DHL Global Forwarding, the air and ocean freight specialist of DHL Group, announced the launch of DHL TradeNavigator, a new AI-backed tool in its TradeConnect environment. TradeNavigator enables customers to access customs and trade insights across their global activities through natural-language queries. It allows users to ask questions about their customs declaration data and quickly receive answers, analytics, charts and actionable insights on duty spend, clearance performance, tariff exposure and compliance trends, helping them master an increasingly complex global trade environment.
As tariffs, regulatory requirements and global trade complexity continue to evolve, customs management is becoming increasingly important for business performance. Global customs and tariff requirements have changed significantly over the past two to three years, with 72 % of businesses claiming that tariff volatility is the most impactful regulatory change, and 65 % of companies mitigating tariff exposure by changing sourcing patterns.[1] However, many organizations still rely on fragmented reports, spreadsheets and manual processes to analyze customs data, understand risk, and identify opportunities for improvement. TradeNavigator addresses this challenge by providing immediate access to information and enabling users to explore their customs data consistently across countries, systems and formats without requiring deep technical expertise.
TradeNavigator builds on DHL Global Forwarding’s TradeConnect global environment, which has integrated local customs declaration data from more than 75 countries. By bringing data sources of multiple customs jurisdictions into one harmonized environment, TradeConnect gives customers a consolidated view of their customs activities, even down to the declaration line-item level. Pilot customer testing and user feedback have confirmed TradeNavigator’s ability to uncover patterns and potential declaration inconsistencies across multiple countries within seconds, providing visibility that would otherwise require extensive manual analysis across numerous reports and spreadsheets.
Greg Nichols, Senior Vice President Global Customs at DHL Global Forwarding, said: “Customs data is one of the most underutilized sources of supply chain intelligence. While businesses have access to increasing amounts of information, extracting meaningful insights often remains complex and time-consuming. TradeNavigator changes that by helping customers turn customs data from a reporting burden into a decision-making asset. We are enabling customers to improve compliance, identify efficiency opportunities and make better-informed supply chain decisions across their global operations. In pilot deployments, customers used TradeNavigator to identify previously hidden duty spend patterns, detect recurring clearance bottlenecks and improve visibility into tariff exposure across global trade lanes.”
Turning customs management into supply chain intelligence
Customers can use TradeNavigator to gain visibility into duty spend, customs clearance performance, trade lane activity and broader customs trends across global trade lanes from a single interface. For example, a customer may start by asking where customs duties are highest, identify specific countries or product categories driving the spend, and then drill down further to uncover underlying patterns and optimization opportunities. Customers can also ask which countries show the longest clearance cycle times and identify patterns and root causes. By providing immediate access to these insights, the solution helps organizations identify compliance risks and optimization opportunities more quickly while reducing the effort required for reporting and analysis.
The launch reflects DHL Global Forwarding’s broader view that smart customs management should be considered not only a compliance requirement, but a driver of stronger supply chain performance. Better visibility into customs data can help organizations improve efficiency, reduce delays, optimize inventory flows and manage costs more effectively.
Combining DHL’s customs expertise with AI
TradeNavigator combines artificial intelligence with DHL Global Forwarding’s extensive customs expertise and data infrastructure. The solution exclusively operates within DHL’s secure environment and data protection standards. TradeNavigator complements DHL’s customs experts by helping identify patterns, exceptions and questions faster, while customs and compliance decisions remain governed by customer policy, applicable law and the scrutiny of experienced customs professionals.
As one of the world’s leading customs brokers, DHL combines local customs expertise with a proven global approach, supported by more than 4,000 dedicated customs experts handling more than 30,000 customs declarations every day. TradeNavigator represents the latest step in DHL Global Forwarding’s ongoing efforts to help customers turn customs data into strategic business value through a combination of people with local expertise and technology at global scale.
