Logistics aid in Haiti

As well as supplying food, drink and medicines to the earthquake struck island, donors are also supplying key logistics skills and experience.  A large international logistics company is advising the UN on ‘logistics for disaster’, providing operational management skills and resource knowledge which would be difficult for the UN to obtain in any other way.  Other companies are supplying dedicated air freight services.  However, as is well reported, there is a logistics bottle neck at Haiti airport and the harbour is damaged, making shipping by sea a less viable option.  Many shipments have to be trans-shipped via Miami.  In the early stages of a disaster, the armed forces are highly involved in distributing aid, but in the later stages of relief and reconstruction, higher volumes of freight will be moved and freight forwarders and logistics providers will be vital to this process.