Logistics experts from the private sector are lending their expertise to non-profit relief organizations. From In Year of Disasters, Experts Bring Order To Chaos of Relief:
The first change was simple but crucial — halting the practice of unloading the planes directly into trucks. That’s a classic recipe for tarmac tie-ups: It blocks the landing strips so other planes can’t touch down. ‘They think it’s the most efficient way, but it’s actually the slowest,’ he says. He directed the planes to taxi off the runway to an area where they could be unloaded in a more orderly fashion — their contents transported into organized holding areas for later distribution. The other improvements amounted to the relatively prosaic inventory and warehouse management methods practiced by large shippers.