Sponsorships
World Press Photo
In 2003, TNT teamed up with World Press Photo, an independent non-profit organisation that aims to support and promote the work of professional press photographers on a global stage. In doing so, World Press Photo has evolved into a platform for free exchange of information.
The same can be said of TNT’s business – in which millions of documents and parcels are exchanged on a weekly basis.
It is the human aspect, however, that provides the strongest link here.
Since its inception, the World Press Photo contest has provided an annual “snapshot” of the world in which we live, attracting some 80,000 entries each year. As Peter Bakker explains: “TNT’s business is all about people. Before we can start to think about how to tackle the issues facing mankind today, first we need to create awareness among people. In our experience, the use of pictures works best. That is where World Press Photo comes in.”
For all the latest on World Press Photo, including this year’s contest, please visit the TNT Post website.
Henry Hudson 400
Not much is known about Henry Hudson the man, but his exploits are well known. Given that Hudson's adventures took place some 400 years ago, one could be forgiven for struggling to identify a link with a modern express integrator like TNT. At it turns out, he and TNT have more in common than you might think. That is why we support the Henry Hudson 400 Foundation.
Captain Hudson, like so many before him, was desperate to discover a shorter sea passage to Asia, thus facilitating naval transport. His first attempts were thwarted, if not by icy Arctic flows then by high winds, and ended in failure.
Undeterred, he set out for a now legendary third voyage, although by then his sponsors had become weary, and his ship the ‘Halve Maen’ (Half Moon), which set sail from Amsterdam on April 4th, 1609, was in no condition to embark on the sort of long and arduous journey that it was destined to complete.
Again, Hudson encountered ferocious weather conditions off the Norwegian coast. Instead of turning back, however, this time he opted to head west in search of the passage that continued to elude him, ignoring orders to look for a northeasterly route only.
It proved an inspired decision, which led him to the mouth of the river that was named in his honour. Hudson subsequently spent several weeks exploring the surrounding area, which he immediately recognized as a great natural harbour. His discovery would eventually give rise to the founding of a town called New Amsterdam – otherwise known as New York City.
All this with a crew of no more than twenty. Cost efficiency, it seems, was already in vogue long before the term itself was coined!
Efficiency, however, is not the only parallel between TNT and Captain Hudson; an unrelenting focus on opening up new paths of transportation and shortening existing ones, a willingness to push the envelope and challenge conventional thinking, and a refusal to give up when the going gets tough, are all reasons why we at TNT like his style.
Doing a lot with a little, it is called, and it fits perfectly with our own can-do mentality.
It is for this reason that TNT is proud to be associated with the Henry Hudson 400 Foundation, which was launched to commemorate the 400th anniversary of these historic events.
As part of the celebrations, a series of special events is set to take place in Amsterdam and New York this year.
We consider it a privilege to able to support the Henry Hudson 400 initiative, and look forward to the upcoming celebrations in these two great cities, which are inextricably linked by history and may be considered the bookends of one man’s dream to alter its course.
image ©Nationaal Archief