DHL: Three Founders, a Plymouth Duster and Deliveries to North Korea

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DHL began in 1969 with Larry Hillblom, a UC Berkeley law student who flew overnight between Oakland and Los Angeles as an insurance courier. He teamed with Adrian Dalsey and Robert Lynn, and their initials became the name. Their first big client was Seatrain Lines: DHL flew bills of lading from Honolulu to San Francisco in suitcases on commercial flights so cargo ships could unload on arrival. The three shared a Plymouth Duster and paid with early corporate credit cards, and first hires Max and Blanche Kroll let couriers sleep in their Hawaii apartment. The inter-island DHL Air Cargo, flying DC-3 and DC-6 aircraft from 1979, went bankrupt in 1983.

Deutsche Post began buying DHL shares in 1998 and owned all of it by December 2002, moving headquarters to Bonn. It bought Airborne Express in 2003, but after losses in the 2008 crisis DHL cut 9,500 U.S. jobs and quit domestic U.S. pickup and delivery, keeping only international shipments. German ownership left it outside U.S. embargoes, so it serves Cuba and North Korea. It carried U.S. mail in Iraq and Afghanistan, where executives David Giles and Jason Bresler were killed in Kabul in 2008. It moved Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines in 2020, bought StreetScooter in 2014, and in April 2025 suspended U.S. consumer deliveries worth over $800 after customs rule changes.

• The company now generates about 84 billion euros and moves 2,000 tons of Cirque du Soleil equipment in 80 containers.
• Its Go Green target is zero logistics-related emissions by 2050, with recycled cooking oil fuel for cargo planes.
• From 2022 its U.S. trucks carried solar mats that power lift gates and onboard equipment.
• In December 2025 it fought a 206 percent surge in text message tracking scams.
• Sponsorships include Formula One's fastest lap award and a 40 million pound Manchester United training kit deal.