Toyota donation boosts flow of humanitarian aid to Ukraine

Boxes of Hope, a humanitarian aid charity that was established to send food, clothing, medicine and other essential items to the people of Ukraine following the country’s invasion by Russia, has taken delivery of a vinyl-wrapped forklift truck donated free-of-charge by Toyota Material Handling (TMH) UK Ltd.

The forklift – a 2.5 tonne diesel-powered counterbalance model from the Toyota Approved Used fleet – has been vinyl-wrapped in the Boxes of Hope branding and will improve handling efficiency as well as the wellbeing of Boxes of Hope’s volunteer staff by reducing the charity’s reliance on manual handling at its national pick-up and distribution centre in Lincolnshire. The vinyl-wrapping for the truck was supplied by Bott Ltd.

Boxes of Hope’s founder and director, Mandy Baxter, said: “The truck has made a huge difference to the way that we work. It has allowed us to completely change the layout of our store thanks to the fact that we are now able to move items around the facility safely, quickly and easily. Of course, lorry loading has become a faster and simpler process too and, what’s more, we are now able to make full use of every vehicle’s load capacity – which means we can get more of the things that are so desperately needed to the people of Ukraine.

“It now takes about a third of the time to load a truck than it was taking to do the job manually, so the volunteers that were previously required to help with the loading process can focus on other tasks and, as a result, we are able to make optimum use of the time that they so kindly give us.”

So far, Boxes of Hope have sent 16 lorries, each containing some 18 tonnes of crucial supplies to Ukraine and Mandy Baxter has made several trips to the war-torn country herself to personally oversee delivery of the aid.

Boxes of Hope liaise with other aid agencies based in Ukraine to ensure that the support they provide is targeted to the regions where it is needed most. The charity lists items – which can be anything from wheelchairs to 4×4 vehicle tyres – that it has in stock on a live online inventory system. The inventory data can be accessed by various Ukraine-based partner organisations, that request the goods that are urgently required, such as medical or first-aid products, so they can be included on the next outgoing vehicle.