When disaster strikes, logistics operations are often central to saving lives and hastening the recovery. Materials, food, medical supplies, equipment and more have to move quickly to affected areas. More often than not, logistics providers are on hand to help out.

That was apparent after the terrorist attacks in New York last September essentially closed down lower Manhattan. Dozens of carriers and their employees pitched in to help in the recovery effort just as they have time and again after hurricanes, floods, fires and other disasters around the world.

But matching the need with the desire to help when disaster strikes is not easy.

To address that dilemma, the World Economic Forum, a Geneva, Switzerland-based organization of international businesses, has formed the Disaster Response Network. The aim of the new group, whose creation was announced during the forum's annual meeting in New York last February, is to coordinate logistical and engineering requirements at disaster locations worldwide.

One of the co-chairs of the network's founding committee is Lynn Fritz, former chairman and CEO of international freight forwarder Fritz Cos. and founder of the Fritz Institute, a group formed to help disseminate best practices in logistics to humanitarian organizations engaged in disaster relief. Because few non-government organizations that help with disaster response have disciplined procedures in place for acquiring logistics and engineering services, Fritz says, the Disaster Response Network's transportation group aims to help those organizations prepare a response plan they can implement when a disaster strikes.

To that end, Fritz explains, the organization intends to create an Internet-based clearinghouse that will match disaster relief requirements with support offered by participating companies. The group also hopes to create regional response organizations and coordinate disaster relief training for volunteers in participating companies. Eventually, the Disaster Response Network would become independent of the World Economic Forum.

The network is now in its organizing stage. Over the next several months, Fritz says, the group will raise funds and garner commitments from participating logistics, engineering and construction companies and create a business plan. "Once that's done, we'll get to the execution stage," he says. "This is a bit like forwarding," he adds. "We're going to help the people turning the screws. We're here to help the people on the ground—the heroic people doing heroic jobs with limited resources."