DHL Express has launched the On Demand Delivery service in the United States where both customers and shipping recipients will be able to customise their delivery options ahead of time for all incoming deliveries.
Developed in response to the strong growth of e-commerce, the DHL On Demand Delivery service allows shippers to activate specific delivery options and have DHL Express notify package recipients via email or text of a shipment’s progress. This service is now available to those who don’t yet have anything in shipment. When DHL Express matches their contact information with their preference the package will be delivered exactly as required.
“E-commerce shipping is now driven to a large extent by the consumer and the customer experience at the destination,” said Greg Hewitt, CEO for DHL Express U.S. “That’s why our focus is also on enabling customers receiving shipments to make decisions on a delivery that fits their schedule. Customers want easy, convenient and fast, and this new feature allows for a pre-set that saves time when defining how the delivery will be made.” Hewitt added: “This is especially important during the holiday season.”
The coming peak season is set to see a volume growth of around 17% as against 2017 at DHL. Now the Cyber Weekend has passed (and the returns process begins) the next peak is set to be around December the 17th.
Ahead of this DHL Express has prepared its Americas operations including a new direct flight from Miami to Bogota, Colombia, and another from the DHL Americas Hub at the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport (CVG) directly to Vancouver, Canada. DHL shippers or recipients in the U.S. this season can also use two popular virtual assistant platforms – Amazon’s Alexa and Google Assistant – to quickly and conveniently monitor the status of their packages and documents.
In the past six months, DHL Express also expanded its facilities in Tucson, Arizona; Ontario, California; Baltimore, Maryland; and Charleston, South Carolina; in addition to opening a new service center in Sunnyvale, California. Much of these expansions are in response to the growth of international e-commerce.
“DHL Express is well prepared to support customers during the holiday season,” said Hewitt. “We have continued our investment in U.S. facilities as well as expanded our intercontinental air capacity. We have put in place the right capacity and resources to handle the extra volumes and to ensure the delivery processes are more convenient than ever. We’re all about putting the happy in holidays.”
