It seems that increasing quality of customer service is one of the top proiorities for DHL this year because the company announced its plans to expand its operations and construct a new $4.3 million service center at the Salt Lake City International Airport this week. This is another strategic move after the partnership with some asian postal companies to improve delivery time last week.

The investment includes the construction of 62,000 square foot facility at the airport to serve Salt Lake City and surrounding areas for pickup, delivery, and sorting operations.

The new facility will accommodate larger "bread-style" trucks, has additional load positions, and A-container handling.

Currently, DHL has a "pass-through" ramp operation at the airport where packages are off-loaded form its dedicated aircraft and shuttled to its existing service center in West Valley City, Utah.

DHL's new service center will handle domestic and international parcels as well as palletized and container freight, and initially employ 142 DHL employees when fully operational in August of 2006.

DHL has undertaken many initiatives to improve US network efficiencies. In January, DHL announced plans to build its largest U.S. service center facility in New York City. In 2004, DHL Express announced a $1.2 billion network investment program in the U.S. market which has resulted in a newly expanded primary air and ground hub in Wilmington, Ohio, seven new Regional Sort Centers, and a recently completed West Coast distribution facility.