DHL is using its Dutch parcel points as letter drop-off points in cooperation with leading private mail firm Sandd and is investing in new parcel, express and supply chain facilities to extend its network in the Netherlands.
In its latest challenge to PostNL, Sandd is now targeting private customers as well as business clients for its twice-weekly mail deliveries, and has issued its first-ever stamp priced at 60 cents, undercutting PostNL’s current price of 78 cents for a standard letter.
DHL announced on Monday that Dutch consumers can buy these stamps and hand in letters at an initial 100 DHL Servicepoints across the country. The new service will be extended as soon as possible to the rest of the network, which should reach 2,000 outlets in the near future.
Sandd’s staff collect the letters from the DHL Servicepoints and deliver them to Dutch homes along with transactional and advertising mail from business clients on two scheduled delivery days, Tuesdays and Fridays.
The DHL Servicepoints, mostly operated by retail partners on a ‘shop-in-shop’ basis, offer parcel shipping and collection as well as various other products. But DHL said that the new mail service was “an attractive product extension” for retailers in order to win more customers.
Sandd recently also announced the acquisition of rival mail firm Van Straaten Post, which will give it overall turnover of approximately €195 million this year and over 20,000 employees once the deal is completed later in the fourth quarter.
Meanwhile, DHL is continuing to expand its various networks in the Netherlands.
Construction work started at the start of October on the new €35 million DHL Parcel sorting centre in Amsterdam, one of 15 parcel sorting centres in the Netherlands. The 14,000 sqm package sorting facility in the Atlaspark in Amsterdam Westerpoort is due to open in mid-2018, replacing a smaller building in the same area. The sorting system, with capacity for up to 12,500 packages an hour, will be supplied by Vanderlande Industries. About 600 sorting and delivery staff will work at the new centre.
Also earlier this month DHL Supply Chain opened a 23,000 sqm distribution centre for automotive and technology customers, which was developed by Prologis, in the town of Nieuwegein, close to Utrecht.
This summer DHL Express opened a €12 million service centre serving Rotterdam and The Hague as part of its ongoing €45 million investment in its Dutch operations.
Under the network upgrading programme, designed to enable later cutoff times and earlier deliveries, DHL Express Netherlands will build seven new service centres and expand others. At present, the Dutch network comprises 10 service centres (depots), two customer service centres, two ‘DHL Shops’, the Schiphol air hub and 175 ServicePoints across the country.
