GLOBAL FORWARDING, FREIGHT division

Business Units and Market Positions

Broker between customers and freight carriers

With its wide range of coverage and comprehensive offering for transporting freight by air, sea or land, DHL is one of the leading global logistics companies. The products and services offered by our Global Forwarding and Freight business units extend from standardised logistics operations to multimodal transport solutions and highly individualised industrial projects. Our workforce of around 42,000 employees co-operates with reliable partners to ensure that our operations run smoothly and are carried out to our customers’ satisfaction.

Our business model is very asset-light, as it is based on the brokerage of transport services between our customers and freight carriers. This allows us to consolidate shipments to achieve higher volumes and to leverage our purchasing power. Moreover, our wide network coverage enables us to optimise goods routing.

Market leader in air freight and number two in ocean freight

In the Global Forwarding business unit, DHL is the world leader in air freight services and one of the leading providers of ocean freight services. Around 30,000 employees work to ensure the transport of all kinds of goods by air or sea every day. Our products and services cover standard transport, multi-link transport chains and specialised solutions such as industrial projects for specific sectors, including temperature-controlled and secure shipments. To complement our product offer, we provide additional transport-related services that include handling customs formalities and providing insurance services and warehousing solutions, and the integrated management of customers’ end-to-end supply chains aimed at making them more efficient. Most of our customers come from the Technology, Automotive, Chemicals, Consumer, Retail (including Fashion & Apparel) and Energy sectors. We also provide customised solutions to niche industries such as motor sport.