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DHL couriers swap planes and trucks for boats and snowshoes

[ April 9, 2025   //   ]

DHL is usually associated with cutting-edge transportation such as planes, electric trucks or even drones. But local circumstances sometimes dictate a more creative approach, as the company reports in its latest survey.

For example, a truck or even a bicycle wouldn’t get you very far in Venice, Italy. Here, DHL takes to the canals using gondalas to deliver packages to the historic city. The vessels are slightly wider than the slender boats used to ferry tourists along the canals but an integral part of the city’s transport system.

DHL also delivers by gondola on the canals of Amsterdam and its personnel also captain a solar-powered boat on the Spree River in Germany.

The carrier also uses two boats to make deliveries in Lagos, Nigeria which operate daily between the mainland and Victoria Island, taking 18 minutes compared with up to three hours on congested roads.

DHL Group, as the national postal organisation, operates Germany’s highest post office – on the Zugspitze, 2,600 metres up in the Alps. Postman Andreas Oberauer delivers letters and packages daily to one of the most remote locations in the country and empties the mailbox on the mountain plateau by cable car. “The breathtaking view makes up for a lot, even if the weather is sometimes stormy,” he says.

But in the snowy winters of Norway, the humble snowshoe is the answer. The 50 cm by 20 cm shoes strap over normal shoes and prevent the wearer sinking into the snowdrifts.

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