Transport

 In the context of humanitarian organizations, transport

is defined as “the activities involved in moving supplies
from the point of origin to internal customers or
beneficiaries”

 The aim of transport is to physically move supplies in a

reliable and safe manner, on time, cost-effectively, and
efficiently to its destination

1 By:Roba Zayed
Operations: Transport Strategy
 A transport strategy depends not only on the needs
within the organization, but varies from organization to
organization and from situation to situation

2 By:Roba Zayed
Transport Strategy Factors
 Some factors (emergency and nonemergency
 situations) to consider when developing a transport
strategy are:

 How to identify transport service providers

 How to manage the function, i.e., whether to lease,
outsource, or manage own fleet
 Capacity of transport modes available
 Quantities requiring movement over a period of time
 Nature of goods/products/supplies to be transported
 Distances to be covered
3 By:Roba Zayed
Transport Strategy Factors
 Environmental issues such as climate, government
legislature, infrastructure, taxes, etc
 Number of destinations, hubs, and pre-positioning
locations Origins and routes
 Available transport modes and their relative costs
 Human resources
 Terrain
 Funding
 Security
 Circumstances – such as nature of disaster

4 By:Roba Zayed
Fleet Management

 Fleet management is the function that oversees,

coordinates, and facilitates various transport and
transport-related activities

 Effective fleet management aims at reducing and

minimizing overall costs through maximum, cost-effective
utilization of resources such as vehicles, fuel, spare parts,
etc

5 By:Roba Zayed
Fleet Management
 The administration and financial management of fleet is
very organizational specific. It largely depends on donor
requirements and organizational policies

6 By:Roba Zayed
Fleet Management Systems
 Vehicle management systems are structured in a way that
enables the capturing of information on various aspects of
fleet usage, maintenance, and operations. For
example:

 Distances traveled
 Destinations reached
 Distance traveled by vehicle showing official and private
mileage

7 By:Roba Zayed
Fleet Management Systems
 Fuel consumption
 Repair and maintenance per vehicle
 Rate of consumption of spare parts
 Servicing planned and completed

8 By:Roba Zayed
The humanitarian relationships model

9 By:Roba Zayed
Humanitarian Logistics and the Players Involved
 Humanitarian relief-operation management engages very
different players, who may have a high degree of
heterogeneity in terms of culture, purposes, interests,
mandates, capacity, and logistics expertise

 Key players can be categorized as follow: governments,

the military, aid agencies, donors, non-governmental
organizations (NGOs), and private sector companies

10 By:Roba Zayed
Governments
 Governments—host governments, neighboring country
governments, and other country governments within the
international community—are the activators of
humanitarian logistics stream after a disaster strikes since
they have the power to authorize operations and
mobilize resources
 In fact, without the host government authorization, no
other player—with the exception of national aid agencies
and the military—can operate in the disaster theater.
Host government authorization is fundamental for the
involvement of other countries (neighbors or not)

11 By:Roba Zayed
Military
 On many occasions, the military has been a very
important actor since soldiers are called upon to provide
primary assistance (i.e., hospital and camp installation,
telecommunications, and route repair) thanks to their
high planning and logistic capabilities

12 By:Roba Zayed
Aid agencies
 Aid agencies are actors through which governments are
able to alleviate the suffering caused by disasters. The
largest agencies are global actors, but there are also many
small regional and country-specific aid agencies. One of
the most important for its logistic role and contribution
is the WFP

13 By:Roba Zayed
Sectors lead organization(s)

14 By:Roba Zayed
Donors
 Donors provide the bulk of funding for major relief
activities. Generally, donations consist of giving financial
means (in-cash donations) to support humanitarian
operations or providing goods and/or services for free
(in-kind donations) while performing logistics operations.
Since each player within its own specific role can provide
in-kind donations, in the humanitarian relationship model
the term ‘‘donor’’ refers to those who exclusively give
financial means to fund aid operations

15 By:Roba Zayed
Donors
 Thus, in addition to country-specific funding provided by
governments in recent years, foundations, individual
donors, and companies have become important sources
of funds for aid agencies

16 By:Roba Zayed
NGOs
 NGOs include several and disparate actors, ranging from
influential and international players, such as CARE (a
leading humanitarian organization fighting global poverty),
to small and micro-organizations that develop within local
communities but are also able to operate at the
international level.
 Some of these players are temporary, being created just
to address one particular crisis

17 By:Roba Zayed
Private-sector companies
 The presence of private-sector companies (logistics and
others companies) is increasingly growing in the
humanitarian relief environment. In the humanitarian
logistics, companies can play one or more of the following
roles:

 • Donors
 • Collectors
 • Providers

18 By:Roba Zayed
Private-sector companies-Doners
 As a donor, a company can support humanitarian logistics
by giving financial contributions (in cash) to fund aid
operations. As a collector, a company can gather financial
means from its customers, its employees, and its suppliers
in order to fund aid operations

19 By:Roba Zayed
Private-sector companies-Provider
 As a provider, a company can offer its goods and services
for free (in-kind donation) or as a consequence of a
selling action. In the humanitarian relationship model,
when a company exclusively plays the role of donor
and/or collector, it simply belongs to the donors category

20 By:Roba Zayed
Private-sector companies-Provider
 Companies are capable of providing technological support
and logistics staff and managers. They also provide specific
services that may no longer be available on the ground
immediately after a disaster has occurred, such as
electricity supply, engineering solutions, banking support,
and postal services. Initially, companies are moved to
participate in humanitarian efforts because they have
observed that enormous losses are inflicted when
disasters interrupt the flow of their business; so they
invest in re-establishing their business continuity. Working
to alleviate the economic impact of such disruptions
‘‘makes good business sense’’
21 By:Roba Zayed
Logistics service providers
 logistics service providers are excellent contributors at
each stage of a disaster-relief operation through their
logistics and supply chain management core capabilities.
Leading international logistics service providers, such as
Agility, DHL, FedEx, Maersk, TNT, and UPS, have raised
their importance in terms of the resources, assets, and
knowledge shared with their humanitarian counterparts
 Thanks to their capabilities in enhancing the speed and
efficiency of relief efforts, logistics companies are
assuming a more prominent role as the partners of
humanitarian organizations

22 By:Roba Zayed
A typical humanitarian supply chain

23 By:Roba Zayed
Disaster Management Cycle

24 By:Roba Zayed