10 Questions to Ask Your Pharmaceutical Transportation Provider
Your medicines spend most of their life inside a facility you control. Temperature is managed. Access is limited. Everyone who touches the product is trained and accountable.
Then the shipment leaves, and all of that has to hold up on the road.
Most shippers vet a transportation provider by asking for a certificate. A certificate tells you an assessment happened at a point in time. It doesn’t tell you who briefs the driver, who investigates an unexpected stop, or what your quality team hears about when a temperature alert and a route deviation happen in the same hour. Those are the details that decide whether your product arrives in a condition you can release.
Good Distribution Practice (GDP) covers the quality side. TAPA standards cover the security side. Strong providers can show both, and more importantly, can explain how the two work together when a shipment doesn’t go to plan.
The questions below are the ones worth asking before you hand over a lane. They move the conversation past the certificate and into how a provider actually operates. Print them, bring them to your next supplier review, and pay attention to how specific the answers get.
- Is pharma your specialty?
- Are you GDP accredited?
- What does your TAPA certification cover?
- Who moves our medicines?
- How do you manage temperature risk?
- Can you see what happens in transit?
- Who watches outside office hours?
- What if we need extra protection?
- Can you act when something goes wrong?
- Can we look beyond your certificates?
How DeSpir approaches these questions
DeSpir specializes in pharmaceutical logistics, combining GDP quality practices with TAPA security standards. We hold organizational accreditation through HDA’s PCSC GDP program and TAPA FBSR 2025 Tier 1 certification for freight brokerage security management.
Our pharmaceutical transportation program includes a qualified carrier network, vetted and GDP-trained organizations, temperature-controlled transportation, GPS tracking, geofencing, event monitoring and 24/7/365 in-transit security monitoring. Security escorts and additional monitoring can also be integrated based on shipment risk, with coordinated response and investigation capabilities when something does not go to plan.
And we encourage customers to look beyond the certificates. Ask about the people, procedures and supporting evidence behind the operation and how they apply to your specific lanes.
Your medicines leave your facility. Your standards shouldn’t.
Talk to DeSpir about your lanes, temperature requirements and security needs.
Capabilities and services are tailored to shipment requirements, lane characteristics, customer specifications and applicable regulatory requirements.
