DHL has set up a new tracking service that uses RFID tags on items. The service, called ‘Ländernachweis’, enables both the sender and the recipient to see the shipping status through DHL’s track and trace portal.
The tracking service enables manufacturers to follow and register their cross-border transport and handover delivery in the destination country. It is designed for business customers and small-scale senders that want to have less expensive, mid to large items transported from Germany to other countries.
In DHL’s new service, which is available to 16 countries including the UK, letter items do not need to be registered – all that’s needed to identify where they are is key locations.
Items are scanned first at the international mail centre, which is the transhipment hub for all letters leaving Germany, and then again at the destination. In the USA and Switzerland, the item is also scanned at customs.
The aim of the service is to make tracking “even more transparent.”
Dirk Pandikow, product management mail xxport / direct entry, Deutsche Post:
“With our new product we close the gap between regular mail, invisible until delivered, and registered mail, providing end-to-end visibility and a signature at delivery. The feedback we received from our customers involved in international e-commerce showed that simple cross-border tracking is sufficient for light weight low value items. Using trackable shipment solutions becomes more and more a prerequisite for participants on e-commerce market places.
The setup of such a product demands a multilateral approach. We are happy that already 16 countries are able and willing to share the information of tracking events generated via the transponder system.”
