DHL Express faces unusual challenges worldwide

Nearly two years ago, a surface-to-air missile slammed into a DHL cargo plane as it took off from Baghdad en route to Bahrain with a load of U.S. military mail.

The aircraft landed safely, albeit minus a wing, but the incident was enough to provoke DHL officials to discuss whether it was too hazardous to continue as the G.I. postal service.

Nearly two years ago, a surface-to-air missile slammed into a DHL cargo plane as it took off from Baghdad en route to Bahrain with a load of U.S. military mail.

“It put huge pressure on us as a company to determine what is reasonable risk,” DHL Express Joint Chief Executive John Mullen told the Greater Miami Chamber of Commerce on Wednesday.

Braving war zones is just one of the challenges a global giant like DHL faces in its daily operations in more than 220 countries and territories — “more than the United Nations,” quipped Mullen, an Australian who heads up the Americas, Asia Pacific and Emerging Markets division based in Plantation.

There’s also pressure from human rights groups, who urge DHL to pull out of countries such as North Korea and Myanmar, and dealing with culturally sensitive issues such as giving the Red Cross and the Red Crescent, its Muslim equivalent, equal donations.

DHL’s way of handling such disparate environments is to keep centralized management to a minimum and give free rein to local management to run operations in tune with regional cultures, Mullen said in his keynote speech during the chamber luncheon.

“We have to remain strictly apolitical,” he said.

In the United States, though, DHL faces different challenges — namely that of a bitter fight for market share against two dominant players: FedEx and UPS.

The company employs 1,200 people in South Florida and expects to increase that number, Mullen said.

South Florida provides key access to Latin America and the Caribbean, as well as the rest of the United States and Europe, Mullen said.