DHL Express is set to continue its investment plan for the United States and the Americas, in order to meet growth expectations. Besides investing $185m in its operations in the U.S., DHL Express is also committing another $105m to support its growth plan in Mexico, Canada, Brazil, Chile and Peru, totalling $290m over the two-year period.
DHL has already completed a portion of the $108m investment project at its Americas Hub, located at the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky Airport, which was announced last year. The North Ramp expansion, which opened at the start of November, is built on 45 acres of land and provides parking space for 16 additional planes each night and adds new storage and warehouse space for ramp equipment and shipping containers. In 2017, the company will add an automated sorting capability and 40 new reload positions that will increase the hub’s efficiency.
To deal with growing shipping volumes, DHL Express is applying an additional amount of nearly $60m to expand and add facilities as well as provide technology/security upgrades and new equipment such as new ‘smart’ scanners for its couriers, which are faster, lighter and equipped with voice and GPS capabilities and allow for the addition of new features such as stop-by-stop sequencing as well as turn-by-turn navigation so they can improve their efficiency while on the road. It has added three new service centres in New York City, Chicago, and Seattle as well as expanded another three this year. It upgraded its Los Angeles gateway in 2016 and plans to add a new gateway in Chicago and refurbish its JFK gateway in 2017, adding a new, improved automated sort system that will facilitate earlier morning deliveries in the New York market.
Furthermore, the company is spending $20m to upgrade and expand its ground fleet, adding more fuel-efficient vehicles including fully electric vans and electric forklifts at its JFK facility. During 2017, the company will focus on replacing trucks and tractor-trailer combinations with more efficient models as part of its GoGreen strategy to reduce carbon emissions and its impact on the environment.
“Going forward, we will continue to keep our focus on the last mile, leveraging technologies and solutions that provide added convenience for customers,” said Mike Parra, CEO, DHL Express Americas. “This approach focuses on convenient pick-up and drop-off options, proactive notification and flexible delivery solutions. We are also reconfiguring delivery routes to handle more afternoon deliveries due to an increasing number of shipments going to residential customers, in part due to increased e-commerce volume.”
In Canada, the company is investing $12m in new service centres in Calgary, Ottawa (2016) and Quebec (2017) as well as a new gateway in Vancouver. In Mexico, in addition to the existing $160m five-year capital investment plan already announced, $38m of investment is being directed towards 38 new retail service points (for a total of 500), four new service centres (two each in 2016 and 2017), a ground fleet upgrade, and an aircraft upgrade for the domestic hub. Further investments include $7.5m in Brazil to cover a major upgrade to the Sao Paulo domestic hub and service centre, including a head office relocation, as well as smaller investments in Peru, Chile and several Central American countries.
Source: DP DHL
