DHL Express has opened eight additional service points in Japan, in spite of the challengescurrently facing the country, and UPS has resumed services in more parts of the north-east.
The DHL expansion has been achieved through its partnership with Greight, which operates thecountry’s largest franchised retail chain under the Hankoyasan21 brand, and gives customers accessto DHL Express services at 61 of the 300 Hankoyasan21 stores in Japan. It also increases the totalnumber of DHL service points in the country to 136.
The new service points were opened on 15 March in Nishi-Kasai, Edogawa-ku; Sangenjaya,Setagaya-ku; Higashi-Osaka; Yokosuka City, Kanagawa Prefecture; Saitama City, Saitama Prefecture;Nikko and Utsunomiya cities in Tochigi Prefecture; and Okayama City, Okayama Prefecture.
DHL told CEP-Research that all of the service points were currently accessible from apick-up-and-delivery point of view, and were not affected by the current problems in the north-eastof the country. A spokesman acknowledged that while it may seem an inappropriate time, to someobservers, to launch new services in Japan, the situation in Japan may be different, “in thesense that it is not viewed negatively to help ‘normalise’ the situation by announcing businessnews”.
DHL Express added that it was taking all possible measures in order to restore its operationsacross eastern Japan, although, like other operators, its activities were limited within certain ofthe areas most severely affected by the 11 March earthquake and resulting tsunami and radiationemergency.
As of yesterday, DHL Express pick-up and delivery services in Tohoku area continue to besuspended temporarily, while in Ibaraki prefecture, pick-up and delivery services have resumed inlimited areas. “In other parts of Kanto area, we are providing pick-up and delivery services asusual,” DHL said. “Some delays on shipments can be expected due to the traffic congestion andplanned power outages across the Kanto Area where DHL operates. Our pick-up and delivery servicesremain as per normal in western Japan and the Chubu area.”
Meanwhile, a UPS spokeswoman told CEP-Research that the company had resumed more of its servicesin north-east Japan yesterday (Thursday). “We resumed delivery into three more prefectures ineastern Japan — Aomori, Akita and Yamagata — and extended the cutoff time to 4 PM for ourpickups. It had been earlier in the afternoon for the past week,” she explained.
“Beginning today, our UPS Japan operations for both import/export resumed normal schedules forall but the remaining three prefectures that continue to have suspended service. These are the mainareas directly affected by the quake/tsunami/evacuations (Iwate, Miyagi and Fukushima). And the UPSservice guarantees have resumed in all but these three areas,” she added.
