DHL and Blue Dart steer India's logistics in a new direction with the launch of Smart Truck

• Bengaluru pilot adapts successful innovations from the corporate unit DHL Solutions & Innovations to improve service quality, cut costs, reduce time and CO2 emissions in emerging market conditions

Mumbai :Bengaluru, August 10 2011:

TDHL, the world's leading logistics company, and Blue Dart, part of the DHL Group, are piloting Smart Truck technology in Bengaluru, India, the first deployment of this successful logistics innovation outside Germany. Created by DHL Solutions & Innovations (DSI), the DHL Smart Truck is an "intelligent" pick-up and delivery vehicle that combines a number of innovative technologies including a route planner. Launched in Germany in 2010, DHL Smart Truck reduced number of miles traveled by 15 per cent and length of average route by 8 per cent during its pilot stage, reducing both fuel consumption and CO2 emissions.

Piloted by Blue Dart in India, the Smart Truck technology is designed to provide solutions to urban logistic challenges such as traffic restrictions, density and clogging, while ensuring environmental protection and fulfilling customer need for on-time delivery. These "intelligent" pick-up and delivery vehicles compute delivery deadlines to calculate the ideal sequence for shipments, and use real-time GPS to avoid jams and optimise routings, thereby enabling flexibility and last-minute pick-ups. This allows the DHL Smart Truck to spend more time on the road to perform their pick-up and delivery services. The Smart Truck technology also enables a more efficient sorting process by synchronizing the data and physical flow, while real-time communications and visibility of services avoid 'missed' pickups and delayed deliveries. Together, this provides better customer service and a more cost-effective operation as a result of optimum use of vehicles with less wasted miles.

Mr. Jerry Hsu, CEO, DHL Express Asia Pacific, said: "DHL's GoGreen program commits us to continually address issues that affect the environment and seek innovative solutions to reduce our carbon footprint and provide better services to customers. In fast-growing, emerging markets such as India those needs are critical and will grow more so as the world continues to urbanize and megacities proliferate. To ease congestion, improve services and cut pollution, we need solutions that will make a positive impact on the environment, such as the DHL Smart Truck."

Mr. Anil Khanna, Managing Director of Blue Dart Express, said: "Adapting Smart Truck technology to work in a city like Bengaluru will have far reaching positive benefits for our clients, the city's economy, the environment, and in the long-term for all emerging markets. The Blue Dart Smart Truck pilot, as it is known in Bengaluru, will cover all Asia-Pacific inbound shipments on five routes in the city, with the system sorting deliveries to reduce errors and increase visibility. This gives customers an accurate delivery time. To successfully launch the pilot here, we have made adaptations to the original system to additionally overcome problems with consignees' addresses and lack of postal codes."

The Smart Truck solution was developed by DHL Solutions & Innovations in Germany, alongside the following partners: German Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology, Deutsches Zentrum fr Luft- und Raumfahrt (German Aerospace Center), Deutsches Forschungszentrum fr Knstliche Intelligenz (German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence), Viaboxx, Motorola, Quintiq and Infoware.

Dr. Keith Ulrich, Vice President at DHL Solutions & Innovations (DSI), said: "What matters most to our customers is absolute punctuality in pick-up and delivery. We believe that as we pilot the system in more cities, and fine-tune the technology, the system will prove itself to be enormously valuable in fast changing cities in the emerging markets, and become an accurate planning tool for the megacities of today and tomorrow. By optimizing routes and cutting CO2 emissions, DHL is also contributing to improving the quality of city life."

DHL Express India and Blue Dart are top performers in DHL's annual global Carbon Footprint Assessment register. In 2010, DHL Express India's CO2 efficiency managed to achieve 7.2% improvement as volume surged, even though total CO2 increased by 13.9%. CO2 efficiency improvement was also driven by DHL Express India's increased use of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) for its ground transportation, replacing diesel.

About DHL

The Logistics company for the world DHL is the global market leader in the logistics industry and "The Logistics company for the world". DHL commits its expertise in international express, air and ocean freight, road and rail transportation, contract logistics and international mail services to its customers. A global network composed of more than 220 countries and territories and about 275,000 employees worldwide offers customers superior service quality and local knowledge to satisfy their supply chain requirements. DHL accepts its social responsibility by supporting climate protection, disaster management and education.

DHL is part of Deutsche Post DHL. The Group generated revenue of more than 51 billion euros in 2010.

About Blue Dart

Blue Dart Express Ltd., South Asia's premier courier, and integrated express package Distribution Company, offers secure and reliable delivery of consignments to over 27,005 locations in India. As part of the DHL Group (DHL Express, DHL Global Forwarding & DHL Supply Chain), Blue Dart accesses the largest and most comprehensive express and logistics network worldwide, covering over 220 countries and offers an entire spectrum of distribution services including air express, freight forwarding supply chain solutions and customs clearance.

The Blue Dart team drives market leadership through its motivated people force, dedicated air and ground capacity, cutting-edge technology, wide range of innovative, vertical specific products and value-added services to deliver unmatched standards of service quality to its customers. Blue Dart's market leadership is further validated by numerous awards and recognitions from customers for exhibiting reliability, superior brand experience and sustainability. Some of these include SUPERBRAND and 'Reader's Digest Most Trusted Brand Gold Award' 6 years in a row, one of 'India's Best Companies to Work For' by The Great Place to Work® Institute twice successively, Organization with Innovative HR Practices 2009-10 and Best Employer Award on Employee Retention at the Global HR Excellence Awards, BSE Best CSR Practice Award and 22nd CFBP Jamnalal Bajaj Fair Business Practices Award - 2010 in the category of Service Enterprises (Medium) to name a few.

Blue Dart accepts its social responsibility by supporting climate protection (Go Green), disaster management (Go Help) and education (Go Teach). Apart from various other initiatives in Sustainability, in an effort to reducing its carbon footprint, Blue Dart registered an improvement on CO2 efficiency by 10% year-on-year.

About DHL Solutions & Innovations

DHL Solutions & Innovations (DSI) was set up within strategy 2015 as the innovation unit for DHL.

The development and market launch of cross-divisional solutions, together with DHL, which will make the life of DHL's customers easier are the key focus of DSI. In parallel DSI is researching together with its partners for logistics solutions of the future.

For further information contact :

marketing@bluedart.com

Dated :August, 2011