Great away from home
DHL Express (USA) is a small portion of the approximately $80 billion entity that is DHL Worldwide, which in turn is a subsidiary of German delivery and logistics titan Deutsche Post World -- a conglomerate that has its sights firmly fixed on becoming the number one logistics provider in the universe (or the world, at any rate). Given that DHL describes itself as the world's leading logistics and delivery firm, one would think that Deutsche Post can be satisfied that it has achieved its goal, but if one did, one would almost certainly be wrong. While DHL may well be the largest firm worldwide, serving over 120,000 destinations in some 220 countries and territories, it doesn't fare so well in the U.S., ranking a distant third behind the more established pair of FedEx and UPS in its core package and courier delivery business -- and that was before Deutsche Post's decision to eliminate DHL's Express service centers (along with 9,500 jobs) in the U.S. in November 2008.
Gimme a 'D', gimme an 'H'
In 1969, Messrs Dalsey, Hillblom and Lynn (look at the names again and guess where the company got its moniker!) developed a method of decreasing turnaround time in the shipping business by flying bills of lading to the port ahead of time. Initially, the firm did this between its base in San Francisco and Honolulu, but it quickly branched out, providing an international door-to-door express mail service throughout the Pacific. Within a few years, the firm was serving markets in the Philippines, Hong Kong, Japan, Australia and Singapore, before moving into Europe, the Middle East, Latin America and sub-Saharan Africa by the end of the 1970's. Notice any place missing there? Yup, there's no service to Antarctica. Oh … or North America, which perhaps explains why the company had only established a market share of seven percent there by 2004, despite being a world leader in all other markets at that time.
It wasn't until 1983 that the firm began focusing on the U.S. market, which it did by establishing a hub in Cincinnati International Airport that year -- the same year, incidentally, that the firm became the first to offer international service to the then-Communist Eastern Bloc countries in Europe. In following years, the firm would establish something of a reputation for venturing into inhospitable climes, becoming the first to deliver to Vietnam and the People's Republic of China, as well as the first to reestablish service to Kuwait following the first Gulf War.
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