Two minutes with Tom Weir, CSafe COO

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Two minutes with Tom Weir


ACW: With the mass roll out of vaccines, what has demand been like for temperature controlled ULDs in Q1/2?  

Weir: Obviously, some demand is coming from COVID vaccine distribution, however, many of our customers continue to ship other necessary pharmaceuticals and are constantly developing new therapies to bring to the world. These customers account for the vast majority of container demand.

ACW: What new products/ developments is CSafe working on? 

Weir: CSafe is constantly innovating on behalf of our clients and for the pharmaceutical industry as a whole to fill existing and future needs to safely transport pharmaceuticals. We invest heavily to ensure everything we bring to the market is the best in the industry and we’ll happily share those innovations and advancements when they are ready.

ACW: Can you explain how CSafe’s real time visibility platform works?

Weir: It begins with the integrated tracking device that we continue to retrofit into our existing fleet every new container we manufacture has the tracking device built in. While this device will not transmit data during flight, it does immediately download all data monitored during flight once the plane is on the ground.

During land transit the device continuously delivers location and condition data to the cloud-based visibility platform, which provides real-time alerts and monitoring to ensure end-to-end visibility. Customers can see route deviations, ambient and internal temperature data, when container doors are opened, shock and tilt events and more. This year we are expanding this offering into both our parcel and cell and gene product lines.

ACW: How is the company adapting existing products to be compatible with this system?

 Weir: Our entire active fleet is being retrofitted with the integrated tracking device to ensure compatibility with the cloud-based system.

ACW: Why is real-time visibility so important to customers?  

Weir: Real-time visibility is something pharmaceutical customers have wanted for quite some time. Given the average volume of vaccines and other pharmaceuticals lost to spoilage during transit each year, real-time visibility not only allows for intervention to preserve a payload, but also relevant data to help determine the cause of any spoilage so it can be prevented in the future.

ACW: How will this tracking platform evolve?

 Weir: As with any software platform, basic feature upgrades and enhancements are delivered regularly. Once the platform is available across our entire portfolio of products later this year, we’ll begin working to deliver on our roadmap of strategic upgrades and offerings through the visibility platform.