Logistics Competitors Team Up to Rescue Pakistan Flood Victims

Global logistics providers Agility, TNT and UPS are providing warehousing, transport and logistics support in the current Pakistan emergency to ensure critical relief supplies reach the people affected by the disastrous rains and flooding. The three companies comprise the Logistics Emergency Teams (LETs) unit, a cross-company partnership to support humanitarian relief efforts during natural disasters.

The LETs are working closely with the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP), the lead of the Logistics Cluster, which coordinates the logistical response of the humanitarian community at times of disaster.

The heavy rains and flooding in Pakistan have left millions stranded with no access to food and basic necessities. In the first month, WFP reached three million people with food supplies, and in September is seeking to reach double that number, according to Martin Ohlsen, WFP’s logistics director. The LETs have significantly boosted the speed and effectiveness of the humanitarian response, Ohlsen notes.

The LETs, from Agility, TNT and UPS, have provided warehousing facilities totalling 8,000 square meters in Multan, Peshawar and Islamabad, along with support staff in several locations. Agility and TNT have also supplied refrigerated containers for storage of temperature sensitive cargo such as medicines. Agility, TNT and UPS have provided light trucks for transporting relief material between airports, helipads and consolidation warehouses.

As well as warehousing and transport assets, the LET partners provide expertise and local knowledge, to support the response of the entire humanitarian community in getting food, shelter, health and water sanitation items to the most affected communities.

The LETs initiative was launched in 2008 at the World Economic Forum Meeting in Davos, Switzerland. Central to the LETs model is the partnership of otherwise competing companies to utilize their corporate expertise, local resources and relationships in support of humanitarian relief efforts in response to natural disasters.