Deutsche Post DHL has deployed a Disaster Response Team (DRT) to Padang, Indonesia, following thedevastating earthquake on Sumatra to help manage the expected surge in air cargo operations by
coordinating relief logistics activities at the airport for a period of three weeks.The DRT, invited by the United Nations, will manage a temporary, professional warehouse atPadang Airport including sorting and making a full inventory of donated goods. The team, consistingof 10 trained DHL volunteers from the DRT Asia Pacific in Singapore and Middle East in Dubai, willhandle all kinds of unsolicited relief goods such as tents, tarpaulins, food, clothing, medicinesand water purifying equipment. It will also ensure the speedy loading of aid onto trucks orhelicopters.
The team has already started handling the first incoming aircrafts, bringing in medicalsupplies and generators. The DRT will temporarily help manage the expected surge in air cargooperations at the Padang Airport, thereby reducing bottlenecks and keeping the airport open foradditional relief flights.
Since October 2, a DRT has been operating at Ninoy Aquino International Airport in thePhilippines, helping with relief and logistics for this region following a typhoon that hit thecapital, Manila. At the same time, the support emergency logistics activities in Samoa, hit by atsunami, have been extended.
“The DRT Indonesia has started to handle relief cargo at the airport of Padang. On request ofthe Prime Minister of Samoa, our logistics experts will continue to support on the ground withlogistic advice and planning. Samoa is difficult to reach and logistic advice of high importance,”said Rainer Wend, Executive Vice President, Corporate Public Policy and Responsibility.
In 2005 DHL entered into a partnership with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)and the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA) in the area ofDisaster Management. DHL’s global DRT network consists of three teams which are assigned to aspecific geographic region covering Asia Pacific, Latin America and the Caribbean and the MiddleEast and Africa. Each of these teams consists of a pool of about 80 specially trained DHLemployees, who – in addition to their normal job – have volunteered to take part in the pro-bonohumanitarian efforts.
The DRT can be deployed to a crisis area within 72 hours and for a period of up to threeweeks. By that time, the initial wave of international charter aircraft bringing in aid supplieshas normally subsided to a level that is manageable by local authorities. Up to fifteen members ofthe team are present at any point in time during the deployment.
In recent years, DHL has provided significant logistics support after a number of naturalcatastrophes around the world, including the Indian Ocean tsunami, Hurricane Katrina and theKashmir earthquake.
