DHL opens China Rail Competence Center in Stuttgart
DHL Global Forwarding has opened a central China Rail Competence Center in Stuttgart, Germany to ensure the more efficient and customer-friendly coordination of ever-growing freight volumes transported between Germany and Asia by the rail freight service. “Rail freight volumes between Germany and Asia have increased 10-fold in just one year. In order to meet ever-increasing demand, the onus is on us to grow, optimize processes and create synergies. It is for this very reason that we decided to establish a central China Rail Competence Center,” states Volker Oesau, CEO DHL Global Forwarding Germany and Central Europe, explaining the strategic rationale behind the decision.
DHL Global Forwarding’s German-based China Rail team has been expanded both in terms of freight handling and customer service. The experts in the Stuttgart Rail Competence Center primarily provide support to German customers in the automotive, technology, mechanical engineering and retail sectors. They are developing appropriate multi-modal transport solutions and coordinating end-to-end transport processes, from collection, export and transit formalities, and the Euro-Asian rail service, right through to customs clearance in the land of arrival and delivery by truck or combined rail transport.
State-of-the-art track and trace systems facilitate transparent shipment tracking – with temperature information if desired. The team is also developing tailored security concepts specifically for very high quality goods.
In total, DHL Global Forwarding offers 15 rail connections, equating with seven door-to-door rail transports per week, between Germany and the Far East. The trains follow the course of the trans-Kazakh western corridor and the trans-Siberian northern corridor with a dense network of rail hubs in all the major economic centers in China, Taiwan, Japan and South Korea. Here, customers can choose from DHL Railconnect products for less than container load (LCL) shipments, full container load (FCL) shipment products from DHL Railline and temperature-controlled rail services. Pre-carriage and onward carriage is offered by truck or combined rail transport based on the urgency of the respective shipment.