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How DHL Express is Turning Years of Courier Insight Into a Wiser Global Network

Writer: 28East
28East
Oct 12
2 min read

Every delivery business knows the feeling. The parcel is ready and loaded, the route is planned, and the driver still delivers it at the wrong gate.


DHL Express, which conducts around 1.5 million shipments a day across 220 countries, faced this problem on a global scale. As the e-commerce industry grew, half of those shipments began being delivered to homes rather than businesses. 


In a recent post on the Google Maps Platform blog, DHL Express expanded on how it rebuilt its delivery operation with Google Maps Platform. The biggest lesson was that the real problem wasn't navigation, but addresses.

Fixing Addresses Before They Reach the Driver

DHL found that address formats are widely different around the world. Some locations have no street numbers or postcodes, only landmarks. Customers aren't purposely trying to give bad information. They simply don't know what a delivery address looks like in different locations, only what is familiar to them. 


So DHL moved the fix to the moment an address is entered. Using Google’s Address Validation, Places and Geocoding API’s, which is a system that checks and enriches each address as it is captured:

  • Home or business: Knowing whether a delivery is residential or commercial.

  • Opening hours: Avoiding office deliveries after reception has closed.

  • The right entrance: Telling couriers where to go in, not just which street to drive to.

Giving Drivers a Map and a Voice

DHL's couriers used to work from a plain list of stops. With the Navigation SDK and Fleet Engine, they now have turn-by-turn navigation and a live plan for the day.


Just as important, couriers can correct a wrong pin on their device, and that correction feeds back into the system. Experienced drivers' local knowledge becomes part of the platform, instead of leaving when they do.


DHL rolled these features out one step at a time, piloting in one country before scaling. It reports that it hit delivery time windows about half the time in 2021, and close to 90% in key markets today. It is now piloting Google's Route Optimisation API.



Why This Matters for African Fleets and Online Retailers



Drivers across Africa deal with DHL's address problem every day:

  • Security estates and complexes: The street address leads to the main gate, but the unit number is missing.

  • Industrial parks: The address points to the front gate, but receiving is located at the back.

  • Landmark directions: In many areas, people describe where they live by what is nearby, not by a street number.

None of these is solved by a better route. They are solved by capturing the right location, and the right entrance, before the parcel leaves the depot.

Partnering with a Local Google Maps Specialist

That is where 28East comes in. As a Google Maps Premier Partner and Google Cloud partner, we focus on maps and location, with local procurement, billing and support.

Our delivery address checkout helps online retailers capture accurate, deliverable addresses, including businesses, points of interest and dropped pins. 

Start With the Address

If failed deliveries are a headache for your business, the fix may start at checkout. Contact the 28East team today to speak with our local location intelligence specialists.


 
 
 

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