DHL has launched the DHL Disaster Response Team (DRT) Americas. Based out of the DHL AmericasCorporate Headquarters in South Florida, the DRT Americas will provide logistical support to ensure
that relief goods will quickly reach victims of major sudden-onset natural disasters, primarily inLatin America and the Caribbean, but also in northern South America and the southern United States,as needed.The DHL Disaster Response Team applies its professional knowledge of logistics andtransportation to help governments organize the handling, warehousing and loading of relief goodsfor onward transportation in an efficient manner, ultimately reducing bottlenecks at the airportclose to the scene of a major sudden-onset natural disaster.
“By setting up the DRT Americas we are making a significant contribution to preparing for theupcoming hurricane season and to support relief efforts in the case of a natural disaster anywherein the region,” said John Mullen, Chief Executive Officer for DHL Express Americas. “We arecommitted to sharing our core competence in logistics and transportation as well as our expertmanpower to support disaster relief efforts, not only in our South Florida home but where we areneeded most in the Americas.”
DHL has considerable experience in direct disaster management worldwide. DHL employees wereactively engaged in providing humanitarian assistance in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in theUnited States in the summer of 2005, after the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, and in the aftermath oflast year’s South Asian earthquake in Pakistan and India.
The DHL DRT Americas has been established as part of a worldwide network of Disaster ResponseTeams to support the UN and the international community’s humanitarian relief efforts. The DRTs arethe first initiative to result from a strategic partnership between DHL and the United NationsDevelopment Programme (UNDP) and the United Nations Office for the Coordination of HumanitarianAffairs (OCHA) in the area of disaster management. In April, DHL inaugurated the DRT Asia Pacificwhich will provide coverage in disaster situations throughout that region.
“The DHL Disaster Response Teams show how valuable the support from companies can be forsupplementing the existing disaster management system,” said United Nations Office for theCoordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) representative Carlos Monteiro-Pereira.
The DRT Americas draws on a pool of approximately 80 trained DHL employees, who, in addition totheir normal jobs at DHL, have volunteered to take part in humanitarian missions with the DRT.Disaster Response Teams include experts in cargo handling, warehouse management, inventory control,customs clearance, road operations, communications, safety, security and other areas. The teamswill normally be deployed for a period of up to three weeks following a major sudden-onset naturaldisaster. By that point in time, the initial surge of international charter aircraft bringing aidsupplies has normally decreased to a more manageable level.
The DHL Disaster Response Teams’ services are provided as an in-kind donation. In addition tothe existing work in the field of disaster response, the strategic partnership between DHL and theUN System will also cover other areas of disaster management such as disaster preparedness.
