Sample Transport to the Lab – Lab Courier as a Direct Drive in NRW
Blood samples, swabs and urgent specimens travel in your P650 packaging from practice or hospital to the lab's specimen reception – no depot, no collection round. For late samples after the lab's last pickup as well as fixed daily runs.
- Instant price before booking
- Live tracking on every drive
- Insured transports
What matters when samples travel from practice to lab
Samples are sent to the lab by GP and specialist practices, medical centres, outpatient clinics and hospitals without their own specialist lab. Most of it is blood in EDTA, serum and citrate tubes, urine, swabs, stool samples and tissue for pathology. In regulatory terms it is usually “Biological substance, Category B” (UN 3373) or an exempt human specimen. The lab's own courier service normally handles routine pickups at fixed times. You need a lab courier for what falls in between: the urgent sample after the last pickup, material for a specialist lab that does not collect in your city, or an extra run in the evening.
Sample transport is time-critical because of pre-analytics: for each test, the lab specifies the temperature and the maximum time until the sample must arrive. A sample that arrives late or at the wrong temperature often can no longer be used – and the patient has to come back for another blood draw. Typical failures: the box waits at reception or on a collection round, ice sits inside the secondary packaging instead of outside it, the request form is missing, or the box ends up at the main gate rather than the specimen reception.
Maxmove drives every sample as a direct drive: one vehicle travels only for your consignment from the practice to the specimen reception, with no depot and no transfer. You track the drive live and receive a digital proof of delivery with name, timestamp and photo. Packaging and marking remain the sender's responsibility.
What lab couriers carry every day
Typical specimens and supplies between practice, hospital and lab – packed ready for transport by the sender.
- Blood in EDTA, serum and citrate tubes
- Urine and 24-hour urine collections
- Swabs
- Stool samples
- Tissue samples for pathology
- CSF and aspirates from hospitals
- Urgent and emergency samples
- Material for specialist labs
- Request forms and accompanying slips
- Empty shipping boxes and tubes for practices
Sample runs in Cologne, Bonn and Essen
Three typical drives for which practices and hospitals book a lab courier.
Cologne-Ehrenfeld: an urgent sample after the last pickup
A GP practice in Ehrenfeld takes blood late in the afternoon for urgent coagulation and inflammation values, and the lab's courier has already been. The medical assistant packs the tubes into the lab's P650 box, puts the request form inside the outer packaging and books a car – or a cargo bike within the city centre. The driver collects the sealed box at reception and drives straight to the specimen reception, where staff sign for it and the practice sees the handover in the proof of delivery.
Bonn-Bad Godesberg: a fixed evening run from the medical centre
A medical centre in Bad Godesberg holds evening surgeries Monday to Friday. Instead of storing samples until the lab's pickup next morning, a car takes the boxes to its contract lab at the same time every evening. The drive is set up as a recurring order with a fixed pickup time, handover point and contact person. On public holidays or during practice closures you adjust the order in advance. At the lab, the specimen reception accepts the boxes and confirms the handover digitally.
Essen: a hospital sample for the specialist lab in Holsterhausen
A hospital in the south of Essen sends material for a specialist analysis to a lab at the university medical centre in Holsterhausen. The sample must arrive chilled: the ward lab packs it under P650, with the ice outside the secondary packaging and a liquid-tight outer packaging. A car collects the box at the lab entrance and drives straight to the named reception point. Samples on dry ice fall under additional ADR rules – please agree such drives with us before booking.
Rules for sample transport
Which regulations apply to samples on the road – and who is responsible for what.
UN 3373: pack Category B under P650
Most diagnostic specimens are “Biological substance, Category B” with the UN number 3373. Classification, packaging and marking are the sender's responsibility – practice, hospital or lab. ADR packing instruction P650 requires three components: a primary receptacle, secondary packaging and outer packaging, with either the secondary or the outer packaging rigid. For liquids, primary receptacle and secondary packaging are leakproof, absorbent material takes up the entire contents, and the primary receptacle or secondary packaging withstands an internal pressure of 95 kPa. The complete package must pass a 1.2 m drop test. Packed and marked this way, the consignment is subject to no other ADR requirements.
