DHL is always on the lookout for improving how it does business. In 2002, as part of a test project, the company tackled
the challenge of streamlining its pickup and delivery (PuD) system in Sweden, where DHL operates 1,400 vehicles. PuD
represents 40 percent of the total cost of the company’s daily operations. Each morning, DHL drivers spent, on average, 30 minutes of their shift or tour sorting goods that needed to be delivered. At that time, packages were sorted by postal codes, resulting in piles of shipments shared by four or five vehicles. Drivers spent valuable time looking through the piles, then moving the packages to their gates. This translated into a long searching and loading time with too much room left for human error. “Finding an improvement on the tour preparation and other activities would have a great impact on our total productivity,” says Henrik Dahlin, process development manager, DHL Express. “It was a priority for us to find a solution.”