Humanitarian logiistics is getting a big boost from FedEx Logistics, Inc. these days as the subsidiary of FedEx Corp., provides essential support for the fight against COVID-19.
We learned recenlty that FedEx is supplying Medline personal protective equipment (PPE) from a FedEx Logistics facility located in the Panama Pacifico Free Trade Zone and Panama, to hospitals in South America, Central America and the Caribbean.
Medline is a manufacturer and distributor of medical supplies and clinical programs. To date, over 850,200 face masks have been shipped to hospitals throughout the region with help from FedEx Express, the world’s largest express transportation company.
The operation to get emergency supplies to hospitals began March 10 as the virus continued its global spread. To date, around 2,000 boxes, each with 300 masks, have been distributed throughout the Caribbean and another 1,000 boxes to Central America. Several more containers full of PPE are on the way to Panama for distribution to these areas and other customers in South America.
The equipment includes face masks, gloves, shoe covers and disposable clothing — everything that will help to protect doctors, nurses and hospital administrators.
FedEx Logistics receives the equipment from global manufacturers, and then packages and fulfills orders, in a Free Trade Zone that is home to many multinational companies that do business throughout Latin America, including Medline.
“FedEx Logistics was agile and acted with a sense of urgency to provide essential supply chain services, enabling us to get protective equipment to where it is needed the most,” says Oscar Chavarria, vice president, Latin America, Medline. “And FedEx Express provided a very reliable service despite many challenges in the current environment.”
In August last year, FedEx Logistics became the third-party logistics provider for all of Medline’s medical consumables and patient-care products in the Latin America region.
As noted in this space recenltly, FedEx Corp. announced the online release of its 2020 Global Citizenship Report (GCR), which details the company’s corporate social responsibility strategies, goals, programs and progress.
It is worth noting that Fedex is also a “Title Sponsor” of the 2020 USC Marshall Global Supply Chain Excellence Summit. When the conference convenes this October, humanitarian supply chains and the challenges of current epidemics is certain to be addressed.
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