Marking the outer packaging
The outer packaging carries the diamond-shaped UN 3373 mark: at least 50 × 50 mm, a line width of at least 2 mm and figures at least 6 mm high, on a contrasting background. Directly next to it goes “BIOLOGICAL SUBSTANCE, CATEGORY B”, also at least 6 mm high. At least one surface of the outer packaging must measure 100 × 100 mm. Packaging manufacturers and distributors must supply instructions for filling and closing – the safest option is your lab's system boxes, with the marking checked before handover.
Exempt specimens, Category A and dry ice
Patient specimens with only a minimal likelihood of containing pathogens can travel as an “Exempt human specimen”: leakproof in triple packaging, with that wording on the outer packaging. Whether this applies is decided by the sender based on professional judgement. Category A infectious substances (UN 2814 and UN 2900) are fully labelled dangerous goods – Maxmove does not carry them. If samples are cooled with dry ice, P650 refers to the ADR rules for coolants (section 5.5.3); such consignments travel only after prior agreement.
Temperature and pre-analytics
Which temperature a sample needs – room temperature, chilled or frozen – and how long it may be in transit is set out in your lab's test directory. The sender ensures cooling through the packaging. P650 specifies that if ice is used, it goes outside the secondary packaging into the outer packaging or overpack, which must then be liquid-tight; interior supports keep the secondary packaging in position. The inside of a courier vehicle is no substitute for cooling. We arrange temperature-controlled transport as soon as a suitably equipped vehicle is available.
Data protection for samples and request forms
Tube labels and request forms contain health data within the meaning of Art. 9 GDPR and are covered by medical confidentiality under section 203 of the German Criminal Code. Put request forms inside the sealed outer packaging or the box's document pouch, not loose on top. The driver does not open the box and hands it over only at the specimen reception or to the person named in the booking. The proof of delivery records recipient, time and a photo of the sealed consignment – not its contents.
Which vehicle suits your sample
A cargo bike is enough for a single sample box within the city centre. The car is the standard vehicle for drives between practice, hospital and lab, including across city boundaries. Book the compact van when several transport boxes, large cool boxes or fresh shipping supplies for several practices travel together.
| Vehicle | Greutate maximă | Euro paleți | Dimensiune maximă încărcătură | Price | Book |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CarÎncap de ex. Moving boxes, small furniture, classifieds pickups | 100 kg | – | 100 × 70 × 50 cm | from €79.86Base fare €18.90 | Book |
| Small VanÎncap de ex. Washing machine, armchair, moving boxes | 400 kg | 1–2 | 160 × 120 × 120 cm | from €94.05Base fare €29.90 | Book |
Published examples for Köln → Düsseldorf, weekdays at 10:00 (Berlin time). The binding price for your addresses is shown before booking.
Bigger, open-bed or heavier than 3 t? On request as a special run
How your sample transport works
- 01
Book and state the contents
Pickup at the practice reception, destination at the lab's specimen reception – not the main gate. Add a contact person and the contents, for example “UN 3373”. You see the instant price and the earliest pickup window straight away.
- 02
Handover of the sealed box
The driver collects the packed and marked box at reception. The box stays closed and is secured in the vehicle against tipping over and sliding.
- 03
Direct drive with live tracking
The vehicle drives to the reception point without stopovers or transfers. Practice and lab follow the drive via live tracking and know when the sample will arrive.
- 04
Signature at the specimen reception
Reception staff sign for the box. Timestamp and photos go into the digital proof of delivery, which you can retrieve at any time in your business account.
Why Maxmove for Lab courier
Direct drive, not a collection round
Your sample does not wait for further pickups and is never transferred. One vehicle drives only your consignment from the practice to the specimen reception – keeping the time between collection and analysis short and predictable.
Fixed lab runs and urgent pickups
Daily evening runs or fixed weekdays are set up as recurring orders. When an urgent sample comes up, book it online as a single drive and see the instant price and earliest pickup window immediately – no phone call needed.
Documented end to end
Every drive comes with live tracking and a digital proof of delivery including the reception's signature, timestamp and photos. If the lab queries a sample, you can show exactly when it was handed over.