DHL Global Forwarding, the air and ocean freight specialist within Deutsche Post DHL Group, announced it is celebrating 10 years as a dedicated Life Science Competency Center, out of the approximately 60 years it has been in operation in San Juan, Puerto Rico.
Additionally, this year it is opening four new temperature-controlled storage chambers in San Juan. The 6,792-square-foot DHL warehouse was expanded to six times its original size into environmentally controlled cold chambers.
“Through our investments, we have shown we believe in Puerto Rico’s growth potential, and we are confident we are part of the engine that can help it regain its solid economic footing in the global marketplace,” said David Bang, global head of DHL Temperature Management Solutions/CEO LifeConEx, DHL Global Forwarding.
“Given its strategic location, Puerto Rico has been an important launch point for DHL to the Americas, Europe and Asia, and as one of the DHL certified life science stations, it provides services and coverage to more than 2,000 trade lane pairings in secure and compliant manner,” he said.
Operating for close to six decades as Air Express International, in 2016 alone, DHL Global Forwarding invested close to $1 million in the market. In 2007, San Juan became a part of DHL’s Life Science Competency Center global network, comprised of more than 100 centers worldwide.
Most recently, it invested in dividing its current warehouse in San Juan into three independently operated cold chambers with a combined capacity of 480 pallets. Each of the three chambers operates at 15° to 25° C and has 100% redundant refrigeration systems. The chambers also have a hot gas injection system to maintain required relative humidity levels during operation. Additionally, the company offers one chamber operating at 2° to 8° C, with a combined capacity of 90 pallets. The renovated cold chambers are part of the TSA’s Certified Cargo Screening Facilities (CCSF) program, which allows for on-site cargo screening and compliance auditing.
In the second quarter of 2017, the DHL Global Forwarding San Juan facility will join the 30 DHL stations worldwide to be awarded the International Air Transport Association (IATA) Center of Excellence for Independent Validators (CEIV) in Pharmaceutical Logistics certification. San Juan is already an accredited Qualified Envirotainer Partner (QEP), endorsing DHL Global Forwarding’s management of shipments moving in Envirotainer containers. It is also a part of DHL Global Forwarding’s Air Thermonet network, a global Good Distribution Practice (GDP) standard for time– and temperature-sensitive air freight shipments, providing seamless temperature visibility along the supply chain.
As part of its customer-centric focus, in 2016 the company launched a series of free customer workshops, aimed at further equipping its customers to stay up to date on recent logistics trends, changes and compliance topics impacting their businesses. One free workshop is planned for each quarter of 2017.
