DHL Express CEO downplays competition of big online companies

DHL Express CEO John Pearson said the company is not worried about online customers like Amazon becoming rivals.

Pearson, speaking at the opening of DHL’s new logistics centre at the Cologne-Bonn airport, pointed out that DHL offers cross-border and time-sensitive deliveries, which companies such as Amazon, who are expanding their own courier services, cannot yet do.

According to Reuters, Pearson also claimed that DHL was not dependent on big customers, instead focusing increasingly on making deliveries for small online retailers.

These statements echo similar claims made by FedEx. The American courier company went out of its way to downplay the prospect of Amazon becoming a serious rival, even issuing a press release claiming that Amazon as a customer only accounted for 1.3% of FedEx's total revenue in 2018.

Earlier this year FedEx dropped two of its contracts with Amazon, before finally acknowledging the company as a key competitor.

Amazon has begun to use its own drivers in Germany and plans to open 11 more distribution centres across the country.

Last week DHL reported a 4.7% year-on-year revenue increase in its third quarter—with an 8.7% rise in its Express division.

Source: Reuters

Header image: Thomas Lefebvre