The global shipping and logistics services company, which has headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia, US, announced the milestone a year after the first vaccine was delivered by UPS.
UPS says it was able to reach the milestone through its UPS® Premier tracking technologies, cold chain solutions and an expansive global network providing UPS Healthcare™ services to customers and communities around the world.
Chief Sales and Solutions Officer and Executive Vice-President, UPS Global Healthcare Kate Gutmann, said, “This milestone would not have been possible without every person in our global network working tirelessly, alongside our partners and customers, to accelerate vaccine distribution and help keep communities as safe as possible.”
UPS provided vaccines and cold chain expertise to countries with hard-to-reach populations. UPS Healthcare mapped roughly 500 trade lanes to enable worldwide vaccine shipments and used more than three million pounds of dry ice to help safely move vaccines.
UPS Healthcare President Wes Wheeler said, “Medicines derived from biologics and delivered via cutting edge cold chain networks represent the future of healthcare, and UPS Healthcare is leading the way.”
UPS says ultra-cold freezer donations and in-kind vaccine deliveries facilitated equitable distribution to remote and rural areas throughout Africa, South America, Asia, North America, and Europe, made possible by The UPS Foundation.
In November, UPS announced the opening of a new cold chain and packaging centre in Louisville, Kentucky, located on the UPS Healthcare campus near the Worldport® global air hub. The new Louisville facility joins existing cold chain facilities around the world, and is part of an ongoing, aggressive strategy by UPS Healthcare to expand its global footprint.
The overall market for cold chain services (packaging, transportation, and data services) is expected to significantly accelerate over the next three years, growing up to 24% by 2024, after posting a 10% increase from 2019 to 2020, according to UPS.