Holiday Specimen Shipment
By Alyssa Frank • June 17, 2020
Due to the Independence Day holiday (recognized on Saturday, July 4), Mayo Clinic Laboratories' specimen pickup and delivery schedules will be altered. To ensure that your specimen vitality and turnaround times are not affected, plan ahead and note:
- The COVID-19 pandemic continues to limit our ability to utilize commercial airlines to help supplement our weekday and weekend logistics program. Though we would like to facilitate Sunday routes, the dialed-back airline flight schedules are still not sufficient to support a Sunday program.
- FedEx continues to be our “go to carrier” for weekday shipments but with FedEx and UPS closing down their operations on Saturday, it will limit our ability to pick up frozen samples on Friday. FedEx and UPS boxes tendered on Friday, July 3 will be delivered either Sunday night, July 5 or Monday morning, July 6. Because the sample boxes will be staged in Memphis (FedEx) or Louisville (UPS) for the entire weekend, MCL strongly suggests that frozen samples be held at our Client’s facility on Friday.
- Courier routes which use ASG (Dakota, Chicago, Detroit & Cleveland) or are on a line NE of New York City, may send samples of all temperatures on Friday. These samples will be delivered to MCL Saturday morning.
- Couriers who normally ship samples to Jacksonville by FedEx on Friday, July 3, will continue to do so; sending only Ambient and Refrigerated samples. Friday and Sunday ground routes will deliver samples of all temperatures as normal.
- FedEx and UPS will not make pickups or deliveries on Saturday, July 4.
- Normal courier/carrier pickup and delivery will resume Monday, July 6.
