GLOBAL FORWARDING, FREIGHT

Business units and market positions

Global and individual transport solutions

With its Global Forwarding and Freight business units, DHL is the world’s largest provider of air and ocean freight services and one of the leading overland freight forwarders in Europe and the Middle East. We develop global and individual transport solutions for our customers, provide capacity and co-ordinate the dispatch of goods and information in more than 150 countries. To do so, we rely on the competence of around 39,000 employees along with reliable partners.

We broker between our customers and freight carriers and combine their orders in order to reach a volume that allows us to secure cargo space and charter capacity from airlines, shipping companies and freight carriers at competitive prices. We also make use of the air freight capacity of our EXPRESS division. Since we purchase transport services rather than providing them ourselves, we are able to operate our business with a very low level of fixed assets. 

World market leader in air and ocean freight

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.