DHL and Toyota Material Handling Europe sign contract for delivery of racking systems

DHL Freight, one of the leading providers of road freight services in Europe, has signed a contract with Toyota Material Handling Group, the leading brand of material handling equipment, to provide transportation of their newly launched line of racking systems from the suppliers to the company’s customers’ sites all across Europe.

Starting in September, materials for a wide range of racking solutions, including conventional and high density pallet racking systems, as well as shelving and other non-palletized racking systems, will embark on their journey to new warehouses via various transport solutions provided by DHL Freight’s network. Delivery on the exact agreed day is of critical importance since the development of the project at customer’s site depends upon it.

“When we recently launched our latest line of racking solutions, it soon became clear that we need a partner who has the knowledge and capabilities to design and implement a solution in perfect synchronisation with the project plan of the site. We are committed to offering high quality solutions that are perfectly tailored to the warehouse storage requirements of our customers. One of those requirements is that the goods arrive exactly when they are needed. And DHL helps us deliver on our customer promise,” said Hans Larsson, Director Logistics Solutions, Toyota Material Handling Europe.

The solution provided by DHL follows the same set-up as for an automotive production plant. Each shipment may travel through the network as less-than-truckload (LTL), part-truckload (PTL) or full-truckload (FTL) cargo based on a series of criteria, such as the production date at the supplier site, the agreed delivery day and the nature and size of the goods.

The lead time may be different for every order, but critically important is that all material arrives on exactly the agreed day – even if it is produced in different sites across Europe. Too early and it’s likely that nobody will be able to receive or store the equipment, too late and the team of technicians wouldn’t be able to do their work, thus delaying the go-live of the warehouse. Since on-the-day delivery was a highly important criterion for Toyota Material Handling, when designing the solution, DHL involved experts in transport planning and pulled in various IT tools used to manage the flows for customers in the automotive sector.

Transport management for highly diverse cargo and critical delivery timelines call for thorough planning and creative solutions,” says Stefan Brunner, Global Sector Head Automotive, DHL Freight. “We understood the customer needed a Pan-European solution. Therefore, we pulled together the expertise of the countries and tools we use when designing sector specific solutions to meet our customers’ expectations.”

Besides the on-the-day delivery, the extreme diversity of the cargo is also a challenge. The equipment varies from small boxes to full size 13 meter long racks. Material for one single warehouse installation may also come in from different locations in Europe. DHL Freight consolidates the parts and delivers them on the agreed date. To ensure a smooth process and exact delivery times, the transports are carefully planned and scheduled in collaboration with Toyota Material Handling and the warehouse site. In the course of this project, DHL will transport over 90,000 tons of freight.