When it comes to shipping medical and pharmaceutical products, commercial air cargo is often the best alternative. The ecosystem of shippers and receivers for these life-saving products is spread out all over the country and there are no centralized routes between hospitals, operating rooms, universities, pharmaceutical companies, and research labs that need this precious cargo. 

Time is also of the essence, as is the need to maintain strict cold-chain compliance. So when a highly valuable, highly perishable item - such as an organ for transplant - needs to cross the country in a matter of hours, commercial air cargo can be the only game in town.

Fortunately, a number of commercial airlines are adopting asset tracking technology to monitor the location, temperature, pressure, humidity (and other metrics) of cargo shipped via their airlines. 

Earlier this morning, United Cargo, the world’s largest belly carrier, announced that it is accepting OnAsset (News - Alert)  Intelligence’s M2M-based asset tracking devices across its entire mainline jet fleet of more than 700 aircraft. 

United Cargo President Robbie Anderson said in a statement that the new asset tracking technology brings a greater level of visibility and piece-of-mind to United Cargo’s UASecure High Value, QuickPak, EXP Express Service and TempControl programs. 

United is the second major airline to announce acceptance of M2M-based asset tracking technology. Last July, Southwest Airlines announced a similar program to accept the OnAsset SENTRY tracking devices. 

The key to both of these announcements is a patented technology called FlightSafe, which enables the asset tracking devices to automatically suppress their wireless radios to an “off” mode, ensuring safe and FAA-compliant operation during flight.    

As a result of this technology, both United Airlines and Southwest are providing their customers with visibility and response capabilities in the event of a breakage or temperature alert during transit. This M2M-enabled “peace-of-mind” is an essential business driver for increasing the volume of medical and pharmaceutical cargo that can be shipped on commercial air carriers. 

Anyone interested in learning more about this technology can see it firsthand next month at the M2M Evolution event in Miami Florida. Additional details are available at: www.itexpo.com