Deutsche Post DHL favours CO2 pricing and is aiming for more RFID projects but plans to keep itsparcel Packstations exclusive, senior executives said at this week’s DHL Innovation Day.
CEO Frank Appel told a media briefing on the sidelines of the event that world leadersmeeting at the UN Climate Conference in Copenhagen starting next week had to reach a deal onreducing CO2 emissions. “There must be an agreement on CO2 pricing,” Appel said. Emissions tradingis “the right model” to price CO2 emissions since it benefited competiveness and was preferable toa taxation solution, he added.
Deutsche Post DHL has not reduced its environmental budget this year despite widespreadcost-cutting across the group, the CEO stressed. “The environment budgets are constant. Forexample, we have agreed a longer return on investment for GoGreen.” The longer payback period wasnecessary due to the impact of the recession, he explained.
Addressing the recent resumption of some night flights to carry mail between German cities,Appel said this was based on quality issues. Deutsche Post terminated all night mail flights thissummer to reduce costs and switched to road transportation instead. But it had suffered deliveryquality problems as a result, he admitted. Deutsche Post had to meet customer expectations on maildelivery quality and had thus decided to resume some flights, the CEO explained. Mail is now beingflown again on three North-South routes: Berlin-Stuttgart, Hannover-Stuttgart and Hannover-Munich.
Asked whether DHL might in future open up access to its Packstation parcel collection anddrop-off machines to competitors as part of collaborative ‘city logistics’ concepts, Appel stressedhe would not want to give away the ‘competitive advantage’ of the network. The Packstations hadrequired a high investment and competitors would not be prepared to pay sufficient access prices tomake a contribution to covering the investment costs, he stressed. “We have high investment coststhat we want to earn back,” he declared.
Internationally, DHL will install five Packstations in the new Dubai Metro, Petra Kiwitt,head of the new DHL Solutions & Innovation unit, disclosed. Dubai, renowned for extensivetraffic congestion and a lack of names at residential addresses, had last-mile delivery problems,she explained. The Packstations would be tested as alternative delivery locations.
Asked about the potential to gain more customers for the DHL Control Tower supply chainmanagement concept implemented with Airbus, Appel said talks are taking place with customers fromdifferent industries, and the Airbus solution was not only relevant for the aviation sector. Kiwittadded that Deutsche Post DHL is in talks with automotive companies regarding industry solutions.
On the potential for RFID usage in the logistics sector, Keith Ulrich, head of Technology andInnovation Management at Deutsche Post DHL, stressed that the technological solutions are now “stable” and price is no longer such a factor. “The biggest problem is the implementation for thewhole supply chain because so many individual elements are involved and the advantages first comethrough when the whole chain is covered,” he commented. A forthcoming RFID project would be withfashion group Gerry Weber within the next few months, he added.
During a panel discussion on RFID, Markus Sprafke, head of Volkswagen’s RFID unit, describedthe technology as “a revolutionary idea but with evolutionary implementation”. The biggest barrierto usage was not the technology itself or standards but the business case, he commented. GerdWolfram, head of CIO Office at retail group Metro, said three million pallets a year at the group’sstores in France and Germany were now equipped with RFID tags.
The rollout at Metro France was an example of a good RFID business case, commentedClaus-Jürgen Garbisch, senior vice president, Global Business Development at Deutsche Post DHL.Other sectors with potential were the fashion and aviation industries, he said.
Gerald Santucci, RFID unit head at the European Commission, stressed the importance of thisyear’s “compromise” RFID recommendations from Brussels which will be revised and updated in 2012.Too many people did not yet recognise the advantage of RFID tags, he commented.
