Looking for new business

Latin Trade, May, 2003 by Mike Zellner

The race for a new look between express-mail carriers DHL and UPS ended in a tie. Both companies rolled out new logos to reflect a push into truck, freight and logistics services.

DHL added yellow to its red letters and slapped the new brand on its freight operations largely located in Europe, as well as on logistics operations Danzas--now called DHL Solutions. The move came as DHL was negotiating to acquire U.S. carrier Airborne Express and to restructure its Americas operations. In a novel twist on corporate consolidation, the Latin American headquarters in South Florida will become the new home for executives from the United States and Canadian operations now in San Francisco and Toronto, respectively.

"Being on the East Coast and in the same time zone will make for more effective communications with the company's worldwide head office in Brussels," says Klaire Albright, a spokesperson for the Latin America division.

UPS redesigned its shield logo for the first time in 40 years to reflect its move beyond express packages with acquisitions of postal services company Mail Boxes Etc., now called The UPS Store; freight forwarder Fritz Companies, now UPS Logistics; and financial outfit First International Bancorp, renamed UPS Capital Corp.

Air cargo company FedEx has been expanding services, too, but it opted to create color schemes for its existing logo to differentiate land, air and express services.