DHL, the world's leading logistics company,announced the launch of direct Less than Container Load (LCL) services from New York to Vienna, Austria and Klaipeda, Lithuania; enhancing trade links from the United States to Eastern Europe and the Baltics.These new routes'are part of an ongoing roll out of direct consolidations bringing fast, cost-efficient and reliable services to the market to help American companies succeed even in the most challenging business environments. Since the start of the year, more than nine direct LCL routes have been launched connecting the United States to ports globally.

Through Danmar Lines, DHL Global Forwarding's in-house carrier, the new weekly guaranteed direct LCL service to Austria enables shipments to arrive up to five days earlier increasing business efficiency and competitiveness. ''Exporters in the US can now ship their cargo every Thursday from New York to Austria; port to port in 14 days and then extend their supply chain in Eastern Europe to the Hungary, Romania, Slovakia, Bulgaria, Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia, Bosnia and Macedonia markets. ''

The biweekly direct service to Klaipeda, from New York every Tuesday reduces transit time by five to seven days.' The new direct service to Klaipeda port to port in 18 days links US exporters to the Baltic trade in Tallin, Riga, Vilnius, Minsk and Kiev.

'With the expansion of direct LCL service in Vienna and Klaipeda, and complete end-to-end supply chain management that includes pick-up at origin, consolidation and deconsolidation, delivery at destination and customs clearance, DHL has further strengthened its global LCL capabilities which are unmatched in the industry,' said Tara Caputo, Head of LCL, North America. ''Providing fast and reliable services, combined with operational excellence, as well as being environmentally friendly and using the latest technology, is what our customers expect from us at the first choice in the industry,' continued Caputo.

'We encourage companies especially those small and medium sized enterprises (SME) who have been seeking flexibility and cost-effective transportation solutions into these markets to use our LCL service; for the right combination of delivery times and costs to meet their needs,' said Steen Christensen, Sr. Vice President Ocean Freight North America.' 'DHL is constantly aligning itself with the changing market and responding to growing customer needs.' Our LCL business has been seeing positive growth amid the slowdown and we are confident that this will remain a priority service for our customers,' continued Christensen.

The new service marks the ninth new routeHYPERLINK "x-msg://47/#_ftn1"[1] that DHL has launched this year in the United States. DHL currently operates the world's largest LCL network with more than 2,000,000 cubic meters of LCL freight handled annually.