Deutsche Post Annual Report 2006
Deutsche Post Annual Report 2006
Read MoreTag: DHL
DHL Singapore opens Penang outlet for walk-in customers
DHL recently opened its first northern Servicepoint outlet at Jalan Cantonment, Pulau Tikus, on Penang Island.
The DHL Servicepoint outlet is designed for walk-in retail customers, as well as for account-based customers who prefer to drop off their shipments. Retail customers have an option to make payment by credit card.
The DHL Servicepoint core product offerings include Express4U (E4U), an easy-to-use and convenient service for sending documents and parcels with flat-rate prices, worldwide and University Express, the fastest, most reliable and secure way to send student applications and excess baggage abroad.
In addition, DHL Servicepoint also offers Express Pallet, a packaging and transport solution designed to match real-time distribution systems with an all-inclusive pricing.
In conjunction with the nation’s 50th anniversary, walk-in customers will also receive a guaranteed gift for every shipment lodged from August 16-December 31 2007.
The pioneering DHL Servicepoint retail strategy first debuted in 2005 as a Malaysian first at Menara Axis, Petaling Jaya. DHL Servicepoint is a direct response to market evaluation studies, which revealed that customers seek wide choices in services, especially the flexibility to ship items at their own convenience. With this in mind, the DHL Servicepoint outlets are designed with the key attributes of accessibility, convenience and user-friendly features.
The 244 sq m outlet in Penang is the latest example of this model.
Read MoreLufthansa-DHL airline applies for approval of German authorities
Lufthansa and DHL have filed for approval to set up the joint freight airline ‘Newco’, according to the German Federal Cartel Office.
The project, announced in June, is likely to launch in 2009 from Leipzig Halle airport. DHL has always been vocal about its intentions to expand its cooperation with Lufthansa. Lufthansa Cargo said that it will announce more details soon.
A joint network has been operated between Europe, Asia and the US since March 2004, and was to expand through Leipzig/Halle airport, where DHL Express is moving its main European hub later this year.
Read MoreDHL rivals in the USA show no appetite for owning aircraft
DHL added another airline to its line-up this spring with the acquisition of a stake in Astar Air Cargo, but the other mega-forwarders have no interest in owning cargo aircraft, despite a penchant for dedicated freighter-cargo flights.
DHL’s appetite for cargo airlines suffered a setback in July when ABX Air, the erstwhile freighter division of Airborne Express spun off after the integrator’s acquisition by DHL, rebuffed a takeover offer from Astar Air Cargo, the former DHL Airways. A marriage between the two would have combined the two US cargo carriers that make most of their business moving traffic for DHL. The integrator had acquired a 49 percent stake in Astar in early June along with a 24.9 percent voting interest, the maximum position in US airlines allowed to non-US entities.
DHL’s express business in the US has suffered in the wake of the integration of its air network into a single hub and is not expected to produce black figures before 2009. Nevertheless, the buy into Astar did not surprise industry observers.
The Astar buy-in followed DHL’s acquisition of a 49 percent stake in Polar Air Cargo last year, which included a 20-year block space agreement giving the integrator guaranteed lift on Polar’s transpacific flights. For intra-Asia traffic, DHL has permanent lift through its stake in Air Hong Kong and the carrier’s A300F operations in the region.
These deals are fuelled by the logistics giant’s express business, but they also drop fixed capacity into the lap of DHL Global Forwarding.
The other global mega-forwarders like Schenker, Kuehne + Nagel or Panalpina, have ruled out the possibility of owning freighter aircraft, notwithstanding a need for dedicated cargo flights.
Read MoreConcerns over Chinese postal law
China should improve transparency of a new law governing the country’s USD 6bn-a-year express delivery market, say executives at UPS, the package delivery group.
An updated version of China’s Postal Law, which was promulgated in 1986, is in its ninth version and has been a source of concern for foreign and domestic courier companies pitted against China Post, the incumbent.
US-based UPS, its international peers and upstart Chinese express companies are in the awkward position of having to “compete with our regulator”, Mike Eskew, UPS chairman and chief executive, said in an interview with the Financial Times.
Ken Torok, UPS Asia Pacific president, noted that transparency surrounding the law’s most recent drafts had deteriorated. There are concerns China could introduce a “universal tax” of 4 per cent on overseas entrants.
“We would look at that as a form of double taxation,” Mr Torok said. “We are just looking for a level playing field in the industry.”
Mr Torok contrasted the opacity of China’s new postal law with a more open process in India, which is also revising its antiquated regulatory regime and posts drafts on the internet.
“When they do that everyone has visibility,” Mr Torok said. “We’d like to see more of that [in China].”
Uncertainty also surrounds how China intends to “carve out the monopoly”. According to an earlier draft of the law, only China Post’s express delivery arm would be allowed to deliver parcels weighing less than 150g – a restriction of particular concern to the incumbent’s domestic competitors.
UPS currently does not accept packages of less than 2kg for delivery in China.
Last October, an increasingly vocal domestic lobby of state-owned and private courier companies that compete against China Post took issue with the proposed limit. The Conference of Asia Pacific Express Carriers – which represents UPS, DHL, Fedex and TNT – has also been critical of the drafting process.
Booz Allen Hamilton, a consultancy, estimates China’s express delivery market will reach USD 5.8bn this year and USD 7.4bn next, making it a coveted destination for international courier companies.
UPS was the first of the “big four” international couriers to wholly own its China operations, as allowed under the terms of the country’s accession agreement to the World Trade Organisation. The company bought out Sinotrans, its state-owned joint venture partner, for USD 100m in 2005.
It employs 4,500 people in China and is building an international hub in Shanghai. UPS is now applying for trucking and freight forwarding licences in China. But it must secure national, provincial and even municipal approvals.
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