As Europe experiences hotter summers and more frequent heatwaves, climate is becoming an increasingly important economic variable for logistics operators.
What was once considered a seasonal challenge for temperature-sensitive transport is rapidly evolving into a structural issue that is reshaping investment decisions, infrastructure planning and supply-chain resilience across the continent.
For industries ranging from pharmaceuticals and fresh food distribution to high-value perishables, maintaining temperature integrity has become a critical measure of commercial reliability.
As global temperatures rise, the ability to move goods safely through increasingly volatile environmental conditions is emerging as a clear competitive differentiator.
The trend is reflected in wider market data.
Europe’s cold-chain logistics sector is now valued at more than €100 billion annually, while industry estimates suggest that around 80% of pharmaceutical products transported within the EU require temperature-controlled handling.
As pharmaceutical manufacturing, fresh-food distribution and biologics continue to expand, demand for reliable temperature-controlled logistics is expected to grow steadily across Europe.
“Heat is no longer a short-term operational constraint but a persistent test of system resilience,” says Antoine Vella, Express Trailers’ Head of International Operations.
At the same time, higher ambient temperatures are increasing operational complexity. Greater energy consumption, heavier strain on refrigeration systems and heightened exposure to inefficiencies are all placing pressure on supply-chain performance.
“Heat does not create new failures but it amplifies existing ones and delays, bottlenecks and capacity constraints become more visible and significantly more costly,” added Antoine Vella.
This is also changing how logistics networks are designed. Rather than focusing solely on refrigerated vehicles or cold-storage facilities, operators are increasingly managing temperature as a continuous condition across the entire supply chain, from warehousing and handling to transport and final delivery.
Mr Vella describes this shift as a move from a traditional “cold chain” to a broader “climate chain” model, where environmental stability is embedded across every stage of logistics operations.
“Technology is central to this transformation. Our advanced monitoring systems now provide real-time visibility over temperature conditions, route performance and environmental exposure. Data once used primarily for compliance is now being applied to optimise operations, identify risks and improve decision-making.”
Customer expectations are evolving in parallel. Reliability is no longer defined solely by delivery times or transport capacity. Increasingly, logistics providers are assessed on their ability to preserve product integrity and ensure full journey traceability.
Further investment in temperature-controlled logistics
To meet these requirements, Express Trailers continued to invest in strengthening its temperature-controlled logistics capabilities. Alongside investments in temperature-controlled warehousing and its recently launched cross-dock facility, the company has expanded its refrigerated fleet with 10 new trailers equipped with advanced refrigeration technology. This follows similar investments made in 2021 and 2024.
According to Antoine Vella, the investment reflects both rising customer demand and increasingly strict regulatory expectations, particularly within the pharma sector where compliance with EU Good Distribution Practice (GDP) standards is essential.
“Reliability and sustainability continue to guide our investment decisions,” he says.
“Customers expect consistent performance regardless of external conditions, while regulators are placing greater emphasis on traceability and temperature control.”
The latest generation of refrigeration technology also supports sustainability objectives. New systems improve energy efficiency, reduce the risk of refrigerant leakage and have delivered fuel savings of up to 30% compared with previous units, lowering both emissions and operating costs.
According to Express Trailers CEO Etienne Attard, these developments reflect a wider structural shift in the industry.
“For many companies, investment in modern refrigerated equipment is becoming both an environmental and commercial necessity,” he says. “As pharmaceutical production grows and supply chains become more temperature-dependent, cold-chain infrastructure is emerging as a strategic component of economic resilience.”
For island economies such as Malta, where imports and exports rely heavily on maritime and road transport links, maintaining temperature integrity across long-distance supply chains is particularly critical.
“We recognised early on that climate resilience would become inseparable from logistics performance and that the companies best positioned for the future will be those that treat environmental stability not as a specialised service, but as a core operational capability,” adds Mr Attard.
Heat might once have been regarded as a seasonal inconvenience but today, it is shaping how goods move, how supply chains are designed and how reliability is measured across the logistics sector,” he concluded.
