DHL

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DHL (originally standing for Dalsey, Hillblom and Lynn) is a Deutsche Post company of Germany that provides international shipping of documents and freight as well as contract logistics. The company was founded in 1969 by Adrian Dalsey, Larry Hillblom, and Robert Lynn.

The trio initially provided a courier service between the Continental United States and Hawaii then expanded the business from there. In 1998, Deutsche Post began to acquire shares in DHL, finally reached majority ownership in 2001, and completed the purchase in 2002. In the UK Deutsche Post also acquired Securicor Omega.

[edit] Overview

DHL's global headquarters are located in Bonn and London (Exel). Headquarters for the Americas are located in Plantation, Florida, while its Asia Pacific headquarters are located in Singapore.

DHL owns its own cargo airlines, European Air Transport, based in Brussels, and DHL Air, based in the UK. EAT currently operates out of Brussels Airport in Belgium with a fleet of Boeing 757SF freighters and a fleet of Airbus A300 B4 freighters, but is in the process of transferring the bulk of its European air operations to Leipzig, Germany in 2008.^[1] DHL Air Ltd operates out of East Midlands Airport with a fleet of 22 Boeing 757SF freighter aircraft.

Major competitors include FedEx, UPS, TNT, and national post carriers such as United States Postal Service and Royal Mail. However, DHL has a minor partnership with the USPS, which allows DHL to deliver small packages to the recipient through the USPS network. This service, called DHL@Home, saves DHL from making expensive trips to residential areas to deliver a single package.

DHL is well known for its ability to offer freight and package shipping service worldwide, including to countries such as Iraq and Myanmar. As it is German owned, DHL is not affected by U.S. embargoes or sanctions and will ship to Cuba^[2] or North Korea. ^[3] Starting in 2006, Deutsche Post World Net launched its First Choice initiative, which is being rolled out to all DPWN business organizations. The First Choice initiative has the goal of improving the way DHL and its parent company DPWN communicates with its customers, as well as strengthen customer loyalty and increase the efficiency and quality of all products and services offered.

DHL may require some international recipients to pay any customs charges into DHL's foreign bank account and proof of payment provided, before package delivery can be completed. Such cases may involve a physical journey to the DHL bank and/or the local DHL office, although the recipient can opt to pay for the charges of the delivery at their premises. In Major League Baseball sponsorship, it is the "Official logistics provider of Major League Baseball" and sponsors the Hometown Heroes.

DHL is organized in four divisions:

• DHL Express
• DHL Global Mail
• DHL Global Business Services (as of 1st January 2008)
• DHL Logistics, which is in turn further sub-divided into:
  • DHL Global Forwarding (DGF)
  • DHL Exel Supply Chain
  • DHL Freight & Contract Logistics

[edit] History

DHL began as a courier service between San Francisco and Honolulu in 1969. In the next few years, they expanded to the Pacific Rim, and soon to Europe. All US domestic flights were handled by DHL Airways, Inc. which in 2003 was renamed ASTAR Air Cargo. DHL's first airline still remains with over 550 pilots in service to this day. ^[4]

• 1999: DHL purchased the Dutch shipping company Van Gend & Loos EuroExpress and merged it with its existing operations in the Netherlands.
• 2001: Deutsche Post World Net acquired a majority (51%) of DHL's shares, and the remaining 49% in 2002. The new DHL was launched by merging the old DHL, Danzas and Securicor Omega Euro Express.
• 2002: Bashkirian Airlines Flight 2937, a Tupolev Tu-154 passenger jet, collided with DHL Flight 611, a Boeing 757-200 cargo jet, at 35,000 ft over Überlingen, Germany, due to a miscommunication between the pilots of Flight 2937 and Swiss air traffic control. The 69 people aboard the Tupolev (consisting mainly of Russian schoolchildren) and the two pilots of the Boeing were killed.^[5]
• August 2003: Deutsche Post acquires Airborne Express, and begins to integrate it into DHL. The Airborne Express Airline named ABX Air provides contract ACMI service through 2011.
• November 22 2003: DHL shootdown incident in Baghdad: Iraqi insurgents fired an SA-7 "Grail" surface-to-air missile at a European Air Transport Airbus A300 operating on behalf of DHL. The aircraft had taken off from Baghdad airport. The missile struck the left wing, disabling all three hydraulic systems and setting the wing on fire. The plane began a dangerous phugoid (vertical oscillation) but the crew managed to land safely at the airport despite only being able to control the plane by adjusting the engine thrust. No other crew had ever been able to achieve a landing in this fashion, though the crew of United Airlines Flight 232 was able to also navigate their DC-10-10 after a similar triple hydraulic failure. ^[6]
• September 2004: a planned expansion by DHL at Brussels International Airport created a political crisis in Belgium.

• October 21 2004: DHL announced that it would move its European hub from Brussels to Leipzig, Germany (Vatry, France was considered and rejected). DHL's unions call a strike in response, paralyzing work for a day.

• November 8 2004: DHL invests €120 million in Indian domestic courier Blue Dart and becomes the majority shareholder in the company. ^[7]

• September 2005: Deutsche Post made an offer to buy contract logistics company Exel plc, which had just acquired Tibbett & Britten. Exel became part of DHL in December 2005. Following the latest deal, DHL have a global workforce of 285,000 people (500,000 people including DPWN and other sister companies) and roughly $65 billion in annual sales.

• September 2006: DHL wins ten year contract worth £1.6 billion, to run the NHS Supply Chain (part of the UK's National Health Service). DHL will be responsible for providing logistics services for over 500,000 products to support 600 hospitals and other health providers in England. As part of this new contract, in 2008 DHL will open a new 250,000 sq ft distribution centre to act as a stock holding hub for food and other products, with another distribution centre opening in 2012. The two new distribution centres will create around 1,000 new jobs. ^[8]

[edit] Animal rights activists

On September 16 2005 DHL won a High Court injunction establishing an exclusion zone around each of its 288 buildings in the UK as well as the homes of its 18,000 UK employees. The firm has been the subject of a campaign of intimidation because of their business with Huntingdon Life Sciences. The judge, Mr. Justice Bean, banned protesters from coming within 50 yards of any DHL premises or the homes of their employees as well as any organized demonstration within 100 yards unless the police had been given four hours notice. The injunction also protects anyone doing business with DHL from intimidation. ^[9].

[edit] References

[edit] External links

Main

• DHL.com - Links to each country's DHL website
• Deutsche Post (DHL Helper)
• Van Gend en Loos Now known as DHL Koerier Netherlands

Other

• exdhl.com

• DHL Bus program in Toronto
• ASTAR MEC (DHL Airways) Labor Talks
• DHL shipping and delivery holidays in the U.S. - Internet Accuracy Project

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