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Russia’s Olympics- The logistical view

The Winter Olympics have officially begun in Sochi in Russia and so far the games have gone to plan.  The games will consist of 17 days of winter events and 9 days of Paralympic games as a full house of spectators fills every seat in the 75,000 capacity Sochi Olympic Park.What has held everyone’s attention is the enormous amount of money spent to host the games in Russia. An estimated €50 billion has been spent on the Sochi Winter Olympics—making it one of the most expensive Olympic Games in history.

It is reported that €6 billion went toward Olympic-related expenses, and €7 billion was spent completing the road and rail infrastructure to transport spectators, the media, volunteers, workers, the Olympic athletes, and the athletes’ families. Another massive undertaking of these games is the cost and manpower invested into transporting hauling all the necessary equipment and goods to Sochi for the games to function.

The Winter Olympics for a logistical point of view is one of the biggest freight and shipping operations there is. Packages, parcels, pallets and containers of goods have to be shipped from the competing countries to one central location. This can prove very problematic for the companies employed to complete this task. The items have to be transported by rail, air, seal, and land as all transportation routes will be monitored by the Federal Customs Service and managed by the Olympic Organising Committee.

For every piece of equipment required by those involved, there will be a certain amount of extra equipment in case the original piece is faulty or damaged. All spectators, media personnel, athletes and volunteers at the events will require an appropriate amount of hospitality goods for their stay in Russia including food and medical supplies. To handle the huge logistical requirements, the 2014 Sochi Organizing Committee has appointed an official freight forwarder for to make sure that all goods are transported to the games efficiently, safely and on time.

They have employed Aeroflot as the official airline to be used as a cargo freight carrier for the games and Russian Railways are the official freight services provider as it has the ability to successfully  carry over 1.1 billion tons of freight each year.The logistics operation will work that when all goods and equipment required have been cleared through customs in Russia, the freight will then be loaded on the Russian Railways train and shipped to one of two distribution centers based on the type of freight.

The main distribution center for the games has 2,700 square meters of space in order to store all Olympic game-related goods. This distribution center is the central hub of all Olympics’ logistics operations. The IBC warehouse has 8,400 square meters of warehouse space as it will house all broadcasting equipment. The IBC warehouse will be the main freight operations center for broadcasters.

From these two distribution centers, all the freight will be organized and available for use at the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics. Shipping documents are essential for every piece of freight as it will then be shipped to the final venue of destination. Every freight forwarder used will need a delivery manifest and can only deliver goods within a specified delivery window to ensure the maximum security measures are taken at every venue.

This is to do with the potential terrorist threats that have surrounded the games. Organisers will be hoping that the logistical operations put in place will run smoothly and that all the required goods and equipment for the games will be where they need to be for the games to pass off without a hitch.

 

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