DHL Danzas Air and Ocean yesterday linked up with a leading online payment company to make sure the process of getting paid for the millions of shipments the logistics giant makes each year works as quickly as its expanding delivery network.
The newly merged logistics giant, a subsidiary of Deutsche Post, has joined New York-based TradeCard, which already has more than 100 logistics-sector companies under its belt, to streamline the processes within its financial supply chain.
E-commerce systems such as TradeCard's platform allow large retailers and manufacturers across the globe to manage trade transactions in Asia - from purchase through to settlement - on the Internet. Those shippers use transport providers such as DHL Danzas to move goods and TradeCard makes sure the order is fulfilled before arranging for the payment to be released.
'Historically, the movement of money has been a separate process to the movement of goods,' said TradeCard's vice-president of business development Richard Lightbound.
'Part of what we do is to use the data from the goods-movement process to settle the financial elements of the supply chain.'
Mr Lightbound said the partnership between DHL Danzas and TradeCard was available globally, but he expected the impetus for its expansion to other regions and transport modes to come from sea-freight transactions on the burgeoning trade lanes between Asia and Europe. In its initial stages, the partnership will be driven by the needs of European buyers.