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Coyote’s Mexico Team Collaborates to Transport Relief Freight for Hurricane Otis

trailer loaded with acapulco relief freight

On October 25, 2023, Hurricane Otis made landfall in Acapulco on the Pacific coast of Mexico as a devastating Category 5 hurricane.

Otis took at least 52 lives across the area and devastated the local infrastructure and economy, accounting for more than $16 billion in losses.

When relief efforts kicked rapidly into gear to help the devastated region, Coyote and the UPS Foundation were right there on the front lines.

A Rapid Resource Allocation Leads to a Rapid Response

In the immediate aftermath of the storm, the UPS Foundation issued two $50,000 donations to aid organizations, one to the Salvation Army and the other to Mexican agency CENACED. This money was allocated from the UPS Foundation’s emergency fund and paid for transportation of relief freight into Acapulco.

Coyote’s Mexico operations, coverage and capacity teams stepped up to help ensure these funds were put to good use. The Salvation Army began distributing water from their canteen on October 26 and serving 300 meals a day from their Children’s Home on October 28. Our teams procured transportation for the distributed materials as well as on-the-ground labor to get them in the right hands.

Similarly, our Mexico teams coordinated transportation for aid products distributed by CENACED to sites across the city.

All in all, we helped move:

  • 34 shipments.
  • 1,424,500 lbs. of relief freight (food, beverages, hygiene products).
  • Multiple vehicle types ranging from cargo vans to full truckloads.

workers loading trailers with relief freight for acapulco

This freight was transported over 7,256 total miles spread across six unique lanes within Mexico:

  • Cuautla to Acapulco
  • Huejotzingo to Acapulco
  • Mexico City to Acapulco
  • Toluca de Lerdo to Acapulco
  • Toluca to Acapulco
  • Toluca to San Marcos

UPS and Coyote employees also contributed more than just their logistics expertise to this effort — more than 80 of them donated humanitarian aid, food, medical supplies and other products as well as their time in packing meal kits in CENECED facilities.

Building the Infrastructure for Future Relief Freight

This is the first time our Guadalajara-based team has coordinated an effort of this magnitude and urgency, and we’re thrilled with how all parties involved pulled together to get this important job done. The relationships we’ve built here have laid the groundwork for future rapid responses to humanitarian crises across Mexico.

Learn more about the relief efforts coordinated by the UPS Foundation, the Salvation Army and CENACED.