APL honored for wheelchair deliveries

APL honored for wheelchair deliveries    Ocean carrier APL is being honored by the United Cerebral Palsy organization for the carrier's volunteer efforts to transport 875 wheelchairs last year to impoverished people on three continents.
   The UCP Wheels for Humanity program will present APL with its eighth annual International Partner of the Year award Saturday night in Los Angeles. It will be the first time the award has gone to an international shipping line.
   The program collects and refurbishes used wheelchairs that are then delivered and individually fit to impoverished children and adults in developing countries. Since its start in 1996, the program has provided wheelchairs to more than 40,000 people with disabilities in 67 developing nations.
   APL, a subsidiary of the Singapore-based Neptune Orient Lines with North American headquarters in Oakland, Calif., began working with the UCP program last year, delivering wheelchairs to recipients in Indonesia, Thailand, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Vietnam and Ukraine.
   Robert Sappio, senior vice president of the transpacific trade, will accept the award on behalf of APL.