DHL Global Forwarding rolls out U.S. LCL Expedited Service upgrades

DHL Global Forwarding, an air and ocean subsidiary of Deutsche Post DHL Group, recently announced it has rolled out upgrades to its Less-than-Container Load (LCL) Expedited Service, in the United States only, which covers the Asia Pacific and European trade lanes.

Company officials said that these service upgrades are part of an effort to meet the growing customer needs for transporting critical shipments during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, through the usage of what it called a faster LCL service by leveraging expedited trucking, coupled with faster sailings on some trade lanes that will subsequently offer up faster shipper customer transit times. For example, the company said that this offering has enabled it to send urgent medical shipments from China to the U.S. in 13-to-17 days.

DHL Global Forwarding rolled out its LCL Expedited Service in 2007, with the objective of connecting major Asia Pacific-based hubs to the U.S. The service is now available for U.S. import lands through most transportation hubs in the Asia Pacific and Europe, to Los Angeles and New York, according to DHL. And through the integration of ocean freight and trucking services, DHL said that this effort cuts down transit times by 14 days, as opposed to standard LCL service from Shanghai to the U.S. East Coast, with these new service upgrades including:

• two day Container Freight Station (CFS) dwell time in Shanghai and one-day LCL cargo turnaround from vessel arrival to CFS availability and departure in Los Angeles;
• express delivery from Los Angeles and New York to any continental U.S. destination within 3-5 days; and
• it also connects Yantian, South China, to Los Angeles, US, with port-to-port transit time of 12 days

DHL said that the objective of the LCL Expedited Service is to serve an increasingly globalized market and demanding customer base, with lower freight and total real-time, door-to-door customer visibility for myriad industries.

DHL Global Forwarding CEO David Goldberg said that a main driver for these upgrades are due to a higher demand for urgent shipments, specifically medical and PPE, due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

“We made the decision to upgrade this service to help them navigate the challenges they were experiencing and offering flexible solutions,” he said.

Goldberg added that the 13-to-17 day transit time window is down from a previous transit time of 30 days for this service.

As for the biggest benefits of this service, Goldberg pointed to faster and reliable transit lanes, significant supply chain cost savings compared to airfreight services, reduced inventory carrying costs, and full visibility from origin to door.