inbound

Here’s our monthly roundup of some of the charitable works and donations by companies in the material handling and logistics space.

b Nashville, Tennessee-based Hunter Industrial, a division of the Hunter Fan Co., has donated two 18-foot HVLS (high-volume, low-speed) fans to DCI Logistics, a nonprofit that specializes in transportation for organ and tissue transplants. The Hunter Industrial fans were installed in DCI’s 10,000-square-foot hangar at the Nashville International Airport, where the nonprofit maintains a 24/7 dispatching service.

b Cranberry Township, Pennsylvania-based PLS Logistics Services held its second annual Police Appreciation Week in Pittsburgh and Philadelphia in October. The company provided the Cranberry Township and 6th District Philadelphia police departments with catered lunches over the course of a week. PLS started this event in 2018 to show gratitude for all the hard work police officers do for the community.

b Mail and logistics services provider Deutsche Post DHL Group participated in its first Disaster Response Team deployment in Africa this year. In March and April, 12 DHL volunteers from Mozambique, South Africa, and United Arab Emirates were deployed to the city of Beira in Mozambique, where Cyclone Idai had damaged crops and destroyed close to 200,000 homes.

During their deployment, team members processed 1. 7 million pounds of humanitarian relief supplies from aircraft arriving at Beira airport.

b Temperature-controlled logistics solutions provider Lineage Logistics LLC has partnered with the nonprofit Feeding America to support hunger relief. Since the partnership’s inception in January, Lineage has donated $150,000 to the nonprofit. On top of the monetary donation, Lineage team members have donated over 12,000 pounds of food through food drives and volunteered over 2,500 hours at Feeding America member food banks nationwide. n

Logistics gives back
Amazon to staffers: You can bring your dog

You’ve likely met the “UPS dogs” by now, thanks to the popular social media sites featuring photos of the pups UPS drivers meet on their routes. But what about the dogs of Amazon?

Although there might seem to be little connection between canines and e-commerce, it turns out the e-tail giant has a longstanding tradition of welcoming employees’ dogs at its Seattle headquarters. Amazon says it’s been dog friendly since the company was founded, noting that there are currently 7,000 pooches registered to come to work at the facility, with around 500 coming in on any given day. (You can see some of them on the “@dogsofamazon” Instagram account.)

The Seattle facility caters to its furry visitors’ every need. According to an Amazon blog post, the reception desks in every office building are “a must-stop spot to snag dog treats.” And if they need to burn off a little energy, the four-footers can frolic at one of several indoor and outdoor dog parks at the company’s vast corporate campus, which includes an estimated 45 buildings.

So how does the company handle bathroom breaks for the pets? The 17th floor
of Amazon’s “Doppler” building offers a doggie deck—complete with a fake fire
hydrant—where dogs can run around. And the campus has numerous poop-bag
stations, designated dog relief areas, and dog-friendly water fountains. n
Attend a production of the
classic holiday ballet “The
Nutcracker” and you’ll be
treated to magical sights like
an evil seven-headed mouse
king, troops of brave wood-
en soldiers, an oversized
Christmas tree, and a flying
sled drawn by reindeer.

But there’s magic taking place behind the scenes as well, including the kind it takes to collect, assemble, and transport all the pieces that make the show come alive. In one Midwestern city this winter, a key player in that logistical endeavor was G&D Integrated, a Morton, Illinois-based transportation and logistics service provider.

Over several days in
December, G&D provided a
truck, trailer, and driver to
transport sets, props, and cos-
tumes for the Peoria Ballet’s
annual production of “The
Nutcracker.”
“G&D is pleased to be a part
of a longstanding partnership
with the Peoria Ballet,” Curt
Fisher, vice president of cli-
ent relations and marketing
at G&D Integrated, said in a
release. “Assisting with this
production over the years
has allowed us to support the
local arts in our community.”
Peoria Ballet is a nonprofit
company with over 50 years of
providing dance performance
and education to Central
Illinois. The corp’s perfor-
mance features five guest art-
ists from the Joffrey Ballet and
more than 100 of the ballet
academy’s dancers. n