The Agricultural and Food Transporters Conference of the American Trucking Assns. (ATA) presented its Distinguished Public Service Award to Wal-Mart Transportation at ATA’s Management Conference and Exhibition in Boston this week.
Hurricane Katrina shut down 126 company stores, but Wal-Mart Transportation re-supplied the majority of the stores, helping all but 13 facilities to reopen. Thanks to Wal-Mart Transportation, the reopened stores could operate on a makeshift basis and distribute essential products, AFTC said.
Wal-Mart Transportation leveraged its past experience with providing relief after natural disasters and its advanced supply chain system to provide critical items to hurricane victims, according to AFTC.
The company shipped beds and related supplies to the Houston Astrodome and set up computers at shelters to help evacuees locate their families and fill prescriptions. Wal-Mart hauled $3 million worth of supplies to the hurricane-ravaged Gulf Coast, as well as donated $17 million in cash.
Additionally, the company located 97% of its employees displaced by the storm and offered them jobs at other Wal-Mart operations in the country.
“AFTC is honored to present its Distinguished Public Service Award to Wal-Mart Transportation, which showed that in America it is all about service and sharing what you have,” said AFTC chairman Greg Owen.
To view the archive of FleetOwner’s ongoing hurricane news coverage, go to www.fleetowner.com/katrina.
