Bonn – A pioneering spirit, strong customer focus and critical role in facilitating global trade are the tricks of the trade behind DHL’s success. Four decades last September 25, the company’s revolutionary service of international, door-to-door delivery is invaluable to business the world over.
“In 1969, three men set out to do the impossible and conquered the moon. A few months later, Adrian Dalsey, Larry Hillblom and Robert Lynn founded DHL and made the world a little smaller,” Deutsche Post DHL CEO Frank Appel said
Strategic partnerships with forwarder Danzas Air & Ocean in 2002 and supply chain and logistics expert Exel in 2005 afforded DHL to offer a comprehensive suite of services through unparalleled global network spanning over 220 countries and territories.
Today, DHL is the leading industry provider in its various segments: No 1 in Air and Ocean Freight, No 1 in International Express, No 1 in Contract Logistics and No 2 in European Road Freight.
Creating innovative processes is a DHL trademark. The use of Radio Frequency ID for inventory management and a technically-advanced tracking system that monitors and redirect shipments in real time (if necessary) anywhere around the world are two such examples.
The company was the first to offer customers a greener option of sending their shipments around the world through DHL’s Green Services bent on offsetting the carbon emissions of the company’s delivery vehicles. In 2008, DHL become the first express logistics company to make a firm public commitment to improve its carbon efficiency by 30 percent in 2020.
Driven by this principle, DHL established trade routes to countries like Russia and China in the midst of the Cold War that reaped benefits for the two countries’ industries when the curtain fell. The company is currently establishing market leadership in various emerging markets such as the BRIC economies – Brazil, Russia, India and China.
Said Frank Appel, “Very early on, we recognized that the company’s success lies not only in listening to what our customers want, but, more importantly, acting on it quickly and effectively. Very often we anticipated what our customers want and addressed these even before they ask.”
