DHL delivers on investments
WORLD-leading international logistics and express delivery company DHL has responded to recent changes in world trading practice by spending up big in supporting Australian supply chains both internationally and at regional levels.
In May, it opened an air express cargo facility at Darwin to expand freight traffic between Australia and Asia. In July, the company opened a dispatch, warehousing and distribution facility for regional NSW in the State’s second city, Newcastle.
Both new facilities followed the March opening of the DHL Oceania hub at Sydney airport, and a new Perth airport hub designed as an improved gateway to Europe, Africa and the Asia-Pacific region.
Headquartered in Germany, DHL has invested over $2.2 billion in Asia-Pacific facilities, much of it in the wake of recently established free trade agreements in the region and continuing negotiations among ASEAN nations for further trade liberalisation.
The six-month-old Oceania hub processes more than 90 tonnes of freight daily. The Australian arm of the company moved an average 14 ,000 shipments each day of 2004.
Its Sydney airport operations are backed up with safety-net operations at a new site in Brisbane, established to protect data should local emergencies such as fires or floods could damage the main data system.
DHL’s services range from express postal mail through parcel delivery to international shipments at the cargo container level.
It competes with Australia Post for international mail contracts with Australian businesses with high volumes of international mail.
Among other value-added services, the company can deliver these mailed items in foreign nations so they appear to be local. Experience shows this approach increases the likelihood that recipients will buy or subscribe to the mail sender’s offerings.
The company has over 200 couriers across Australia. Extensive courier operations are supported by GPRS scanners that enable Australian customers to track their shipments around the clock, across the globe, in real time.
