DHL’s road freight division, DHL Freight, is transporting racking systems across Europe for Toyota Material Handling under a new fixed-term contract that was signed this month.
The logistics provider is moving TMH’s conventional, high-density and non-palletised racking to customer warehousing sites in Europe from a number of production sites in the region. In the course of the project, DHL said it would transport over 90,000 tons of freight.
Notably, DHL said its service followed the same set-up as for an automotive production plant, with each shipment potentially being transported through the network as less-than-truckload (LTL), part-truckload (PTL) or full-truckload (FTL) cargo, based on a series of criteria, such as the production date at the supplier site, the agreed delivery time and the nature and size of the goods. That size differs significantly according to DHL, covering everything from small boxes to 13-metre long racks.
“The lead time may be different for every order, but critically important is that all material arrives on exactly the agreed day – even if it is produced in different sites across Europe,” said the company in a statement.
Given TMH’s demand for on-time delivery, DHL has involved experts in transport planning and pulled in various IT tools used to manage the flows for customers in the automotive sector.
“Transport management for highly diverse cargo and critical delivery timelines call for thorough planning and creative solutions,” said Stefan Brunner, global sector head automotive, DHL Freight. “We understood the customer needed a pan-European solution. Therefore, we pulled together the expertise of the countries and tools we use when designing sector specific solutions to meet our customers’ expectations.”
