DHL has announced significant progress on its Route Optimization Initiative, a component of a program announced earlier this year to enhance courier pick up and delivery efficiency.
Plantation, FL-based DHL said it has improved pick-up service for customers in hundreds of cities across the United States, while decreasing vehicle usage and fuel consumption.
At facilities across the nation, the DHL Route Optimization Initiative uses a customized software solution to pull pick-up and delivery data from courier data terminal scanners.
The information is uploaded for analysis and route mapping, enabling DHL to increase efficiency and effectively balance its workload capacity across its entire U.S. fleet.
Since its inception, the initiative has decreased required drive times, limited route length and fuel consumption, and enabled more rapid processing of shipments.
As a result of the initiative, customers throughout the country have more predictable regular delivery times, according to the carrier service.
In addition, DHL has been able to extend the deadline for pick up service by up to 90 minutes in more than 400 metropolitan areas across the United States, encompassing more than 500,000 businesses.
DHL said it will expand the Route Optimization Initiative in 2007 with still more precise shipment forecasting tools to ensure all courier routes are constructed to account for fluctuating volume by customer, seasonal and historical data.
