Posted on 07/03/2008 1:00:10 PM PDT by locke22
BREAKING: DHL Shipping company closing major centers, and is using the US Mail to deliver packages in their system. How widespread or number of closings not determined. However, according to DHL vendor, thousands of zip codes....so far.
(Excerpt) Read more at oldgloryradio.podbean.com ...
Email from first individual:
Tom – I have to profusely apologize for this mess. We were hit a pretty big blow this week when DHL announced they were cutting back on their delivery areas. Their announcement was made on Monday of this week, while your package was in mid-transit. Their change affected thousands of zip codes, and unfortunately your area was one of them. What DHL is doing is passing shipping along to the postal service, which your package was on 7/2. Many shippers are running into this and finding problems as they happen. We had no way of knowing that this announcement would have been made.
Isn’t DHL owned by the German Post Office?
It’s great!
They’ve done this for a while with PO boxes, where DHL flies it overnight and then hands it to the local Post Office.
Now they look like they are using that method to offload some of the last mile in less popular areas....why keep a driver to replicate a route that the USPS already pays for in areas where DHL may only have a few packages a day?
DHL we hardly knew yee.
I had my first experience with them about two years ago. I had never heard of them until they came to pick up a damaged ipod. They arrived within an hour of reporting the problem to Apple. I thought they would be giving UPS and Fed Ex a run for their money. I say this is probably more fuel price woes.
That’s another place this is great. Sending a package from overseas to a Post Office box is a dicey proposition.
But DHL has good online customs tracking and such, and then you have confirmation of it getting to the postal carrier.
I wonder if the cutover was really planned and these shippers weren’t paying any attention?
ABX and it’s parent company ATSG are going to take a beating if this is true.
http://messages.finance.yahoo.com/mb/ATSG
They're leveraging the USPS last mile, the one thing that the USPS actually does well.
If you owned the USPS and UPS and FedEx and DHL all under one company, wouldn't you think your cost structure to deliver a set amount of packages was dumb if you had 4 sets of delivery trucks and one of those sets was subsidized by the fedgov?
I received a book order from Amazon Tuesday via DHL with USPS as the final carrier. Now I see why.
Completely agree, but that isn’t what this article is about. The issue here is the sudden closing of thousands of zip codes.....thousands, who knows how many more. In my case, packages sat in fresno for about five days before they even drove them over to the post office. Or at least that is the story DHL is apparently telling their vendors.
If people are going to use DHL they should be aware they might be using the US mail on half the trip, doubling the transit time. Apparently the SOP now is trucks dupm packages in a center and they sit until someone sorts it and decides to take them to the post office.....IMO UPS stock looks pretty good right now.
When I worked the outgoing mail for a major publisher, DHL was ace for the international shipments.
I’ve always had great experiences with the company.
I guess fuel costs are probably to blame, they definitely were giving UPS and Fedex some competition.
“What DHL is doing is passing shipping along to the postal service”
By the way, DHL isn’t the only company doing this. UPS has a program with the USPS to be the end deliverer of some packages.
And it pissed me off because I had ordered something from LL Bean for Christmas and they sent it to me UPS. When I looked at the tracking number, it said it was delivered to my local Post Office for final delivery...but I never got it. And of course when I contacted my local post office, they had no clue where it was and suggested I talk to my mail carrier....WHAT?!!?
So anyway, luckily LL Bean sent me another at no charge but this time sent it Fedex direct...got it in 2 days.
A few things I have ordered online have been shipped by DHL’s economy method, in which they handed off the parcel to the USPS at my city. It didn’t get here any faster or cheaper than if USPS had done the whole thing, so I wondered what the point was.
I just got some info...
DHL worker unions are wildcat striking as we speak, this has been going on since the morning of June 29th,
DHL announced 2600ish layoffs but the real number is over 10,000
http://www.aircargoworld.com/regions/northam_0708.htm
Quote:
“If DHL does everything they’ve indicated, the end result is a loss of around 7,000 jobs in Wilmington,” ABX Air President John Graber Graber said. “We [ABX Air] would directly lose 6,000 positions.”
DHL also owns the Wilmington airport, the largest privately owned airport in the country. Jonathan Baker, director of public relations for DHL said the Wilmington air sort hub would be closed once the company ends its relationship with ABX Air and ASTAR.
“A few things I have ordered online have been shipped by DHL’s economy method, in which they handed off the parcel to the USPS at my city. It didn’t get here any faster or cheaper than if USPS had done the whole thing, so I wondered what the point was.”
I’ll bet the retailer has special pricing with DHL, but charges you the same.
I think I'm dumb. Are you saying that it is impossible for any business to compete with the federal government? It is tough to compete with city hall, unless of course you are selling good service. But with the price of fuel people might start caring about costs more than service.
I sent in for a new pair of headphones to Apple two days ago. DHL delivered to the wrong office building. After several calls they sent out the non-English speaking “delivery person” to get the box from the wrong office and deliver it to me.
I don’t know that I’d use them again.
Now that you mention it, the guy that picked up the ipod was pretty ethnic looking and not all chatty and friendly like my Fed Ex guy.
They were surprised that I stopped my overnight shipping of time-sensitive documents with them. Go figure...
We used to use DHL quite a bit here because of the cost savings but “you get what you pay for.” Too many lost/damaged parcels/letters, poor customer service.
They’re in trouble probably because they deserve to be.
They were for a while, and I was rooting for them. There was no way that some competition for Fedex and UPS could be a bad thing for the shipper.
So, having UPS and Fedex accounts already, I gave DHL a try for 2007. Things started out very well. There were real cost savings, and the delivery times were competitive.
Then, last Fall, the wheels began to fall off.
First, I began to get complaints from customers who were out a ways from the cities. The package was sitting at the DHL destination facility, but no one seemed to want to deliver it the last distance. One customer called and was told to "Come Get It". I got a violent email from him telling me never to ship with them again.
Then, there were the No-show pickups. I would have a pickup order in, then my goods were still sitting there the next day. After three of these, I had to give up on them, for the silly reason that if my goods do not go out, I do not get paid.
So, back to the Brown Truck again.
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