Fire and Flame for the Games “Down Under”

By DB Schenker, 4 May, 2018

Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games featured an integrated sports program comprising 18 sports and seven para-sports with 275 medal events. With 6,600 athletes and officials the event is significantly larger than the Olympic Winter Games, which recently took place in Korea.

A workforce of over 100 Schenker employees was responsible for providing logistics, freight forwarding and customs clearance services to the GC2018 including the handling of sports equipment, supplies and assets as along with storage and delivery from one point to another. A 12,500 sqm warehouse was established to coordinate deliveries to all venues. Athlete’s equipment was delivered to a total of 17 competition venues and 14 training venues, by the end of the GC2018 our team estimated a total movement of 39,000 items.

In addition, DB SCHENKERsportsevents was responsible for assisting with the athlete arrival and departure process. This required the team to fit out vehicles with specific equipment to handle the transportation of athletes sporting equipment, such as bicycles and pole vaults. The Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games also integrated the Para-Sport programme which required specialised equipment.

Planning for departures is a true logistical masterpiece. All 6,600 Athletes and Team Officials departed over a 48 hour period with different departure times. It required a well-planned process to align truck schedules with flight departures and to make sure that the athletes’ equipment and luggage was loaded and transported to the airport in time.

“Over 100 #Schenker employees coordinated the arrival and departure of all athletes and were also responsible for providing #logistics, freight forwarding and customs clearance services of 39,000 sports items at #GC2018.“

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Participating in the Queen’s Baton Relay

As a reward for their efforts, six employees of DB Schenkersportevents were nominated for the Queen’s Baton Relay, the official torch relay of the Commonwealth Games. German born Sarah Schmitz, who had already worked in logistics at Beijing 2008, had the honour to be one of the Queen’s baton bearers. “I am truly honoured and know that this will be one of the best days of my life, a dream I never thought would come true”, commented the Operations Supervisor.

Source: DB Schenker