DC Velocity - August 2016

DHL Express, the express unit of German transport and logistics giant Deutsche Post DHL Group, has opened a facility in New York’s Lower Manhattan financial district that will make use of foot couriers. This is the company’s first operation of its kind in the U.S.

The 1,200-square-foot facility, which resembles a sidewalk storefront, will be home to more than a dozen walking couriers, who will cover five ZIP codes throughout the financial district. Packages and documents will be brought to the facility via delivery van. At that point, they will be tendered to the foot couriers for delivery to their destinations. Customers will also be able to drop off shipments at the center, which will have a staffed customer service counter, DHL Express said.

Because it is often faster to navigate the financial district’s narrow and congested streets by foot than by motor vehicle, the use of the walking couriers should cut approximately one hour off the normal delivery times in the area, DHL Express said.

DHL Express already provides helicopter deliveries in Manhattan, with stops at the borough’s West Side and at Newark’s Liberty International Airport. Through this network, urgent legal and financial documents can arrive at London’s financial district by the next business day, the company said.

DHL Express has larger facilities in four of the five New York boroughs, the one exception being Staten Island. The unit, which is based in Bonn but with its U.S., Canada, Mexico, and Americas headquarters in Plantation, Fla., serves the U.S. market through its international network. DHL Express ceased domestic U.S. operations in January 2009.

DHL Express opens
“walking courier”
facility in Manhattan’s
financial district

A new Web portal created by the Intermodal Association of North America (IANA) could help motor carriers save time by making it easier to reuse containers and chassis without first returning empty equipment to an intermodal yard, the association said in July.

The practice known as “street turns,” whereby drayage carriers exchange empty equipment away from ports and terminals, can cut down on costly port congestion. However, the practice itself can get gummed up while carriers transfer insurance paperwork and exchange documentation. IANA’s “Street Interchange Application” portal streamlines that process by validating the motor carrier’s participation in the Uniform Intermodal Interchange and Facilities Access Agreement (UIIA), the standard industry contract between intermodal truckers and equipment providers, the association said. The portal then documents the transfer of liability, indemnification, and damage to the next carrier, IANA said.

Drivers who log onto the portal can quickly move beyond the paperwork requirements to swiftly drop off a container and chassis and pick up another, or reuse an import box for an export shipment, IANA said.

IANA is hosting introductory webinars to train participants how to use the new site and will release a mobile app and a system-to-system application programming interface (API) later this year.