DHL is an American-founded German logistics company providing courier, package delivery and express mail service, delivering over 1.8 billion parcels per year. A subsidiary of the German logistics firm DHL Group, its express mail service DHL Express is one of the market leaders for parcel services in Europe and Germany's main courier and parcel service.Vantaa distribution centreDHL delivery vehicle.
The company DHL itself was founded in San Francisco, United States in 1969 and expanded its service throughout the world by the late 1970s. In 1979, under the name of DHL Air Cargo, the company entered the Hawaiian Islands with an inter-island cargo service using two Douglas DC-3 and four DC-6 aircraft. Adrian Dalsey and Larry Hillblom personally oversaw the daily operations until its eventual bankruptcy closed the doors in 1983. At its peak, DHL Air Cargo employed just over 100 workers, management and pilots.

The company was primarily interested in offshore and intercontinental deliveries, but the success of FedEx prompted DHL's own domestic (intra-US) expansion starting in 1983. In 1998, Deutsche Post began to acquire shares in DHL. It reached controlling interest in 2001, and acquired all outstanding shares by December 2002. The company then absorbed DHL into its Express division, while expanding the use of the DHL brand to other Deutsche Post divisions, business units, and subsidiaries. Today, DHL Express shares its DHL brand with business units such as DHL Global Forwarding and DHL Supply Chain. It gained a foothold in the United States when it acquired Airborne Express.

The DHL Express financial results are published in the Deutsche Post AG annual report. In 2016, this division's revenue increased by 2.7% to €14 billion.The earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) increased by 11.3% over 2015 to €1.5 billion.