DHL offers disaster response expertise
DHL developed the program in response to the frustration experienced by its international workforce during the wave of natural disasters that have struck around the globe over the last three years. DHL, the world's seventh-largest employer, found that in situations ranging from the Bam, Iran earthquake on Christmas Day of 2003 through the hurricanes and floods in the Americas the last two years and the devastating earthquake in the Kashmir region of Pakistan last year, there was a recurring problem with bottlenecks at airports overwhelmed by the sudden influx of relief flights.
| Dr. Monika Wulf-Mathies, John Cameron, Pablo Pinson |
'This did not come out of our headquarters in Bonn (Germany),' commented Dr. Monika Wulf-Mathies, executive vice president and head of corporate public policy and sustainability for Deutsche Post World Net. 'Our employees reacted spontaneously to these situations, and later our employees said 'Let's use our expertise' when they saw the normal problems happening.'
Because the governments in the affected locations have primary authority over disaster response, DHL and the disaster response officials from the United Nations will be working in a public-private partnership. DHL can offer its logistics expertise and efficiencies, while the affiliation with the U.N. gives DHL stature it would never have acting independently as a private-sector company.
Carlos Monteiro-Pereira, a representative from the Coordination and Response Division of the U.N.'s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, said the U.N. recognizes the need to work with the private sector to improve response capacity and offer a more targeted response after a disaster.
'There has been a burst of worldwide solidarity from the disasters in 2004 and 2005 and companies are getting involved,' he said. 'The U.N. sees a window of opportunity to build synergies and partnerships with the business community.'
John Cameron, executive vice president of DHL Express (USA), said the greatest problem the company has seen in trying to help with past disasters is that airports closest to the disaster site quickly reach capacity to handle inbound relief shipments. In the worst cases, airports actually have to close down while waiting for relief aircraft to be unloaded. Not only are additional inbound relief shipments slowed or diverted, but shipments already on the ground are not collected and distributed properly.
One of the solutions, he noted, is to coordinate efforts from a central base somewhere in the region, using that command center to ease problems at destination airports.
That will be one of the functions of the South Florida DRT.
DHL has also pieced together a volunteer team with specialized expertise that includes familiarity with military. All services are in-kind and DHL does not bill for the DRT.