A partner at the border.

The growing demand for logistic services from companies whose products are continually crossing the U.S.-Mexico border has led delivery firms to develop new and innovative services in the past few years. DHL is no exception.

The company, part of Deutsche Post World Net, launched last year its U.S. Mexico Trade Lane, a consulting service for companies looking to import or export between the United States and Mexico. The service is provided by a team comprised of 20 binational and bilingual consultants, located at DHL offices on both sides of the border. "These people can really explain to our clients how the business works on the other side," said Martin Alvarez, commercial vice president of DHL Mexico.

At the beginning of the year, the delivery and logistics firm also connected its terrestrial networks between the U.S. and Mexico. Airplanes are no longer the only choice for cargo shipment. For example, DHL packages can now cross the border from Tijuana to San Diego or from Nuevo Laredo to Laredo. The result? Faster and less expensive deliveries.

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But without a doubt, the most successful of the new DHL products is Break Box Express, a service that smoothes the process of passing goods through customs. How? By giving DHL clients the possibility of delivering various packages as a single one and, once the merchandise is in the U.S. or in Mexico, separating the cargo and sending every package to its particular address. "Sometimes a point-to-point service is not the best solution," explained Alvarez. "This process helps the client not only to get considerable savings, but also to gain visibility of the whole delivery process."

Imports have been another area of hard work for DHL. The company has innovated in this sector with Import Express, a door-to-door service that allows its clients to use a single account number to request the supply it needs, from a document to a 1,100 lbs pallet, from anywhere in the world. This service has experienced a 50 percent growth in Mexico this year, as compared to 2004.

As Alvarez explained, DHL is the exclusive partner for each Import Express shipment and takes complete responsibility for packages from their pickup to delivery. Once the shipment is underway, easy track and trace is available through all steps of the process. For billing purposes, the customer receives one invoice per billing cycle in the customer's currency, allowing them to easily budget for and audit all import shipments.

DHL has also small- to medium-sized businesses in mind. The company is currently working with BANCOMEXT, the national Mexican bank to foment exporters, to develop a training program and other services for local PYMES.

But to launch this battery of new services, DHL needed more than good ideas. The company had to invest more than US$25 million in the last three years to strengthen its import and export operations in Mexico. The resources were directed mainly to improve the operation of gateways and to renew its fleet of trucks.

Today, DHL Mexico operates more than 1,400 trucks and 34 international flights that operate daily from Mexico City, Guadalajara and Saltillo. Its main hub is located in Wilmington, Delaware, where airplanes arriving from Mexico can combine with 200 daily flights.

With sales of US$34 billion worldwide, DHL Express operates in more than 228 countries and 650,000 destinations. In Mexico, where it has been operating for 25 years, DHL has 400 attention centers in 32 states, including its 150 stores and agreements with companies like Office Depot and MailBoxes Etc., among others.

Even though the company doesn't provide sales figures for Mexico, Alvarez said the Mexican operation of DHL is larger than all other South Americans operations put together. "We have always had an international focus, and we know Mexico better than any other company," he assured.