Tag: Germany

Hermes demands exemption from German value-added tax (Germany)

Posted by | Jan 21, 2008 | |

Otto’s logistics group Hermes, which specializes in package delivery, is demanding that the German government exempt it from paying value-added tax, Financial Times Deutschland reported, citing chief executive Hanjo Schneider.
‘We want to be exempt from value-added tax, just like Deutsche Post,’ he said.
Schneider said Hermes filed an application for exemption in November, and said the company will take legal action if the application is denied.
He also said the company is considering demanding compensation for the two months it has already waited for a response from the finance ministry.
Under current rules, rival Deutsche Post World Net AG’s basic postal services are exempt from the 19 pct VAT while comparable services provided by rivals are not, even after the company’s monopoly on delivering letters expires at the end of the year.
Deutsche Post obtained the exemption in exchange for the guarantee that it will deliver mail to every household in Germany, whether it is on a North Sea island or in mountainous regions of southern Germany.
‘We offer this universal service in the package sector as well,’ Schneider said.
Hermes, which has annual sales of about 200 mln eur, could save about 40 mln eur on value-added tax, the newspaper said.

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DPD opens distribution hub in Melle, north-west Germany

Posted by | Jan 20, 2008 | |

DPD has officially put into operation its new parcel distribution centre in the town of Melle, close to Osnabrück, north-west Germany, with the aim of strengthening its network in the region and to keep up with the growing parcel volumes.

The 48,450 sqm facility is one of the main hubs in the DPD network in Germany with its latest technology and the highest sorting capacity nationwide. Up to 15,000 parcels per hour are sorted on the conveyor belts according to their routes and destinations. In total, about 60 delivery vehicles and 120 lorries operate at the 28,800 sqm yard of the depot. Since its start-up in December 2007, the depot has been handling around 100,000 parcels a day.

In addition, the EUR 20 million hub has the most transport connections to the intercity transport within the whole European DPD network and thus guarantees quick parcel delivery to all DPD locations within Germany. Moreover, direct deliveries to Benelux, France, UK, Denmark, Finland, Sweden, Austria and Switzerland are operated on a daily basis. Melle is strategically located on the Amsterdam – Hanover motorway, north of the Rhine-Ruhr industrial region.

DPD said that it has also been gradually extending its product portfolio according to market demands and customer needs going from standard and express parcels and numerous other services to customized solutions within Germany as well as at an international level.

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DHL to use Eco-friendly sea transport from Bremen to Venezuela (Germany)

Posted by | Jan 18, 2008 | |

DHL are the first company to use ocean-going cargo vessel with wind propulsion system Shipping becoming safer, more profitable and more eco-friendly

The MS Beluga SkySails is being used for a commercial transport for the first time. It will carry the first parts of a complete particle board factory from Bremen to Venezuela on behalf of DHL Global Forwarding.

The multipurpose vessel will set sail early next week. What makes it so special is a new wind propulsion system with a huge towing kite that provides additional thrust for the ship at sea – a sustainable solution for reducing fuel consumption, costs and emissions.

DHL will transport the particle board factory to South America for its client, Dieffenbacher, in a total of eight partial shipments. It is to be used for a government-sponsored housing project.

For several years now, DHL has made it its business to provide customers not only with first-class service but sustainable transport solutions as well. In its endeavours to develop efficient and eco-friendly logistic services with the latest technologies, the group was the first logistics company to cluster its innovation activities, giving top priority to climate protection.

Today its business customers in Europe can already send their shipments with the climate-neutral GoGreen Service. The company is also increasingly using alternative propulsion systems such as biogas and electric motors.

On 15th December 2007, the MS Beluga SkySails was christened in Hamburg by Eva Luise Köhler, wife of Germany’s Federal President. The so-called “multipurpose heavy-lift carrier” belongs to the fleet of Bremen shipping company Beluga Shipping GmbH.

Depending on the wind conditions, fuel costs can be lowered by between ten and 35 percent. A small, 87-metre-long freighter would thus save an average of 280,000 euros in fuel costs per year.

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DHL starts next day delivery express service to US, Canada and Mexico

Posted by | Jan 18, 2008 | |

DHL Express has started a new service: with DHL US Next Day time-sensitive goods and documents from the most important Swiss economic regions will be delivered to the US, Canada and Mexico on the following day.

DHL Express is offering delivery before 10.30am (DHL Express 10.30), before 12.00pm (DHL Express 12.00) or before the close of business (DHL Express Worldwide). With US Next Day DHL can deliver to almost anywhere in the US as well as commercial centers in Canada and Mexico by the next day.

This new service is made possible by the DHL hub in Wilmington, Ohio, one of the largest private airports in the world, as well as four further international gateways. More than 34,000 staff in the US work around the clock to distribute the items. In recent years DHL has invested 1.2 billion US dollars in the comprehensive network and in expanding the hub in Wilmington.

The commercial centers of Geneva, Lausanne, Bern, Biel/Bienne, Basle, Lucerne, Zürich and Wil (St. Gallen) all benefit from DHL’s US Next Day service. A customer in the Geneva area can have his US Next Day item collected by DHL as late as 12.45pm. Customers in the Basle region have the last collection time at 3.45pm because a dedicated DHL plane is used for this service to fly from Basle via East Midlands to Wilmington. Duty is paid on these items while in the air.

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GO! Express & Logistics opens high-performance hub in Central Germany

Posted by | Jan 17, 2008 | |

GO! opens new hub in Niederaula German express company GO! Express & Logistics has opened a new EUR 7 million sorting centre in Niederaula, Central Germany. After eight months of construction, the new hub was put into operation in the night from 11 to 12 January 2008.

The hub is due to the positive development of parcel volumes with continuous double-digit growth rates, the company said. GO! decided to expand after its current hub in nearby Neuenstein reached its capacity limits of 10,000 parcels a day in a time-frame of 3 hours.

“With the new hub we have now created a central handling point that has enough capacity for the next 10-15 years due to the modular system in terms of area and sorting technique,” said GO! CEO Ralf-Hans Dierks. The ceremonial opening is planned for this spring.

The 30,000 sqm facility provides a 3,600 sqm handling terminal with a completely automatic sorting system. Capacity is designed for 6,000 parcels per hour in the beginning and can be expanded to 15,000 parcels.

The main installation of the central hub is a high-performance sorter that handles parcels in a sensitive way. All the information is transported via a central volume, weighing and scanning system to the packages. The whole facility can be expanded through additional sorters and has been built with space for future extension.

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