GLOBAL FORWARDING, FREIGHT Division

DHL Global Forwarding is the industry leader in air and ocean freight. Around 29,000 employees work to ensure that shipments of all kinds are transported to their destination by air or by sea. We also support our customers by providing special transport-related services: we store, collect and deliver the goods, handle customs formalities, insure the load and supply information. In this way, we ensure safety and reliability even across national borders.

Our customers come from companies of all sizes. They operate primarily in the technology, pharmaceutical, automotive, manufacturing/mechanical engineering, fashion and consumer goods sectors. We also plan and implement industrial projects worldwide, in particular for the oil and energy industry. To an increasing extent, we also contract for transport management services in order to combine all means of transport for our customers with the goal of reducing complexity, improving quality and lowering costs.  

DHL remains leader in an air freight market seriously affected by the crisis

The decline in Economic parameters global trade volume had an especially serious effect on the air freight market. IATA reports a 10.1% decline in market volume measured in freight tonne kilometres, whilst DHL registered a decline of approximately 13%. A direct comparison of these two figures, however, cannot be made because the IATA figures do not include data on charter flights and non-IATA carriers like CargoLux. DHL remains the market leader in both cases. 

Increased global presence in ocean freight market

We are the global leader in both less-than-container-load (LCL) and full-container-load (FCL) shipments. However, the ocean freight business also suffered from the sharp drop in world trade. According to our estimations, the market volume decreased between 12% and 13% in 2009. By contrast, our volumes only declined by roughly 9%, which allowed us to increase our market share. 

DHL Freight is the second-largest overland freight forwarder in Europe and the Middle East, with approximately 10,000 employees and services in more than 53 countries. We see ourselves as a broker of freight capacity. In the overland transport business, we provide full-truckload, part-truckload and less-than-truckload services. We also offer intermodal services with other carriers, especially rail transport companies. Moreover, our range of services includes handling customs formalities and providing insurance.

DHL is also one of the leading providers of trade fair, exhibition and event logistics. Our range of services includes trade fair transport and customised full-service solutions for exhibitors, event organisers, event management and staging companies and event agencies.

In 2008, the European market for road transport grew by 1.3% (previous year: approximately 4.2%) even though the financial crisis had begun affecting the entire transport industry in the fourth quarter of 2008. The decline in demand continued in the first half of 2009, amounting to an average of 20% to 25% on the previous year. Overcapacity also put pressure on freight rates, although conditions began easing in mid-2009. Still, total quantities transported dropped by nearly one-sixth during the year under review. We were able to stabilise our market share at 2.1% according to our calculations.