We carry Bhoj Caterers' office lunch tiffins in insulated crates from their kitchen in Shivajinagar to offices across the city. Bhoj wants to change crate supplier, and no crate goes on the vans until it has passed these trials.
A crate is filled with sealed tiffins of water, closed, and dropped five times from 30 cm onto the concrete floor of the depot, once on its base and once on each side. It passes if no tiffin has opened and the lid still latches. The method is loosely based on an ista test, cut down because tiffin crates are carried by hand, not thrown.
A crate filled with hot food is then left in the van for two hours on an afternoon route, as a simulation of the lunch run, with a logger inside. The food must still be above 60 C at the end.
Our depot supervisor and Bhoj's kitchen manager both sign the trial sheet, and both keep a copy.
A new crate is first used on one route for two weeks. If drivers and offices report no problems, it goes on all routes.
Crates that fail are returned to the supplier with the trial sheet attached, so that the supplier can see exactly which drop broke them.