DHL

**DHL** is an American-founded German logistics company providing courier, package delivery and express mail service, delivering over 1.8 billion parcels per year. A subsidiary of the German logistics firm Deutsche Post, its express mail service **DHL Express** is one of the market leaders for parcel services in Europe and Germany's main Courier and Parcel Service.

The company DHL itself was founded in San Francisco, United States, in 1969 and expanded its service throughout the world by the late 1970s. In 1979, under the name of *DHL Air Cargo*, the company entered the Hawaiian islands with an inter-island cargo service using two DC-3 and four DC-6 aircraft. Adrian Dalsey and Larry Hillblom personally oversaw the daily operations until its eventual bankruptcy closed the doors in 1983. At its peak, *DHL Air Cargo* employed just over 100 workers, management and pilots.

The company was primarily interested in offshore and intercontinental deliveries, but the success of FedEx prompted DHL's own domestic (intra-US) expansion starting in 1983. In 1998, Deutsche Post began to acquire shares in DHL. It reached controlling interest in 2001, and acquired all outstanding shares by December 2002. The company then absorbed DHL into its Express division, while expanding the use of the DHL brand to other Deutsche Post divisions, business units, and subsidiaries. Today, DHL Express shares its DHL brand with business units such as DHL Global Forwarding and DHL Supply Chain. It gained a foothold in the United States when it acquired Airborne Express.

The DHL Express financial results are published in the Deutsche Post AG annual report. In 2016, this division's revenue increased by 2.7% to €14 billion. The earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) increased by 11.3% over 2015 to €1.5 billion.

## History

Traditional DHL subsidiary in Steinfurt (Germany) sharing premises and logistics with Deutsche Post
DHL boat in Amsterdam, carrying DHL delivery bicycles on board
DHL advertising on the Tren de la Costa light railway, Buenos Aires
DHL semitrailer truck

### Origins

While Larry Hillblom was studying law at University of California, Berkeley's Boalt Hall School of Law in the late 1960s, he accepted a job as a courier for the insurance company Michael's, Poe & Associates (MPA). He started running courier duty between Oakland International Airport and Los Angeles International Airport, picking up packages for the last flight of the day, and returning on the first flight the next morning, up to five times a week.

After he graduated, Hillblom met with MPA salesman Adrian Dalsey and they planned to expand MPA's concept of fast delivery to other business enterprises. They flew between Honolulu and San Francisco, transporting bills of lading for their first client, Seatrain Lines.

#### Name origins

Hillblom put up a portion of his student loans to start the company, bringing in his two friends Adrian Dalsey and Robert Lynn as partners, with the combined initials of their surnames as the company name (DHL). They shared a Plymouth Duster that they drove around San Francisco to pick up the documents in suitcases, then rushed to the airport to book flights using another relatively new invention, the corporate credit card. As the business took off, they started hiring new couriers to join the company. Their first hires were Max and Blanche Kroll, whose apartment in Hawaii often became a makeshift flophouse for their couriers.

### Domestic expansion

In the 1970s, DHL became an international delivery company, similar to Loomis and Purolator who were the only other international courier companies at the time. The only major competitor in the overnight market was Federal Express (FedEx), which did not open its first international service until 1981, expanding to Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Nevertheless, the domestic market was extremely profitable, and DHL was the third largest courier behind FedEx and UPS.

### Deutsche Post purchase

Deutsche Post began to acquire shares in DHL in 1998, acquiring a controlling interest in 2001. By the end of 2002, Deutsche Post had acquired all of DHL's remaining stock, and absorbed the operation into its Express division. The DHL brand was expanded to other Deutsche Post divisions, business units and subsidiaries. Today, DHL Express shares its DHL brand with other Deutsche Post business units, such as DHL Global Forwarding, DHL Freight, DHL Supply Chain, and DHL Global Mail.

* 1999: Deutsche Post World Net (DPWN) purchased the Dutch shipping company Van Gend & Loos as well as Swiss freight forwarder Danzas.[*citation needed*]
* 2001: Deutsche Post acquires a majority (51%) of DHL's shares, and the remaining 49% in 2002. The new DHL is launched by merging the old DHL, Danzas, and Securicor Omega Euro Express. The Packstation, an automated delivery booth, was introduced as a pilot project in Dortmund and Mainz.

Source:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DHL