15. February 2023

High fuel prices put a strain of medical laboratories using car couriers

Michael Hauenstein Autor: Michael Hauenstein
Kategorie: Sustainability in express logistics, Transport & Logistics

Diesel and petrol prices are a central cost factor for companies that rely on road transport. Companies active in the road transport industry pass the soaring fuel prices on to their customers. Medical laboratories that use an internal courier service cannot pass the steadily rising fuel prices on to their customers. The internal courier service comes under growing pressure because there are cheaper, more environmentally friendly and faster transport solutions.  

Fuel prices will remain high for the foreseeable future

In Switzerland, fuel prices are rising to levels never seen before. The determination of fuel prices depends on various factors such as product price, transport costs, the US dollar exchange rate and local competition. Therefore, experts believe that we will also have to deal with high petrol and diesel prices in the future. This is mainly due to unstable economic development, higher inflation and supply chain disruption. For this reason, the price of road transport is constantly rising.

High fuel prices burden medical laboratories that rely on car couriers

A laboratory’s internal courier service is expensive and delivers late

Some medical laboratories have a courier service with their own fleet of vehicles and their own couriers. In this case, the increased fuel prices cannot be passed on to customers so there is pressure on the margin instead. The in-house courier spends the day on the road and drives from clinic to clinic collecting laboratory samples. Road transport is becoming more and more expensive and taking longer and longer. The reason for road transport becoming more time-consuming is the growing levels of congestion since there is too much traffic on Swiss roads.

Petrol price development in Switzerland

Fast, environmentally friendly and affordable laboratory logistics

To get around soaring fuel costs and growing levels of congestion, various medical laboratories have come up with clever transport solutions for their much-needed laboratory samples. A special piece of software from swissconnect determines the fastest and most environmentally friendly mode of transport. Long journeys are covered by train and the first and last miles are handled by bike messenger when possible. If this is not possible, a car courier handles the first leg before the item is loaded on the train. Find out which Swiss laboratories already make use of this unique transport system and what the benefits are HERE.

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