The service, called Asiaconnect+, officially launched in Jakarta on Tuesday, enabling regional shipments from Indonesia to Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, or vice versa, using multimodal services combining air and road freight, instead of only air freight or ocean freight.

“Asiaconnect has been connecting Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam and China through a cross border network. Today, Indonesia is joining the network,“ said Bruno Selmoni, DHL’s head of road freight and multimodal ASEAN and South Asia during the launch of the new service.

DHL first introduced the Asiaconnect network in 2011,which at that time connected Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand through road freight.

With Indonesia included in the network, shipping from many cities in Indonesia, such as Bandung, Balikpapan, Semarang and Lampung to Singapore, Malaysia, or Thailand will be pooled in Jakarta by air or truck freight first. Then, the goods will be transported to Singapore using air freight before they are transported by truck to a destination such as Kuala Lumpur, Penang and Bangkok.

“From Jakarta to Bangkok using DHL Asiaconnect+, for example, will take six days or two days slower [compared to when using air freight]. However, on the other side it comes with a lower price,” said Bruno.

DHLBruno said with Asiaconnect+,  service for Jakarta - Bangkok shipments could cut logistics costs by 35 percent. Meanwhile, Jakarta to Kuala Lumpur will take four days using Asiacconect+,  one day slower than using air freight but is 32 percent cheaper than using air freight.

DHL Forwarding Indonesia president director Vincent KC Yong said DHL’s decision to provide Asiaconnect+ was because the logistics company had seen a demand for innovative logistics service with competitive costs for regional shipment. Especially since Indonesia’s focus is pushing exports and its biggest market for export is Asia.