DHL, the world's leading express delivery and logistics company, has recently launched two DHL Disaster Response Teams (DRTs). The DHL DRT Asia Pacific, based in Singapore, was launched in April 2006, and the DHL DRT Americas, based in South Florida, in the United States, was inaugurated in May this year. The DRTs will provide logistical support to ensure that relief goods will quickly reach victims of major sudden-onset natural disasters in Asia Pacific and the Americas.

“By setting up Disaster Response Teams, DHL is enhancing its commitment to supporting the United Nations and the international community's humanitarian missions on a long-term basis,” said Dr. Klaus Zumwinkel, Chairman and CEO of Deutsche Post World Net, DHL's parent company. “We have already gained extensive experience in responding to recent major natural disasters.”

DHL employees were actively engaged in providing humanitarian assistance in the aftermath of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, Hurricane Katrina in the United States in the summer of 2005, and last year's South Asian earthquake in Pakistan.

The DRTs are the first initiative to result from a strategic partnership between DHL and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in the area of disaster management.

The DHL DRTs apply their professional knowledge of logistics and transportation to help governments organize the handling, warehousing and loading of relief goods for onward transportation in an efficient manner, ultimately reducing bottlenecks at airports close to the scene of major sudden-onset natural disasters.

DHL's DRTs for Asia Pacific and the Americas each consist of a pool of about 80 specially-trained experts, who, in addition to their normal jobs at DHL, have volunteered to take part in the DRTs' humanitarian work. The teams will normally be deployed for a period of up to three weeks following a major natural disaster. By that point in time, the initial surge of international charter aircraft bringing in aid supplies has normally decreased to a manageable level for the airport authorities and their local partners to handle.

Members of the DRTs have been trained in areas such as team building and dynamics, operational processes, non-verbal communication and basic first aid, to offer professional disaster response services. In addition, the DRTs will be on permanent standby and can therefore begin operating at an airport close to the scene of a major disaster at short notice, usually within two to four days, providing the Americas and Asia Pacific with pivotal support when disaster strikes.

Singapore was chosen as the site for the DHL DRT Asia Pacific because of its strategic location in the region and for its excellent telecommunications, transportation and logistics infrastructure. Based out of the DHL Americas Corporate Headquarters in South Florida, the DRT Americas will cover areas primarily in Latin America and the Caribbean, as well as northern South America and the southern United States, if needed.