The situation

While battling the ongoing effects of the pandemic, one of the nation’s largest providers of post-acute healthcare services needed assistance with an urgent PPE shipment valued at $3 million.

The client, who operates both facility- and home-based post-acute services in 36 states and Puerto Rico, was planning a resource intensive freight move to distribute 167 pallets of critically needed PPE to its network of inpatient rehabilitation hospitals, home health, and hospice agencies.

After experiencing some initial setbacks using a competitor’s shipping program, the client was hesitant to entrust such a large-scale move to another provider.

The life-saving PPE would need to be moved in less than a week, creating additional urgency around securing proper transportation. Additional resources would also be needed to ensure the high value shipment was closely monitored.

The challenge

Due to the large scale and complicated nature of the move, the client did not have the available resources to coordinate, route, and monitor the palletized shipments of PPE.

The supplies would need to be transported across the country from Alabama to Arizona, where they would be stored by one of the nation’s largest medical manufacturers. The manufacturer had pre-determined delivery windows that would require around the clock coordination and constant monitoring to ensure deliveries were completed.

To complicate matters further, If a carrier arrived outside of the appointment window, the manufacturer would refuse the shipment, preventing the PPE from being distributed to additional facilities, potentially causing detrimental effects to staff and patient health.

The Triose solution

The Triose specialized large freight team successfully scheduled, coordinated, and routed seven 53-foot truckloads of PPE in less than a week from Alabama to Arizona, successfully meeting all pickup and delivery requirements set forth by the client.

Creative problem-solving is what the Triose team does best. Due to the high-sensitivity, large volume, and urgency of the client’s request, a hands-on approach was required.

By actively managing the entire process, Triose was able to alleviate the typical stressors experienced by clients during a high-profile freight move such as this. Our logistics specialists used their industry connections to identify the best carriers for the job and served as liaison between the carriers and manufacturer when needed, in order to ensure pickup and delivery requirements were met.

The Triose specialist assigned to the project actively monitored each shipment and kept the client up to date on all project details, intervening when necessary to prevent shipment delays and missed deliveries.

The proactive vigilance of the Triose specialized large freight team allowed the PPE to arrive at the manufacturer’s facility on-time, securely, and cost efficiently.

The Triose difference

The Triose specialized large freight team provided peace of mind by listening to the client’s concerns and advising on the most efficient and cost-effective plan of action.

Typical rates for this type of high priority, high touch shipment could cost upwards of $50,000. By partnering with Triose, the client realized a 20 percent savings over market price rates. The Triose specialized large freight team not only provided cost savings to the client; they provided savings in the form of time and human capital, ultimately giving the client the most priceless savings of all, peace of mind.

The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed several major supply chain vulnerabilities; shortages and obstacles to PPE distribution being only one of them. In response, health care systems and facilities have begun evaluating their current supply chains to look for innovative ways to create efficiencies while maintaining exceptional patient care.

At Triose, our solutions are intelligent, meaning our people fuel our innovation. We rely on people to do the jobs that technology can’t, like providing best practice recommendations, verifying carriers, and negotiating cost-effective rates on behalf of our clients. We work creatively around the clock, so healthcare facilities can focus on what they do best – saving lives.