Measurement and Analysis of Physical and Climatic Distribution Environment for Air Package Shipment

Abstract

There has been a significant growth in the air package shipment business, which involves the multi-modal movement of a package in transportation and material handling systems that encompass conveyors, carts, trucks, delivery vans and aircrafts of various sizes and shapes. This study was aimed at establishing the ‘air package shipment’ conditions experienced by packages transported by air under ‘normal conditions of transport’. Air package shipment data (temperature, humidity, pressure, shock and vibration) were collected for several domestic and international routes through instrumented packages. The collected data were supplemented by previous research to measure and quantify this multi-modal shipping environment. This study also compared industry-accepted American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) pre-shipment test methods with the general requirements of package design qualification testing as outlined in 49 Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) Part 178, Subpart M. This review revealed that the design qualification testing for certain distribution-related hazard elements is not currently representative of the normal conditions of air transport. The data gathered in this study were analysed to represent the current ‘normal conditions of transport’, i.e. beginning-to-end delivery of air packages. The study used the time spent by the package in each of the segments of transportation to determine a ‘single profile’ or ‘test’ that would represent the average and normal expected levels for each hazard element and would serve as the basis of a minimum level for performance testing to establish normal conditions of transport by air. The recommended test methods and levels can be easily adopted by existing distribution packaging testing labs globally. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.