Fast, reliable services spur worldwide demand
Global courier firm DHL Express (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd said one of its customers, a multinational information technology (IT) firm, has seen its freight shipped via express services grow at double-digit rates since 2003.
“This particular client now uses express delivery for 80 per cent of its total shipments,” it told Business Times. The firm currently operates a regional hub in Penang, dealing with spare parts procurement and fulfilment as well as repair and return services for the Asia-Pacific region. “Because of the high value and importance of their shipments, their spare parts and repair and return items are on a tight Service Level Agreement.
“This means that we and the client have an agreement which guarantees certain delivery requirements. Shipments must be delivered within an agreed time-line, failing which we are responsible for any delay,” DHL Express said.
The firm’s shipments comprise IT goods, electronics, machines and parts. Eighty per cent are destined for overseas markets and the remaining 20 per cent for local delivery. Like this firm, more and more companies globally are turning to express services for their delivery needs as express operators are able to provide guaranteed, fast, reliable, on demand, worldwide, integrated, door-to-door movement of shipments which are tracked and controlled throughout the journey. Express services are the “Business Class” of cargo services, says Oxford Economic Forecasting in a report released in 2005. “The express industry is one of the world’s fastest-growing sectors – since 1998, its growth has been more than twice that of the global economy as a whole. It is expanding particularly rapidly in the transition and emerging market economies,” the report said.
The report estimates that the industry globally will grow by an average of 8 per cent per year in real terms between 2003 and 2013. Direct employment in the express industry is also expected to increase from 1.25 million now to 2.1 million by 2013, if it is unconstrained. The industry is expected to support almost 4.5 million jobs by 2013, said the report.
