Deutsche Post DHL is broadening its Disaster Response Teams around the world to help cope withthe growing number of natural catastrophes and improve emergency logistics operations, senior
managers told CEP-Research.After launching the Disaster Response Teams (DRTs) in 2005, the company can now call on a poolof some 320 trained volunteers in three regions around the world for deployment to a disaster area.These are divided into three regions (Asia Pacific; Middle East and Africa; the Americas) thatcover about 80% of countries exposed to a high risk of a natural disaster.
Within 72 hours of a request from the UN or the local government, DHL can fly in teams of 10-15people for up to three weeks. The deployments are split into three phases, and each volunteer tendsto be at the location for about one week.
Since 2005, DHL has made about 20 deployments, including after earthquakes in Pakistan/India(2005), Java (2006), Peru (2007), Indonesia (2009), Haiti (2010), Chile (2010) and flooding inPakistan (2010). During the four deployments in 2010, for example, 105 DHL volunteers handled some7,000 tonnes of relief supplies over a total of 83 days of operation.
The next phase is to broaden the skill base and expertise of the DRT volunteers by bringing inmore specialists and people with local knowledge, Chris Weeks, DP DHL Director of HumanitarianAffairs, told CEP-Research at a DRT training session in Dubai.
The toughest deployment was probably in Haiti after the devastating earthquake there in January2010, the experienced manager explained. “Haiti was the most difficult because the US military tookover and so we set up in Santo Domingo,” he explained. For DHL, this meant not only organisingwarehouse logistics and onward trucking for planeloads of goods arriving from around the world, asin every deployment, but also having to cope with customs regulations at the DominicanRepublic-Haiti land border and deal with the two different languages (Spanish and French) in thearea of operations.
One of the lessons from Haiti was the need to have DRT volunteers with a military background orexpertise for such situations, Weeks pointed out. “It would have been very useful in Haiti to havesomeone with a US military background. Now we have people who know how to work with the USmilitary.”
Another change is the addition of pharmacists to the pool of DRT volunteers so that the teamsknow how to handle shipments of high-value medical supplies that might require special handling. “We did not have specialist expertise in handling drugs, so we want to start getting pharmacists onto the teams. They know what the goods are and how they need to be handled,” Weeks said.
Language and cultural knowledge is also an important factor when bringing together volunteersfor a Disaster Response Team. By using regionally-based staff, DHL can call on people with relevantlanguage and cultural knowledge whom it is normally easier to fly in at short notice.
Moreover, in the Middle East, DHL is now training specialist teams from Iran and Turkey tohandle any natural disaster in their country. “We want to set up Turkish and Iranian teams withinthe country,” explained Paul Dowling, Dubai-based DRT head for the region. “They can set uprelationships with local officials, for example.”
In general, DHL aims to “bring some private sector expertise to improve the logistics after adisaster”, Weeks explained. “The airport is like a funnel where the pipeline gets very thin and itcan choke. Our job is to make the pipeline a bit wider so everything can get through.” In contrastto UN agencies, which tend to handle their entire logistics themselves, DHL wants to be a ‘sharedservice’ logistics provider for all relief goods.
DHL often handles large quantities of so-called ‘unsolicited bilateral donations’, such asspontaneous shipments of relief supplies by governments or organisations separate to UN agencies.However, this well-meant aid can create problems since it may not be coordinated with the overallneeds for the specific disaster.
After the Pakistan floods, for example, Pakistan International Airlines flew large volumes ofshoeboxes contained relief goods donated by private persons free of charge to the country. “Theygave it to us to sort out,” Weeks said.
Deutsche Post DHL does not disclose the cost of its Disaster Response Team operations, which areprovided free of charge to the United Nations and the affected country or region. The cooperationwith the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA) was launchedin 2005 for five years and has been extended until 2013.
Another part of the company’s GoHelp programme is to assist countries to prepare for majordisasters and the resulting surge of emergency supplies. Staff at seven airports in Indonesia andNepal have been trained so far through the Get Airports Ready for Disaster (GARD) programme.
The GoHelp programme is one of three elements of the group’s corporate responsibilityactivities, along with GoGreen, the environmental programme, and GoTeach, the social programme foreducation.
