IVF Embryo and Gamete Transport

This is the one consignment on our site where the word irreplaceable is literal. An embryo or gamete transfer between licensed centres carries material that cannot be remade, and the insurance limit is therefore the wrong question - the right questions are how many times the shipper is handled, who had custody at each moment, and whether the vessel will hold for the whole journey with margin. So the answer is the simplest possible transport arrangement: your clinic's own vapour-phase dry shipper, one dedicated vehicle, one named driver from collection to delivery, no hub and nothing else aboard. Equally important is what we are not. T&C Logistics is not an HFEA-licensed centre, has no role in consent, licensing or the clinical decision, and does not pack, fill or validate the shipper. We move what the clinic prepares, and we document it.

What exactly do you do, and what do you not?

We carry the clinic's prepared dry shipper from one address to another, with custody signed and timestamped at each end. That is the whole of the service, and the limits are worth stating before the capability.

T&C Logistics is not an HFEA-licensed centre. We have no part in consent, in the licensing framework, or in any clinical or embryological decision. We do not pack the shipper, fill it, validate it, open it, or interpret its state. Nor do we advise on whether a transfer should happen — that is a matter between the licensed centres and the patients, settled before a vehicle is booked. A courier that blurs any of this is a liability to a licensed centre rather than a service to it.

How does a cryogenic dry shipper travel?

Upright, secured, unopened, in a ventilated load space, on a vehicle carrying nothing else. A vapour-phase dry shipper holds liquid nitrogen absorbed in a porous matrix rather than as free liquid, which is what makes it transportable at all.

The internal temperature is around -196 °C and the vessel is designed to maintain vapour-phase conditions for a period the manufacturer specifies — that specification is the clinic's figure, not ours, and we plan the run against it rather than estimating. Orientation matters: a dry shipper tipped over can lose its vapour phase faster than the specification assumes, so it travels secured upright and is not laid down to fit a load space.

Is it dangerous goods?

Usually not, and the distinction is whether free liquid nitrogen can escape. A dry shipper designed so that none can is generally outside the dangerous goods rules; a dewar containing free liquid nitrogen is UN1977, refrigerated liquid nitrogen, in ADR Class 2.2.

Most clinical transfers use the first kind, which is why they can move by road without an ADR consignment. Where a vessel does hold free liquid we carry it on the UN1977 entry with an ADR-certificated driver — we carry Class 2 along with 3, 4, 5, 6, 8 and 9, and not Class 1 or Class 7. Either way the load space is ventilated, because nitrogen displaces oxygen and the asphyxiation risk in a sealed body is real regardless of which regime applies.

How is chain of custody evidenced?

By keeping it as short as it can be and naming every link. One driver collects and delivers, the shipper is not co-loaded with other freight, it does not pass through any sortation facility, and it is signed for at both ends against named individuals with a timestamp.

What we do not do is take over the clinic's identification. The straws, vials, their labelling and the accompanying documentation are the sending centre's, and the paperwork should travel physically with the shipper. Where the receiving centre needs the handover record in a particular form, tell us at booking and it is produced that way rather than reconstructed afterwards. If a transfer is ever reviewed, the useful artefact is a record made at the time, not an account given later.

What happens if the journey takes longer than planned?

You are told as it happens, not afterwards. The shipper's specified hold time is the operative figure, and if a delay puts the journey anywhere near it the decision belongs to the sending centre — continue, divert to the nearer of the two centres, or return.

That is a decision to pre-agree rather than improvise, so we ask for it at booking: who we contact, by what route, and what the default is. We will not make a clinical judgement about the material, and we will not quietly continue on the assumption it is probably fine. Where a route has a genuine risk of exceeding the hold time, we say so before accepting the booking rather than discovering it en route.

Who can receive the shipper?

A named individual at the receiving centre, and nobody else. Nothing is left, nothing is handed to a general reception, and nothing is given to a courier-to-courier relay — the whole point of the arrangement is that one driver had it throughout.

So the receiving centre's hours are part of the plan rather than an afterthought. A transfer arriving at a closed laboratory is a transfer that has to hold or return, and either outcome consumes hold time. Give us the receiving contact, a deputy, the hours and a phone number, and tell us what to do if nobody authorised is there — on this consignment more than any other, that instruction is the one that matters.

Can you move other cryogenic and clinical material?

Yes. The same arrangement serves gametes, cryopreserved tissue and research material in dry shippers, and we also carry the rest of the clinical range: diagnostic specimens classified as UN3373 Category B, chilled 2-8 °C consignments, frozen at -18 °C and below, and deep-frozen on dry ice.

What we are explicit about across all of it: we are not an MHRA-licensed wholesale dealer and hold no Good Distribution Practice certification, and where a consignment needs full GDP authorisation it is coordinated with GDP-certified partner carriers. See lab specimens, blood samples, biological samples courier and dry ice.

Can a transfer be booked for a specific date and time?

Yes, and on this work the date is usually fixed by something other than transport — a treatment cycle, a laboratory's availability, a patient's schedule. A dedicated vehicle can hold a date and an arrival window because it waits on nothing: no hub sort, no trunk arrival, no shared round.

Book it as soon as the date is known rather than when the shipper is ready. A specific morning three weeks out is straightforward to hold; the same morning booked the night before may not be, and this is not a consignment to leave to availability. Where a date moves at the clinic's end, moving a booked run is simple if we are told — what cannot be fixed is a vehicle arriving to a shipper that is not yet filled, because the hold-time clock starts when the centre closes it, not when we arrive.

What vehicle is used?

A ventilated one with room to secure the shipper upright, carrying nothing else. Dry shippers are not heavy, so neither payload nor volume binds — the vehicle is chosen for ventilation, securing points and the ability to run the whole leg without a change.

What does a transfer cost?

From £50 (ex VAT) for the shortest dedicated job, though a centre-to-centre transfer is usually longer than that implies. It is quoted as one fixed price before you book, and final price depends on distance, vehicle, urgency and time - quoted in full upfront before you book.

What insurance applies, and how do I arrange a transfer?

Goods-in-transit cover of £50,000 per consignment, extending to £1,000,000 through partner carriers where the value requires it, plus public liability of £1,000,000. Limits and exclusions are in our terms — and we will say plainly that for this consignment the figure is not the reassurance. Irreplaceable material is not made whole by a payment, which is why the arrangement is built around handling and custody instead.

1. Call 0121 720 3841 for the office or +44 7963 400173 for dispatch. Enquiries are taken around the clock and answered between 06:00 and 22:00, seven days a week.
2. Confirm both centres have completed the consent and licensing steps — that is settled before a vehicle is booked, and it is not ours.
3. Give the shipper's specified hold time and whether it holds free liquid nitrogen.
4. Name the releasing and receiving individuals, with hours and phone numbers.
5. Pre-agree the default on delay: continue, divert to the nearer centre, or return.
6. Accept the fixed price and one named driver is assigned for the whole leg.

T&C Logistics Ltd is Companies House number 16838210; held credentials are on our licences page. Related: clinical trial courier, medical logistics, healthcare logistics. Or request a quote online. Google Reviews rating 5.0★.