At 1700 on Tuesday 12 January 2010 a magnitude 7.3 (Richter scale) earthquake struck southern Haiti, causing major devastation and huge loss of life.  The response from the international humanitarian aid community was overwhelming and TGS found itself right at the forefront of the endeavours to deliver aid and emergency supplies, namely our 4x4 vehicles.  The first two vehicles were driven out of Gibraltar at 1300 on 13 January, and were delivered to Bordeaux Airport at 1600 on 14 January for immediate airlift to Port au Prince.

The extreme urgency of the situation and the victims’ plight meant that our usual procedures and timescales would not suffice to deal with such a large-scale emergency.  Consequently, all TGS departments were required to swing into immediate action in response to the massive demand for vehicles.  Staff members from virtually all departments (from the Sales Team, Customs Administration, Spare Parts, Freight & Export Administration right through to the Workshops and Warehouse) have worked a huge amount of extra hours, including weekends, to make sure that all vehicles, paperwork and shipments have been ready for immediate deployment to Haiti. 

Whenever TGS is called upon by its clients to assist with their responses to major events, we don’t just rely on our internal departments to go that “extra mile”: we also depend on our external partners to under-pin our efforts.  This was particularly applicable to Gibraltar Customs and the Gibraltar Department of Transport.  Both these local authorities were instrumental in assisting our already over-stretched Export Administration and Freight Departments with the 24-hour turnaround we required for the pre-registration of vehicles.  Documentation which would normally take 5 working days to process was ready within 24 hours.  Thanks to the hard work and dedication of all concerned (including our international freight service providers), these vehicles were despatched from Gibraltar right away and our clients could drive them directly to the worst hit areas the moment they landed at the destination. 

At TGS we pride ourselves in our personnel’s professionalism and sense of responsibility. Thanks to these core values we do our very best to support those working to relieve the suffering of those affected.