You’ve already been through the fundamentals of getting started. While it is important to know the basics, you should have a better understanding of how an International courier service operates. As your shipment races through our network, it can progress through various phases in less than 24 hours.
Of course, due to the complex nature of logistics, there are also many areas that could potentially delay your shipment. We have put together some valuable shipping advice for when you send goods through an international express delivery service.
1. PROACTIVE PARCEL TRACKING
Express couriers operate differently compared to freight forwarding services. Our shipments go through a complex string of flights, vehicles, and processing facilities to form a comprehensive network for all shipments. The difference is that our network operations is designed to ensure minimal “holding periods”. This means that we try our best to make sure that the shipment does not remain stationary for a prolonged period of time until delivery is complete.
When you hand over your shipment to DHL Express, the shipment will have a physical scan confirming that it is in our care. On top of this physical scan, the shipment will be allocated an estimated delivery date. While this date is only a forecast and is subject to airline availability and customs clearance, it is a good gauge of when your shipment will be delivered. Using that as a benchmark, you will be able to identify if your shipment is not moving as planned.
For example, if you are sending a shipment from Singapore to Malaysia, DHL Express takes approximately 1 business day for almost all postal codes in Malaysia. That means, in 6-hour windows, there should be a series of progression that takes it closer to its final destination. All scans are also location tagged, so you will know exactly what state and country your shipment is in with a time/date stamp.
If your shipment makes little to no progression during this window, you should contact our 24/7 customer service team to understand the situation better. They will be able to give you more details with regards to the scan or delay and take action to push the shipment forward.
By proactively tracking your shipment, you will always stay one step ahead and in turn, letting our operations team react to resolve any issues in a timely fashion.
You can track all your shipments by keying in your 10-digit AWB number here.
2. MONITOR DELIVERY PERFORMANCE
Most businesses will have recurring shipments to the same country or even the same recipient. A very useful tip if you regularly ship with DHL Express is to compile your shipments to measure our performance.
A simple excel table to record the total number of days taken for each shipment, the date and time of handing it to us, and the date and time of delivery. That way, you can have a better overview of all your shipments so you can easily identify if there is an anomaly or an unprecedented delay.
One important thing to note is our regular collection cycles. Handing your shipment to our express courier before the official cut-off timings will ensure that your shipment can be loaded onto the allocated flights, basically guaranteeing it a space on-board the aircraft.
DHL Express Singapore has 3 collection or delivery windows every day. In the morning from 10 am to 1 pm, in the afternoon from 3 pm to 6 pm, and finally in the evening from 7 pm to 9 pm. It is always advisable to hand over your shipment as early as possible for the quickest possible connection.
Another note is to understand how the value and contents of previous shipments may alter the transit time of a shipment. For instance, if you are shipping to the same recipient but you have a different set of contents that might be significantly higher in value, it will take longer for customs to process it – a norm that DHL Express has no influence over.
3. ENGAGE YOUR RECIPIENT
In every shipping transaction, there is always a sender and a receiver. While the preparations are normally done by the shipper. It is equally important that you engage your consignee prior to every shipment.
The consignee has good insight on the current status of the destination country and would know of any special regulations there might be to importing. They will need to be involved in the receiving process – as part of our delivery service, we try to contact the receiver before sending the parcel out for delivery so that our drivers can maximise our delivery van’s space.
Using our online tools like On-Demand Delivery or ensuring that your recipient is expecting the shipment will help our delivery process. Whether it is clearance or delivery, the actions of your consignee may affect the overall outcome.
In some scenarios where the consignee fails to respond, the shipment will be held until an alternate contact is provided or until the existing contact responds. This results in inefficiencies within our network, as you have read above, express delivery services are designed to keep moving.
The final point is to make sure that you have indicated an updated and valid point of contact on your air waybill (AWB). Often outdated contact numbers lead us to be unable to contact the recipient resulting in unnecessary delays.
4. UPGRADE YOUR DELIVERY SERVICE
By default when you create an AWB, you are engaging our Worldwide Express service. Although transit times are optimized to deliver in the shortest amount of time, there are situations where you might need extra care and attention to your shipment.
DHL Express offers service upgrades to speed up your delivery by adopting a last-in-first-out (LIFO) approach. Our time-critical solutions for delivery before 9am /10.30am/12pm is a great example of this service.
Upgradeable services also include a proactive track & trace from our customer service team to ensure that the shipment is monitored throughout its journey for you. On top of that, at various processing sites and at the destination facility, these upgraded shipments are sent out on a dedicated cycle, to be expedited for delivery.
5. LET DHL EXPRESS HANDLE THE REST
We want to give you the assurance that every shipment we handle is handled with care and undergoes strict procedures to give you the best possible logistics experience. At DHL Express, we handle all transactions door-to-door, so you don’t have to worry about the nitty-gritty details. Every day we refine our process a little more so we can improve and steer in the right direction.
We employ thousands of professionals and train them in a similar fashion – to give you one standardized outcome no matter which country you ship to or from.
Start shipping with DHL Express and feel the difference. We want to help you connect and bring the world closer.
