It takes a bold man to claim his company is "the most international in the world". But Frank Uwe Ungerer, the UAE manager for the world's largest logistics outfit, has evidence to back up the boast.
From his office at Terminal 2 at Dubai airport, Ungerer oversees deliveries to more than 220 countries and territories in the world.
"We operate in more countries than the United Nations has members and that speaks for itself," says the German national.
That includes North Korea and Syria. DHL, which has its HQ in Germany, was also the first logistics firm to go back to Iraq after the troubles there.
"The only country we don't operate in is Turkmenistan - historically there are still governmental hurdles," Ungerer adds. It was as far back as 1985 that non-oil gross domestic product (GDP) first rose above the contribution Dubai claimed from crude - today less than three per cent of Dubai's GDP is oil-based.
With oil revenues declining rapidly - and most definitely not wishing to be caught out - Dubai's leaders based a strategy on three key aspects: travel and tourism, finance and logistics. Nowadays, Dubai is "one of the five biggest logistics hubs" in the world, says Ungerer.
"It's not the size of Singapore yet," he admits, but it is growing. Last year, Ungerer says DHL delivered five million shipments via the Dubai regional hub.
He expects this year's figures to be six or seven million once fully tallied.
Last Thursday, December 20, the Christmas rush saw DHL's "busiest day ever", he says, with about 30 per cent more deliveries than usual. And a well as delivering anywhere - bar Asgabat or any other Turkmenistan postcode, of course - be it by truck, boat or plane, DHL will also deliver "everything".
Everything? "It doesn't matter how big it is, we can still shift it from A to B," he says, giving the impression they'd hire Superman to get it there on time if necessary.
The list includes everything from entire oil pipelines, the latest in high-end fashion direct from Milan's catwalks, blood samples, multi-million F1 Grand Prix cars - and A4 enveloped filled with contracts worth five times that of an F1 Grand Prix car.
Oh, and not forgetting three black rhinos - an endangered species - which were shifted from a zoo in the UK to Kilimanjaro National Park in Tanzania during the summer as part of a conservation exercise.
© 7Days 2012
