DHL Group

mailed back.

I was cleaning out my studio yesterday, and I found a bunch of, like, Deutsche Post big, like, 20-kilo boxes that I mailed back at different points, you know? Yes.

The yellow boxes.

It's cool.

Yes, it's very probably increasing.

Deutsche Post have now announced the prices it wants to introduce from January next year.

They still require final regulatory approval, but I think that's mostly a rubber stamping exercise, which means that a standard domestic letter will rise more than likely from 95 cents to a euro and 15 cents.

A compact letter would increase to 125 and a large letter to 235.

And what's known as a maxi letter, lucky people who get those, to 5 euros.

Registered mail is planned to remain unchanged at 265.

And the reason for this, or the one that's been given, is that Germans are posting fewer letters and postcards, while Deutsche Post still has to maintain its network of post boxes, branches, delivery workers.

So I suppose this is something that risks becoming a bit of a vicious circle.

You

should be listening to DHL.

I listen to both.

I get an earbud and I watch.

It's like, you know, oh, well, what's the dividend next year? When is it going to pay? Oh, how are things going? That kind of thing.

You know, large companies like Deutsche Post or Telekom, DHL, they would have like, you know, dozens of people sitting there answering all these questions.

All this now works with a new generation through chatbots, AI-generated content, you know, smart tools to find information spot on you want on the website or wherever.

It's about the smart use of social media.

The whole DHL board has flown in.

That was the first time the whole German board of Deutsche Post were in Shanghai.

That was such a big thing for us.

And I'm there, and again, I pulled aside into the coffee shop outside the hotel, and my boss at that time, who was looking after the operation, he said, I think I want you in Hong Kong.

We have not bought any companies to double our revenue.

Only for the people like you who get the good service and then you become a loyal.

Is Deutsche Post also bought toll? Have I got that right?

No. Japan Post.

I'm just talking about the US.

The same story is playing right around the world with the Royal Mail and Deutsche Post and so on.

And then in addition to that, we need more capacity, especially at peak, just in order to continue to grow our business.

And so we have kind of been forced into developing expertise in the last mile.

I'm responsible for the Asia Pacific business of DHL Global Forwarding.

DHL Global Forwarding is part of the larger DHL Group, which I guess most of your listeners would know as the largest logistics company in the world.

We have our post and parcel business in Europe.

We have our e-commerce division that deals with cross-border e-commerce.

PostNL in the Netherlands was one of the first to privatize.

Deutsche Post became a public company.

Yep.

Royal Mail in the, in the UK is no longer e- under state ownership after almost 500 years.

The special guest we've been talking about joining me and Scott here today, Jorge Bayona, is a vice president for Latin America with Apex Logistics International.

Now, as you're going to see here today, he is a dynamic global logistics leader who built his career in leadership positions at Deutsche Post and DHL.

He also led the expansion of FEMSA Group's logistics division, Solistica.

Now at Apex, Jorge is growing and leading teams to drive high performance outcomes as a company continues and rapidly expands into new markets.

locally in Bogota.

And that's how I ended up in Danzas and the logistics for the very first time and a tiny opportunity there.

And then Deutsche Post bought Danzas, they bought DHL, they bought Excel, they went to a lot of acquisitions.

And during those years, because I spent 17, almost 18 years in the Deutsche Post group, I started in Volota as a key account manager, moving throughout the ladder into regional roles, global roles, I call it.