Remote logistics: A lifeline to the outside world

Iceland-based company Arctic Trucks supplies vehicles for high-profile expeditions in the Arctic and Antarctic. Every summer, an Arctic Truck expedition makes a perilous journey to build an ice-runway on the Antarctic Plateau. It is at this key location that scientists rest and refuel before flying on to their facility where they conduct vital research on global climate change. If something goes wrong under these extreme environmental conditions, it can have serious consequences.

When Arctic Trucks operate in Antarctica, they cannot rely on anybody else – because there is nobody else. They are on their own. With extreme weather conditions and temperatures as low as minus 55 degrees in the summer, a deadly storm can be only minutes away on the Polar Plateau.

There is nowhere more extreme on earth to build a runway. So when one of Arctic Trucks' satellite phones failed, it was an unacceptable risk because that device was their lifeline to the outside world. They needed a replacement and they needed it fast.