UPS says it has now delivered a billion Covid-19 vaccine doses – and with near-perfect on-time accuracy in just a year.
The global UPS network and dedicated UPS employees not only supported healthcare customers and global organizations, but also joined in public-private partnerships to provide vaccines and cold chain expertise to countries with hard-to-reach populations. To achieve this, UPS Healthcare mapped roughly 500 trade lanes to enable seamless worldwide vaccine shipments and used more than 3m lbs of dry ice to help safely move vaccines.
The carrier donated ultra-cold freezer and made in-kind vaccine deliveries to remote and rural areas throughout Africa, South America, Asia, North America, and Europe through the UPS Foundation.
It set up three regional 24-hour UPS Healthcare Command Centers to predict and manage global vaccine movement with contingency plans and solutions to mitigate the risks of extreme weather and other obstacles
It also partnered with the Gavi vaccine alliance in Africa and other organizations to train and manage ultra-cold vaccine movement and embedded UPS logistic experts in countries including Indonesia and Malawi to fully and safely manage vaccine distribution logistics.
It also delivered vaccines by drone to clinics in the US and Africa through the partnership between specialist delivery company Zipline and Gavi
Chief sales and solutions officer and executive vice president, UPS Global Healthcare Kate Gutmann, declared: “UPSers have been essential in the fight against Covid-19, delivering equitable access to critical healthcare services. 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.”