Strength in numbers: Pitching in to fight COVID-19 in the Basque Country
DACHSER is supporting the health authorities in the Basque Country, providing 4000 square meters of storage space near Bilbao for medical supplies since the end of March.
A team of four to five DACHSER employees works seven days a week solely on processing orders from the Basque health authorities. By the end of April, the team had stored some 1,450 pallets with more than 29 million medical supplies. These are intended for hospitals, social and health services, police, and fire brigades in the region.
A wide variety of medical supplies arrive at DACHSER Bilbao every day. These are items which the local health authority is receiving in the form of donations as well as from local suppliers or imports arriving at the airports of Bilbao, Foronda, Madrid, and Barcelona. Once received in the warehouse, the supplies are checked and classified, allowing the Basque Health Service to constantly keep abreast of the available inventory of materials. Depending on what the individual health centers require, the authority forwards the relevant orders to DACHSER. The medical supplies are distributed to hospitals, centers for social and medical services, and local police stations or fire departments on the very same day.
Ibán García de Andoin, Branch Manager of DACHSER Bilbao, explains how this cooperation came about: “On March 23rd we first established contact with the Basque Health Service and made available to the Basque government 4000 square meters of storage space and our entire logistics, supply chain, and management structure to meet the existing demand for medical supplies. Thanks to our work together, we received the first requests for materials and distribution within 24 hours.”
A dedicated team in the fight against COVID-19
At present, a team of four to five DACHSER employees is working exclusively on orders received from the Basque Health Service. These employees are responding around-the-clock and seven days a week in order to deal with emergencies as quickly as possible, García de Andoin adds. Materials are being placed into storage and removed constantly, including on public holidays. In this context, Celestino Silva, Managing Director of European Logistics Iberia, also emphasized the solidarity demonstrated by all DACHSER employees, whose cooperation in the current situation is essential to prepare the medical materials in such a way that they quickly reach every location in the Basque Country where they are needed.
