DHL GLOBAL FORWARDING ENHANCES LCL EXPEDITED SERVICE FOR U.S. CUSTOMERS

• The solution is emerging as an important contingency plan for customers during the COVID-19 pandemic
• Upgraded service seeks to connect Asia Pacific and Europe to the U.S., offering fast and reliable transit lanes with significant supply chain cost savings 
• The expedited service operates with the use of smaller ships, express trucking at the origin and destination with direct delivery to customers’ door

DHL Global Forwarding, the air and ocean freight specialist of the Deutsche Post DHL Group, announced improvements to its Less-than-Container-Load (LCL) Expedited Service, which is available exclusively in the U.S. and encompasses the Asia Pacific and Europe lanes. The upgraded service – which is part of the company’s efforts to accommodate customers’ growing need for transporting critical shipments during the COVID-19 pandemic – offers a faster “LCL Service,” by using expedited trucking as well as faster sailings on certain trade lanes to provide faster transit times for customers. 

“Innovative services like these respond to the current challenges our customers are facing in the midst of the pandemic,” said David Goldberg, CEO of DHL Global Forwarding U.S. “This expedited solution has been extremely successful and valuable in the rapid transportation of urgent medical shipments from China to the U.S. in just 13-17 days, and we look forward to offer this as another solution to our customers.”

The LCL Expedited Service launched in 2007 and sought to connect major hubs in Asia Pacific to the U.S. Today, the service is now offered for U.S. imports lanes via the majority of transportation hubs in Asia Pacific and Europe to Los Angeles and New York. 

The solution is emerging as an important contingency plan for customers during the COVID-19 pandemic. Due to the high demand for urgent shipments, the service was upgraded to offer 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. 

By integrating ocean freight and trucking services to significantly increase the speed and efficiency of the shipping operations, the program reduces transit times by 14 days compared to standard LCL service from Shanghai to the U.S. East Coast. Service improvements include 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, as well as express delivery from Los Angeles and New York to any continental U.S. destination within 3-5 days. Additionally, the service now also connects Yantian, South China, to Los Angeles, US, with port to port transit time of 12 days.

The weekly service is an ideal middle ground between regular air and ocean freight, and is only made possible due to (1) the use of smaller ships, which require less travelling time navigating through the ocean; (2) express trucking at the origin and destination, by reducing the cut-off time for delivery and heading directly to the destination upon arrival; and (3) by clearing the cargo for customs while it is still being unloaded at the destination, it can head straight to the consignee’s door without the need of another storage location. 

This LCL Expedited service was created to serve an increasingly globalized market and an ever-more demanding consumer base with lower freight cost and total real-time, door-to-door visibility available for customers of all different sectors.