As a biotech or life science company, you understand the importance of outsourcing activities to CROs and CMOs to accelerate research and development and scale up your manufacturing operations. However, shipping is often an afterthought in this process. You may rely on your CRO or CMO for shipping, but you might lose transparency into the shipment status, estimated delivery times, or any issues that may arise during shipping.
With Mercury, you can simplify your logistics needs and gain peace of mind. Our team is experienced in handling sensitive research materials, including those that require temperature-controlled environments or other special handling. Our team ensures compliance with industry regulations, streamlining the shipping process and allowing CROs to focus on their critical research and development activities.
We offer GPS tracking and monitoring, ensuring that your materials are always accounted for and delivered on time. We use specialized packaging and shipping solutions to protect your materials from damage or contamination during transit. Mercury excels managing shipments across the entire spectrum of cold chain temperature ranges, from controlled ambient conditions at +15ºC to +25ºC to extreme environments like cryo frozen at -150ºC and below.
Mercury efficiently manages both domestic and international shipments, vetting all customs paperwork and providing dry ice replenishment when needed.
When you work with Mercury, you gain visibility and control over your shipments. You'll have access to real-time updates on the status of your materials, estimated delivery times, and any issues that arise during shipping. If any issues arise during shipping, we'll jump in and troubleshoot the problem on your behalf.
We have a dedicated customer service team that is available 24/7 to answer any questions or concerns you may have. We'll work with the carriers and customs officials to ensure that your shipments clear customs and reach their destination smoothly. Our goal is to make shipping as seamless and hassle-free as possible for you.
Our customized shipping reports and invoices make it easy for you to understand your shipping costs and allocate them to the right cost center in your pipeline. You'll be able to track your expenses and identify any cost-saving opportunities. This process saves you a lot of administrative time and money, allowing you to focus on what you do best - research and development.
Our Quality Management System (QMS) is designed to meet the rigorous ISO 9001:2015 standard, which ensures that our business processes are carefully monitored, measured, and controlled to promote continual improvement.
Here, we’ll review six questions to ask about distributor shipping, and explore alternate options if you need more visibility and control of your logistics.
Everyone, especially in a lab, where devices and instruments are involved wants to know when shipments will arrive. You need visibility on when to expect shipments from a CRO/CMO — exactly when and where you will receive it — so you plan everything else on your end. There’s nothing more frustrating than waiting around, or getting questions from colleagues, with no idea when a shipment will arrive. If timing is crucial, you might think twice about letting your distributor handle shipping. When your CRO handles shipping, they ship on their account using their preferred shipping company. That means they get the notification emails and only they can interact with the carrier if there are issues.
What service level is best for your shipment? Commercial ground? Priority? Overnight?
More than likely, you have a preference based on how quickly you need the material and how expensive or replaceable it is. Unfortunately, if you rely on partner shipping, you won’t be able to choose or know the service level your package will receive. If service level is a priority, you may want to consider other options.
CROs, CMOs and CDMOs usually aren’t in the shipping business, so they use their shipping accounts with major carriers leaving you with whatever rates they have. If saving money on shipping costs aren’t a priority for you, however, your distributor’s shipping is likely sufficient.
International shipments come with their own set of questions: What paperwork is required? What licenses are required? Who determines the harmonized tariff code (the code that determines the percentage of taxes) — the recipient or CRO/CMO?
Duties and taxes are significant; you want to make sure you’re paying the right amount. Sometimes the distributor might have to handle shipping internationally because the contents are proprietary materials that only they know the details on. But if you want to import the item and then later to ship it somewhere else you’ll have to go back to the CRO to get the harmonized code and any other info, which can be a major headache.
Troubleshooting a shipment isn’t usually your highest priority — until it is. When a shipment is out the door for a CRO/CMO/CDMO, it’s out of sight and out of mind. If a problem arises, it will be on you to find out, reach out to the carrier and figure out what’s wrong — all tasks that are not your job. It can be even more complicated when you’re not the shipper, the CRO is and sometimes carriers won’t be able to work with you, but need the CRO to call.
Your accounting department probably needs to attach a P.O. number to the shipping charges to match them with an internal cost center. If your CRO is handling shipping, this often won’t happen leading to back and forth conversations by your team to figure out what shipment went with which purchase order.
As you can see, there are many instances where letting your CRO, CMO or CDMO manage shipping works just fine. But for instances where you need more visibility, control and peace of mind, consider working with a company like Mercury. We offer a comprehensive solution that allows you to focus on your work, and leave the shipping and logistics to the professionals.
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