DHL has opened its new DHL Eastern China Domestic Transportation Hub in Shanghai - part of a US$25 million investment to strengthen the company's expertise in China's domestic road transportation market.

Total revenue from China's domestic road transportation industry increased by 66% between 1998 and 2007 to reach US$25 billion, and it is projected to increase by a CAGR of 7.1% to reach US$36 billion by 2013.

The Chinese government plans to develop Shanghai into an international shipping centre, which is expected to boost demand for domestic transportation services in order to deliver goods from inland production bases to ports and airports, as well as distributing imported goods to consumers in the cities.

Situated at the Kangqiao Industrial Park, the heart of the fast-growing Pudong area, the DHL Eastern China Domestic Transportation Hub is one of the five regional hubs owned and operated by DHL Supply Chain in mainland China. Together with another fifteen sub-regional hubs across the country, the DHL Supply Chain domestic transportation network now covers more than 400 Chinese cities.

The 25,000 m2 new hub houses 53 loading and cross docks and operates 24/7 to provide cross dock operations, storage, multi-modal transfer and data management for customers.

The facility also houses the fleet control centre and customer call centre. The hub is located within the DHL Supply Chain Kangqiao Logistics & Transportation Centre, which provides value-added warehousing and distribution services.

The cross dock solution is backed by iTransport, an advanced IT system that DHL deploys across the Asia Pacific region, which helps DHL's customers with route and network design, fleet management, shipment tracking and order fulfilment. Operating in both English and the local Chinese language, the system is designed to enable electronic exchange of data with customers' systems.

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