Cross-border movement adds two risks that domestic lanes do not have: unplanned dwell at a customs boundary, and the handover between modes. Both are solved with power and paperwork rather than cleverness.
Power continuity
A reefer container is only refrigerated while it is plugged in or its genset is fuelled. Our quayside and border yards run powered plug fields with generator backup and a monitored plug-in confirmation for every unit, so an unplugged box raises an alarm within fifteen minutes rather than being discovered on arrival.
Documentation before departure
Health certificates, veterinary attestations and origin paperwork are cleared before the unit leaves the origin hub. A container held at a border for a document problem is a temperature problem waiting to happen. The trace on this page shows exactly that: a fourteen-hour unplugged dwell during an inspection, peaking at −15.4 °C.
Transfer discipline
- Temperature-matched transfer chambers at the border cross-dock.
- Plug-in confirmed and logged within ten minutes of gate-in.
- Set point verified against the booking, not against the previous shipper.
