trailer world issue One 2010

10 Issue One 2010 Title Programme (WFP), responsible for the UN global logistics cluster. Together they provide emergency logistics teams, similar to DHL. The teams include lo- gistics experts as well as company warehouses, trucks and forklift equipment, used for ex- ample in China, Haiti, India, Myanmar and Mozambique. TNT has also benefitted from its commitment: today the company is one of the most popular employers in the USA and is one of the Top 10 sustainably acting com- panies. But humanitarian logistics is not just an act of charity, it is also a business unit. As the largest UN sub-organisation, the WFP alone transports about 9% of its goods with com- mercial providers, accounting for altogether 4.5 million tons of aid in 2009. On a global scale, the WFP employed 48 shipping compa- nies, 67 airlines, more than 200 logistics com- panies on the ground and several thousand truck hire companies in more than 70 coun- tries. It also hires its strategically positioned warehouses all over the world from private providers. Altogether, the organisation spent one billion US dollars on its logistics. One of WFP‘s contract companies on site was Kühne+Nagel (KN). The company gen- erates about five percent of its turnover from disaster and emergency aid logistics. In the first three weeks after the earthquake in Haiti it flew 21 charter airplanes to Santo Domingo for the WFP, and also for UNICEF, the Unit- ed Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and the International Red Cross, as well as World Vision and CARE. Corresponding agreements stipulated that the company had to be ready to act in the disaster region within 24 hours. For 15 years now, the company has been operating a corresponding “Emergency & Relief Logistics” department based in Co- penhagen. As soon as the first news emerges of a new natural disaster, the staff start to as- semble equipment and means of transport. “The biggest challenge in disaster logistics is not getting the goods from A to B”, says Søren Christensen in describing his depart- ment‘s work, “but in setting up functional communication to guarantee that all play- ers in supply chain management know their task and don‘t get in each other‘s way”. On site, the KN team makes sure that customer freight consignments pass smoothly through the customs and tax formalities of the particu- lar country; it informs the airport authorities about the contents and volume of the deliv- ery, and organises local drivers and convoys which are often accompanied by local military or UN soldiers in their blue helmets because of the poor security situation in crisis regions. Here too the right papers must be available. Where these tasks are concerned, the logis- tics company profits from its branches in 100 countries. It already has local employees in many conflict regions such as Afghanistan or Sudan, who take care of communication with the authorities. After all, according to Chris- tensen, “In the worst case, incorrect commu- nication can cost lives.” Major aid organisations such as the Inter- national Red Cross use their own global lo- gistics system. All over the world, aid can be Setting up a supply chain from nothing »In the worst case, incorrect communication can cost lives.« Søren Christensen, Kühne+Nagel Major aid organisations such as the International Red Cross use their own global logistics system with strategically positioned warehouses Protection from looters: UN soldiers ac- company trucks bringing supplies to Haiti

trailer world issue One 2010

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