The independent United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and its Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance have commissioned DHL (Plantation, Fla.) to assume the logistics management of international flights carrying relief supplies for the Gulf Coast region.
Beginning today, DHL, the express and logistics subsidiary of Deutsche Post World Net, is mobilizing its Disaster Response Team to assist with shipments of international aid arriving at the Little Rock Air Force Base in Little Rock, Arkansas. Over the next two weeks, relief supplies will be unloaded from aircraft around the clock and packed into trucks bound for the areas ravaged by Hurricane Katrina.
DHL’s Disaster Response Team will be led by Chris Weeks, Senior Manager of DHL, who directed logistics efforts conducted by the Disaster Response Team at the Colombo airport in Sri Lanka following the tsunami in December 2004. His team helped coordinate the delivery of approximately 7,000 tons of relief supplies to the affected areas.
Since Hurricane Katrina made landfall, DHL has also been implementing operational contingency plans in an effort to speed the recovery process and resume operations as soon as possible, minimizing the impact on customers’ shipments. Beginning today, DHL will begin new daily air express service into Baton Rouge with the first air express industry jet aircraft ever to land at Baton Rouge Metropolitan Airport.
“Our team has worked incredibly hard since the disaster to resume service across the Gulf Coast for customers who depend on DHL services,” said Fred Beljaars, Executive Vice President of Operations for DHL. “Sadly, the operational landscape across the region has changed. But by transferring our operations to Baton Rouge, DHL will once again be able to service the majority of the affected areas, providing our customers with a superior service experience.”
With annual revenues over $32 billion in 2004, and over 170,000 employees, DHL is a leader in the international express and logistics industry, specializing in providing innovative and customized solutions from a single source.
Source: DHL.
