Business View Caribbean
3
James, says that since Jamaica is one of the biggest
countries in the Caribbean region, it made sense for
DHL to make it a main location for its air and freight
services. DHL Jamaica is a fully-owned subsidiary of
the parent company, which in turn is owned by the Ger-
man company, Deutsche Post. DHL Jamaica now has
92 employees and a fleet of 20 vehicles. Along with
some of its retail partners, such as Western
Union, who are licensed agents, DHL has about
58 points on the island at which its customers
can pick up and drop off their shipments.
“We service all industries,” says James; “man-
ufacturing, tourism, agriculture, small and me-
dium enterprises, almost anybody who wants
to ship internationally. It’s mainly a business-
to-business model. However, in recent times,
we’ve actually seen a lot of B2C, business-to-
customer, on the residential side; we’re see-
ing an explosion in that, especially with ecom-
merce, primarily driving that.” Principally an
international company, Donovan adds that in
some specific instances, it will transport do-
mestic freight, like it does for the U.S. government,
when handling its visa deliveries throughout the is-
land. James says that the Jamaican landscape is com-
petitive; there’s FedEx and UPS, as well as the com-
mercial airlines and other freight transporters. Even
so, DHL Jamaica has captured about 51 percent of
the local market. “People are finding more and more
cost-effective ways to send shipments internationally,”
James explains. “So you’ll find that these other carri-
AT A GLANCE
WHO:
DHL Jamaica
WHAT:
A subsidiary of the worldwide shipping
company
WHERE:
Kingston, Jamaica
WEBSITE
:
