DHL Express is looking up in the Netherlands as it invests in new facilities to increase operational capacity in response to rising volumes.
The company is in the midst of a multi-year investment programme and has opened six new branches in the last three years.
On November 19, DHL Express opened its second facility in the Amsterdam region with a new branch at Hoofddorp, just outside the city. The company already has a Service Center at Amsterdam Airport Schiphol, but expansion of capacity was necessary in view of the growth in international express shipments in this region.
From Hoofddorp, DHL now serves the Haarlem district and the area above the Noorzeekanaal, including Texel. More than 50 employees moved from the branch at Schiphol to Hoofddorp.
Meanwhile, construction of a new DHL Express Service Center at Hessenpoort business park in Zwolle has reached its highest point. To celebrate, the town’s mayor and Ronald Leunisse, managing director of DHL Express in the Netherlands, unveiled a sign on the top of the building.
The company is investing €11 million in the new branch, which will go into service in spring 2019 and create more than 130 new jobs. It will serve the areas of Friesland, Groningen, Drenthe and part of Overijssel.
Leunisse explained: "With the new Service Centers we are investing in capacity and the quality of our services, which guarantees our customers a distinctive express service that reaches the whole world. At the same time, we offer our employees an optimal working environment, which is also built to the highest standards of sustainability. "
In line with ambitious environmental objectives to be emission-free by 2050, the new Service Centers meet the highest sustainability requirements. The Zwolle building, whose solar panels will make it self-sufficient in electricity, will gain a BREEAM ‘outstanding' rating while Hoofddorp has gained an ‘excellent’ rating.
In addition, DHL bicycle couriers are supplied from Zwolle and Hoofddorp. In Zwolle, bicycle containers are loaded and transported to the recently-opened DHL City Hub in Groningen. From there, bicycle couriers make the final-mile deliveries using Cubicycles.
Deliveries by Cubicycle will also go into operation next year in Zwolle and the northern town of Leeuwarden. Every bike replaces a regular diesel-fulled van which equals 8 tons of CO2 reduction per year.
