DHL has announced that it has broken ground on a new, modernized service center operation just twoblocks south of O’Hare International Airport in Chicago, IL. DHL will invest $7 million in the new
78,960-sq.-ft facility, which will serve DHL’s local pickup, delivery and sorting operations. Thenew DHL Chicago service center is expected to be operational by early 2007.The new airport area facility will feature new, state-of-the-art conveyors and sortingsystems to process a higher volume of customer shipments more quickly throughout the Chicagoland.The new facility, located closer to the main artery off of Mannheim Road to improve DHL customeraccess, will handle a wide variety of shipments – including domestic and international parcels aswell as palletized, loose-load and container freight. The facility will also provide a throughputcapacity of 7,500 packages per hour and will employ nearly 250 personnel when fully operational.
This is the second recent major facility investment by DHL to enhance operations in theChicago area. In September 2005, DHL opened a new 70,000-sq.-ft facility on West Cermak Roadserving the Chicago loop area and providing pickup and delivery services for DHL’s largestcustomers in the financial, legal, and banking industries.
“The Chicago area has always been an important market for DHL, with a high density ofcustomers ranging from major national accounts to small businesses,” said Carl Rodriguez, seniorarea vice president of operations for DHL. “This new facility will ensure that customers shippingto and from the Chicago area continue to receive the highest level of service from DHL, and alsopositions DHL for future customer growth in the area.”
The new Chicago service center investment is one of many initiatives DHL has undertaken toimprove U.S. network efficiencies and connectivity system-wide. In 2004, DHL Express announced a$1.2 billion network investment program in the U.S. market which has resulted in a newly expandedprimary air and ground hub in Wilmington, Ohio, seven new Regional Sort Centers, a recentlycompleted West Coast distribution facility, and the development of a $107 million new,state-of-the-art East Coast Distribution Facility in Allentown, Pennsylvania.
Other recent investments include DHL’s largest on-airport service center facility whichopened in May 2006 at the Charlotte Douglas International Airport, a $181 million service center inManhattan which opened last month along with a new foot-courier facility, and a new service centerfacility being built at the Salt Lake city International Airport.
