Were they directly adjacent to radioactive crates? That can also damage them.

The green bar on the side acts like a battery indicator which depletes when they lose power. If any of them were not full and green then they were NOT getting power for whatever reason. Sounds like you checked that but worth reiterating.

Originally posted by Smidge204:

Were they directly adjacent to radioactive crates? That can also damage them.

The green bar on the side acts like a battery indicator which depletes when they lose power. If any of them were not full and green then they were NOT getting power for whatever reason. Sounds like you checked that but worth reiterating.

I had nothing radioactive. In fact, I still don't think I've come across anything radioactive.
I genuinely think this was an isolated incident; since my post I've handled many a mission with refrigerated contents - doing exactly the same procedure as before - and had no issues. I've got no clue which planet/sector I picked the problem batch up from, sadly. But it was on the same planet/sector I was tutorialised on them.

Complete enough deliveries, and you get "promoted" or whatever to now getting at least one refrigerated crate with every new delivery.

Do enough after that, and you'll get upgraded again to always getting at least one radioactive crate as well. I don't remember what the minimum delivery was before this, but it's definitely two crate minimum after this.

As for your issue, it may be a bug, the game still has some at this point. I had one delivery spoil on me, I was extra careful on all subsequent deliveries and it never happened again.

For all I know, it might be an auto-fail on your first delivery type bug. (For example, I have played Volcano Princess where the first mount catch for anyone, is still, as far as I know, a ctd error, but after hitting it, it never occurs again. Ever.)

The battery indicator loses power pretty quickly, such that I would recommend against moving more than 6 of them at a time, but if placed back on a power line, or in a loading zone, will recover (assuming it's not spoiled already).