By Eamonn Ryan
Cold rooms, trucks and display cabinets often perform well when assessed in isolation. According to Johan Ferreira, joint founder of Cold Cubed, the real problems emerge in the handover moments – the transitions between pack house, truck, distribution centre (DC), and store.
© Cold Link Africa
These are the weak links where temperatures spike and product quality silently deteriorates. Ferreira refers to this as handover latency or dwell time: the period when product is stationary, waiting to be moved, often in suboptimal conditions. Live temperature traces from Cold Cubed’s systems reveal a repeating pattern: controlled conditions at the supplier, a short, well-managed truck trip, effective cooling at the DC, and then sharp spikes during loading, unloading, and store receiving.
In one example, a truck was clearly not pre-cooled before loading, despite policy stating it should be. The data showed a noticeable temperature bump as product was outloaded into a warm truck. Later, at each store delivery, doors opened and temperatures rose again around the product. A second store, which handled product faster, produced a smaller spike – demonstrating how operational discipline directly impacts temperature exposure.
While a few degrees might not look dramatic on a graph, Ferreira explains that for meat and microbial growth, small increases matter. Microbes begin proliferating more aggressively once temperatures reach around 3°C, and growth accelerates significantly at 6–7°C. Even short periods at elevated temperatures can meaningfully shorten shelf life and increase spoilage.
The human factor is central. Ferreira has seen cold chain product left outside in the sun for more than two hours before store staff accept it. Without live data, such incidents remain invisible. With continuous monitoring and time stamps, managers can see exactly when and where product was mishandled, and who was on duty.
To mitigate these handover risks, Ferreira recommends:
- Using wheels, not handballing: Pallets, rolltainers, and other wheeled solutions move faster and reduce dwell time.
- Proper docking stations: While not perfect, docks that seal to trucks dramatically reduce heat ingress during loading and unloading.
- Facility design: Positioning cold rooms close to offloading areas minimises travel distance through warmer zones.
- Operational accountability: When dashboards are visible to all staff, everyone can see the impact of open doors and delays, making cold chain performance a shared responsibility rather than a hidden technical issue.
Ferreira also highlights infrastructural vulnerabilities: generator failures during load shedding, fuel shortages, or simple oversights. Without visibility into how long systems were down and what temperatures products reached, managers are forced to either discard large volumes “just in case” or unknowingly send compromised goods to market.
Live tracking across every handover point turns these blind spots into manageable events. Instead of speculation and blame when something goes wrong, companies can perform forensic analysis, understand exactly what happened, and adjust processes, training, or infrastructure accordingly.