Menlo pre-positions emergency supplies for NYC
Logistics specialist Menlo Worldwide said it has been selected by New York City to stockpile emergency supplies and manage distribution to relief centers in the event of a hurricane.
San Mateo, Calif.-based Menlo, a subsidiary of freight transportation and logistics provider Con-way Inc., will operate a 50,000-square-foot specialized warehouse with pre-positioned supplies, including more than 4 million bottles of water, hundreds of thousands of ready-to-eat meals, first aid kits, protein bars, personal care kits, diapers, baby formula, cots, and blankets.
The one-year contract with the Office of Emergency Management is worth $1.6 million, not including the supplies themselves, and was reached under an emergency procurement process to quickly fill the need, OEM spokesman Andrew Troisi said. The agency intends to solicit a new, longer-term contract under normal budget procedures in the future, he added.
An impending hurricane will trigger an action plan to bring in staff to process and stage shipments, and arrange transportation. Menlo will prepare and begin delivery of relief shipments to designated evacuation areas prior to a major hurricane making landfall, and manage replenishment and distribution efforts throughout the crisis.
After the hurricane, Menlo will replenish inventories at the warehouse in preparation for another emergency.
Menlo, which has also developed an emergency logistics service for businesses, said its ability to gain quick access to trucking resources through its sister company Con-way Freight, as well as contractual relationships with other motor carriers, helped win the contract.
“The stockpile intended for our coastal storm plan, but we would be able to leverage those resources for a variety of situations,” such as a terrorist attack, Troisi said.
The National Weather Service has said that New York is one of three cities, along with Miami and New Orleans, most vulnerable to a hurricane. Northern regions like New York are not the most likely landfalls for hurricanes, but having a large population on an extensive coastal plain makes the city exposed to the destructive effects of a big storm. Troisi said the major risk is storm surge, which could severely cripple infrastructure and housing stock, and lead to large-scale evacuations.
American Shipper first reported that Menlo was working with a large city on a logistics response plan in the April issue (pages 16-17). The issue includes a package of stories about how companies are prepared to deal with a supply chain disaster (pages 6-25).