couriers, and medical couriers specifically, need to be cautious about tracking orders to ensure on-time, confusion-free delivery. Ask your courier whether or not you’re able to track the progress of your orders as a client or if only the dispatchers are privy to that information. At ProMed Logistics, our customers can track our drivers in real time at every turn, so they always know the current location and ETA of their delivery.
Climate-Controlled Vehicles
When shipping medical supplies, medications, samples or other healthcare items, there’s often a need for refrigeration or climate control. Regulating the temperature of a delivery requires specialty vehicles, and those vehicles require extra inspection and care to function properly. Always ask a medical courier if they have at least one vehicle with climate-control capabilities. Preferably, they’ll have more than one so you can rest assured a climate-controlled vehicle is available whenever you need one.
Nights and Weekends
Some industries can utilize courier services which don’t offer night or weekend services—the medical industry is not one of them. Patients don’t need their medications “next week” or “first thing Monday morning.” They need medications now, whether it’s 3 p.m. on a Wednesday or midnight on a Saturday. That’s why it’s crucial to make sure the courier you choose can use the vehicles in their fleet at all times and always has drivers and dispatchers on call—even at odd hours. The ProMed Logistics team is available 24/7/365 to ensure patients get their medications when they need it, not just when it’s convenient.
Vetting the fleet capabilities of your medical courier is crucial to understanding the quality of service you’ll receive. Call ProMed Logistics to talk to us about our fleet capabilities, and you’ll understand why we’re the Nebraska medical courier that’s trusted from Omaha to Lincoln, Kearney, Hastings and beyond.