DHL Takes Initiative

DHL is making new efforts to recover express shippers the company lost because of a service debacle in the United States last year. DHL named industry veteran Hans Hickler, its executive vice president of business strategy, to lead what it called a “Customer Experience Initiative” aimed at boosting DHL’s relationships with customers. The company said Hickler, a former CEO of APL Logistics who joined DHL last year, will lead a dedicated executive team that will “evaluate and drive improvements to each customer touch point and all processes that impact the DHL customer experience.” That experience cost DHL some major customers last year when the consolidation of the carrier’s hub operations into the big Wilmington, Ohio, hub led to service failures. John Mullen, CEO of DHL in the Americas, told Wall Street analysts late last year that the company had lost $280 million worth of annual business as its service levels fell below 70 percent at the height of the hub troubles. He said DHL is “internally focused on improving service levels, which is essential before it’s in a position to mount a serious challenge to either FedEx or UPS.” The new customer initiative comes as DHL Express prepares to implement rate hikes Feb. 5 roughly in line with increases announced by FedEx and UPS. DHL plans a 5.5 percent increase for domestic air and international express rates; it will also cap the fuel surcharge at 14.5 percent and trim the index used to set the air fuel surcharge, amounting to an effective 3.5 percent rate hike for those services. The company will raise ground service rates 3.9 percent. Other rate increases in January included were a 6.5 percent increase for expedited business-to-residence service, an average 9 percent hike for global mail international and a 7 percent average rise for global mail domestic, DHL said.