A business unit of Deutsche Post, DHL Express was established in 1969 to offer express mail services in Honolulu, Hawaii and San Francisco, California. The division expanded the services to other countries including the People’s Republic of China and Vietnam in the early 1980s. The expansion of the business unit continued in the 2000s when Airborne Express was combined with DHL Express.
In 2009, the business unit is one of the leading and most popular freight management divisions in the world. To have ideas about the DHL network size, it is important to look at the number of employees working in the unit. Additionally, it is also essential to know the products offered by the unit.
What is the DHL network size? The size of the unit can be determined in terms of the population of people employed in the division. As of 2009, the estimated number of DHL employees is 500,000. The headquarters of the division are based at Bonn in Germany. However, the unit has offices in other countries including the United States, United Arab Emirates and Singapore.
DHL is the third most popular courier service divisions in the world. When the business unit was established, it only offered services within San Francisco and Honolulu. However, it started to expand its services in the other parts of the United States when its consumer base has improved. In the late 1970s, the network offered overnight courier services in other countries including Singapore, Japan and Philippines.
To improve the services offered by the business unit, Deutsche Port has airlines used for the operations of the network. These include the European Air Transport, DHL Aero Expreso and DHL Air UK.
The acquisition of DHL Express by Deutsche Port started in 2001 and ended in 2002. To enhance the products and services offered by the business unit, the company incorporated Exel PLC in DHL Express on December 14, 2005.
One of the important events that contributed to the improving performance of the division in 2006 is when it won the contract to manage the supply chain of National Health Service in England. The contract stated that the business unit would be in-charged with the provision of logistics services to the health providers in the region for ten years.
By looking at the performance of DHL network in the past two decades, it is possible that its size will improve in the upcoming years. To measure the size of the network in the future, always remember to look at the number of employees working in the division as well as the number of products and services offered by this business unit.