Cold chain and controlled room temperature freight coordinated to the profile printed on your label, and documented well enough that your quality unit can release it. The trailer is at set point before the doors open, the logger rides with the product, the seal number goes on the bill of lading, and the carrier assigned to your lane is verified for that profile the day the truck is assigned.
In short
The product is not accepted by a receiving clerk, it is released by a quality unit. Two records decide that release: what temperature the shipment saw and for how long, and whether custody of it was unbroken and documented from the shipper's dock to the receiving door. A load can arrive on time, undamaged and complete and still sit in quarantine because a logger was started late or a seal number does not match the paperwork. Everything about how this freight is booked, sealed and handed over exists to keep those two records clean.
The cargo
What decides the load
The gist of each one here. The shipping guide has every one in full.
Cold chain gets the attention. The 2 to 8 degree Celsius band is printed on vaccines, insulin, most biologics and a long list of diagnostic reagents, so those pallets are treated as temperature controlled from the first call.
Read it in full in the guideNearly any temperature-controlled truck can be monitored. A calibrated logger rides with the product and records at the interval you set, and the reefer logs itself as well: set point, supply and return air, defrost cycles and door events, all time-stamped.
Read it in full in the guideThe Drug Supply Chain Security Act put a serialized identity on each saleable unit of prescription drug product and requires transaction information and a transaction statement to pass between authorized trading partners in interoperable electronic form, which in practice means EPCIS data.
Read it in full in the guideDrug product carries a stability budget. The manufacturer proves through stability studies how long the product holds potency inside the labeled range, and every minute outside that range draws on a budget that never refills.
Read it in full in the guideA sterile barrier is packaging that is also the product's compliance. Puncture the pouch or crush a corner of the tray and the device inside is fully functional and completely unsellable, because sterility can no longer be claimed for it.
Read it in full in the guideDobie coordinates transportation: a nationwide network of verified carriers, managed by dedicated logistics specialists.
Read it in full in the guide
The numbers
Who this is for
The process
Storage range in Celsius, whether it is a fixed band or protect-from-freezing only, the excursion limits your quality unit will accept, who supplies and places the logger, whether the trailer has to stay sealed exclusive-use, and what your receiving site scans at the door. Those answers decide which carriers can even be offered the load.
Active operating authority, current insurance with limits that match a sealed load of finished product, a unit that heats as well as cools for a controlled room temperature run, continuous run mode confirmed, reefer fuel planned for the layover, a written seal procedure, and a team where the stability clock or the theft exposure calls for one. Verified the day the truck is assigned, not once a year.
Trailer pulled down to set point before the doors open, so the first pallet is not cooling the box. Logger placed with the product, not near the door. Pallets loaded so aggregation stays intact and nothing stacks on a sterile barrier or a shock-sensitive crate. Numbered seal applied and written on the bill of lading, and the trailer stays sealed through to the receiving door with no cross-dock in between.
Arrival within the receiving appointment, because a hospital dock and a distribution center both turn away a truck that misses it. Seal number verified against the bill of lading before it is cut, logger read or downloaded at delivery, condition documented at both ends, and any excursion reported to your quality contact with the time stamps attached as soon as it is flagged, so the disposition clock starts immediately.
Equipment
The service lines behind a life-science tender, each with the part of the load it actually solves.
Yes, coordinated through carriers whose units are verified for that profile the day they are assigned. The trailer is pulled to set point before loading, the logger goes in with the product, continuous run mode and the excursion limits are on the dispatch in writing, and the record is handed over at the receiving door. If your SOP requires a qualified vehicle rather than a monitored one, say so on the first call, because that is a separate confirmation and we settle it before booking.
Those are two different things and we do not blur them. Monitoring means calibrated loggers, the reefer's own download and a documented record. Qualification means documented evidence that a specific unit or lane holds the profile: thermal mapping, seasonal worst-case testing, IQ, OQ and PQ, and traceable calibration certificates. Dobie confirms what the assigned carrier can actually produce for your lane before the load moves, instead of implying that a reefer is qualified because it runs cold.
No, not as standard freight. Scheduled controlled substances carry registration, storage and chain-of-custody requirements we do not represent as an existing capability, so they are not quoted off a website. If controlled product is part of your program, tell us what your registration and your procedures require and you get a straight yes or no in writing before anything is tendered.
The logger keeps running. Nobody stops it and nobody opens a sealed trailer to inspect the pallets. Your quality contact gets the time-stamped data on the notification path your SOP names, as soon as the drift is flagged, because the disposition clock starts at notification and not at delivery. The shipment continues sealed, the record is handed over at the door, and your quality unit dispositions the lot against its stability data and the mean kinetic temperature. What we will not do is decide on your behalf that a drift was acceptable.
By not touching the pallets. The load moves exclusive-use under one numbered seal, the seal number rides on the bill of lading, and there is no cross-dock and no restacking between the shipper's dock and the receiving door. If a pallet does have to be reworked, it gets captured and communicated before the truck leaves, because a receiver whose scan does not match the pallet label will quarantine the shipment no matter how clean the temperature record is.
That is white glove and final mile work, and it is scheduled as its own operation. Receiving hours and an appointment with materials management, a dock the crate fits or a liftgate where there is no dock, an elevator reservation, a corridor route infection control accepts, doorway and turning clearances checked before dispatch, uncrating in place and packaging removed. Send crate dimensions, weight and the destination room, and the access plan is built before the truck leaves.
A motor carrier that transports product without taking ownership of it is not the same regulated role as a licensed wholesale distributor or a licensed 3PL that stores product, and state licensing varies. Dobie coordinates the transport, keeps the seal and the custody record intact, and moves the paperwork with the pallet. If your SOP requires a licensed 3PL for storage or staging, a transport booking is not that, and we say so rather than let it be assumed.
Yes, and the border is where Dobie lives. The crossings, the customs brokers, the staging yards and the Mexico-side carriers are weekly business out of the Rio Grande Valley. The regulatory side belongs to the importer, whose COFEPRIS registration and permits govern what may enter, and the transport plan is built around that timing, because a temperature-controlled trailer waiting on a document is still burning fuel and still writing to the log.
Last reviewed: August 2026 · Reviewed by the Dobie Transport logistics team
A logistics specialist reviews your lanes and comes back with pricing and capacity. Support runs 24/7.
Every carrier is vetted for operating authority and insurance, and we check the certificate before every dispatch, not once a year. USDOT 3411782 · MC 1100274
