Business View Caribbean
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the rest of the world, must flow through the Cincinnati
and Miami hubs. And massive upgrades have been
done in those facilities to make them more efficient.
We’ve also added new aircraft around the world. So,
DHL is always looking for ways to make what we call
the ‘Big Yellow Machine’ move much more efficiently.”
“And what’s good about DHL is that we ‘think global,
act local,’” he adds. “So, what the global organization
is doing, we mirror in our medium and long-term strat-
egies. Specifically, in Jamaica, we have followed our
parent company’s go-green initiative. In fact, we’re the
only building in New Kingston (the
city’s fast-growing commercial
district) right now with the entire
roof, solar. We’ve been able to cut
60-65 percent of our utility bill, by
adding solar technology. And our
entire building at our main office
uses LED lights. What’s planned
is for us to expand this throughout
the rest of our locations – at the
airports, in Montego Bay – and
actually to start selling some of
this clean energy to the JPS (the
Jamaica Public Service Company)
via net billing. With all of that in
place, we actually expect that we
should start to see much more
cost savings.”
James says that the company is
also intent on growing its market
share with more innovative servic-
es, such as its recently-launched
“Express Easy.” “It’s a retail prod-
uct which makes shipping inter-
nationally much easier and much
more cost-effective than any of
our competitors, and even better
than what DHL, itself, was doing before,” says James.
“We have different size boxes with one fixed price
and that’s it. So, as a result of the deployment of this
product in February, we’re already seeing about a 25
percent increase in our revenue and an eight percent
increase in our shipment volume, compared against
last year. So, we know it’s working and making it easier
for the small/medium enterprise business to operate
much more cost-effectively. And they are the drivers of
the economy. So, we’re very proud about the launch of
this product.”