DHL Express, one of the world’s top express and logistics providers, has made a retail automation breakthrough in the Courier, Express & Parcel (CEP) Industry by opening its first digital service point in the UAE. This automated service station is the first in the Middle East and throughout DHL’s global network.
It is located at the Dubai Digital Park (DDP) in Dubai Silicon Oasis (DSO), the integrated free zone technology park and a member of the Dubai Integrated Economic Zones Authority (DIEZ). It is an unprecedented industry breakthrough that reflects DHL’s market-leading position in the UAE and ushers in a new age of digitalizing customer experience in logistics.
DHL Express sponsored the inaugural event in conjunction with Dubai Silicon Oasis (DSO) at DSO’s owned DDP, Dubai’s first integrated smart city project spanning 150,000 square meters and was attended by key officials from both DHL Express MENA and DSO. During the inaugural ceremony, live shipping demonstrated the service point’s user-friendliness, speedy processing, and efficient technologies.
Commenting on DHL’s breakthrough innovation, Geoff Walsh, Country Manager of DHL Express UAE, states, “In an era of retail automation and growing digitalization, DHL has remained steadfast on its journey to develop innovative solutions that elevate the customer experience on the back of a seamless service offering. Our unmanned, fully digitalized service point is a pioneering technology that benchmarks retail automation and revolutionizes the CEP market in a fast-paced digital era. Furthermore, the location of the service point in the Dubai Digital Park has been strategically selected to demonstrate DHL’s commitment to supporting the ambitious vision of the UAE Government in transitioning the country into a smart digitalized city.”
The fully automated service point will cater to Account and Cash customers, as well as eCommerce return shipments, and will provide an array of facilitated services, enabling them to seamlessly send, receive and track shipments up to 15 kgs with ease, speed and efficiency, throughout the day. The intelligent service point is also embedded with a human support system accessible via video conferencing for added convenience and additional support.
For his part, Salem Khalifa, Senior Vice President of Projects Management at DSO, says, “As an integrated technology park, Dubai Silicon Oasis encourages, promotes, and adopts innovative smart city technologies. We are delighted to be early adopters of technology that enhances our residents’ and visitors’ experiences while also serving as a testbed for partners that wish to pilot AI-enabled and automated products and services ahead of rolling them out nationwide. We look forward to examining the outcomes of DHL Express’ first digital service point breakthrough in retail automation at DDP. We are also confident in the company’s pioneering technology and are committed to supporting them in their endeavours.”
DHL’s first fully digital service point has been designed to enhance the company’s retail solutions, powered by cutting-edge plug-and-play technologies. This enables elevating the customer experience in line with the latest automation and digitalization trends. The intelligent service point offers increased mobility and space efficiency compared to a brick-and-mortar model and will also contribute to the company’s sustainability commitments through increased energy savings.
“Our digital service point has undergone an intensive development process complemented with rigorous testing and user journey mapping to ensure that the service is user-friendly, simple and efficient and adheres to the highest quality standards. We look forward to rolling out similar smart service points in the future and expanding our retail channels and physical footprint to continue to deliver service excellence in a shifting digital world”, adds Geoff.
