Appel adamant in support of DHL-GF division

If there were still any doubts about the veracity of the rumors last month that Deutsche Post was considering selling its underperforming DHL Global Forwarding (DHL-GF) division, Frank Appel, CEO of Deutsche Post DHL Group, did his best to put the notion to rest yesterday at the Trans-Pacific Maritime (TPM) Conference, held in Long Beach, Calif.

Toward the end of his Keynote Address to TPM attendees, Appel asserted that “there were no discussions with anybody – there will be no discussions,” about getting rid of DHL-GF, adding that the report that first surfaced in mid-February in a Reuters story was “completely nonsense.”

“We are very proud and passionate freight forwarders since 1815,” Appel went on. “We are very proud that we have a market-leader division.”

Regarding the failed rollout of DHL’s “New Forwarding Environment” IT system, which resulted in a US$388 million write-down for Deutsche Post in the third-quarter, Appel admitted that the company “made some mistakes,” but added that DHL has corrected them.

“We have found a better approach to our IT change,” he said. “If you want to be innovative, you make mistakes once in a while, and sometimes it’s unfortunately costly as well. But then you should forgive yourself and go on, and we are doing that.” He did not, however, provide any further details about the new plans to overhaul DHL’s IT system.

The original Reuters report had cited an unnamed source, who said that Deutsche Post had been considering a sale of the forwarding division, possibly to Japan Post, which had purchased Toll Holdings in 2015. Appel vigorously denied these rumors, as well. “We will improve the performance of the [forwarding] division ourselves, and we are very confident that we can make that happen,” he concluded.

Appel also mention in the keynote address that the forwarding industry faced other looming challenges, including poor economic forecasting for the maritime industry, continuing imbalances in oceanfreight and a decrease in the growth of productivity, which is slowing cargo growth worldwide.

Some opportunities that DHL is now pursuing, he said, include development of drone delivery vehicles to provide last-mile delivery service, SmartGlass technology (pictured above) to increase productivity of warehouse workers and improved container tracking devices to provide real-time travel updates from around the globe.