DHL Shipping Company Closing Centers - Shipping via US Mail

Old Glory Radio ^ | 07/03/08 | Old Glory Radio

[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.

[dbreidenbach]

Good riddance to DHL! Locally they’ve been nothing but a pain in the backside. Two packages I was supposed to receive were delivered to the wrong address. According to their employees, my house moved *rolls eyes* Eventually they were delivered by USPS.

They shouldn’t be in operation if they can’t handle the volume, nor if they hire idiots.

[ejonesie22]

Guess that answers the question if the nation could handle a third carrier on top of USPS...

[pepsionice]

The reality of the fuel woes....will eventually convince half of us not to use overnight services and go back to the USPS. By the end of next year....it wouldn’t surprise me if FEDEX and UPS rates are double what they are today.

[Pylon]

As a firmer DHL driver, it sounds like they are just expanding the DHL@home service started by Airborne Express and the USPS about 8 years ago. DHL handles the pickup, transit, sorting and then delivers the package to the addressee’s post office for postal delivery. If that is 10 packages a day to the post office, that is 10 less deliveries the driver has to make which equals savings for DHL and the shipper. In some rural areas it may be 30 mins between deliveries because of milage and that causes problems with time and wastes gas when the postal service is going there anyway. Sounds like someone just went into panic over this.

Now starting late this year or next year I believe, all DHL shipments will actually be sorted and shipped via UPS, DHL will only handle the actual pickup and delivery. More money for UPS, savings for DHL customers. Bad news is Astar and ABX, the 2 companies who own the aircraft and fly the freight, plus the Wilmington/Airborne Airpark airport which is owned and operated by ABX are screwed. Since DHL is foreign owned they can’t own or run the aircraft like UPS and FedEx can.

[Harold Shea]

Also,the DHL sponsored Top Fuel driver Scott Kallita
died in a horrible accident last week in Englishtown NJ.

[FlyVet]

Makes sense. I know that the bulk rates for other shippers such as UPS are much lower than consumer rates.

[Pylon]

One thing to remember, 99% of the delivery people, trucks, facilities are subcontracted out so when you have that problem it is usually the subcontractors fault but DHL’s in the long run for doing it that way. When I worked for Airborne Express before DHL bought them out we ran the same system and it ran much smoother. DHL’s purchase of Airborne was a disaster.

[Dr. Sivana]

and one of those sets was subsidized by the fedgov?

Te USPS has not been directly subsidized in many years. That's one reason why they keep on raising rates.

You could say they are indirectly subsidized because they are granted a monopoly on not urgent letter mail.

In other ways, they have the worst of both worlds. They have to pay, through our postage, for a bunch of remote rinky dink post offices, pensions from the subsidized era in an era of declining mail volume, special rates for media mail and blind postage that have to be made up for by other classes, franked mail from congress-critters, delivery to AK, HI, APO and a number of far-flung territories for the same 42 cents, and other impositions that FedEx and UPS don't have to deal with.

Frankly, I think they do a pretty good job. If you ever tried to mail a letter to, say Italy, they do an excellent job by comparison.

[ASA Vet]

one of those sets was subsidized by the fedgov

Which one of those do you believe is subsidized by the federal government?

[ASA Vet]

Postal Pingski

[Carley]

This handing off business has been going on with all the shippers. First of all there have been times when FedEx has given our local post office the privilege of delivering their package.

I sent a package UPS to a family member in another state. I arrived before the package and was surprised to be there when it was delivered by FedEx.

[litehaus]

"In other ways, they have the worst of both worlds. They have to pay, through our postage, for a bunch of remote rinky dink post offices, pensions from the subsidized era in an era of declining mail volume, special rates for media mail and blind postage that have to be made up for by other classes, franked mail from congress-critters, delivery to AK, HI, APO and a number of far-flung territories for the same 42 cents, and other impositions that FedEx and UPS don't have to deal with."

Sorta like AMTRAK, Huh ???

[muawiyah]

Ae you telling me DHL was being subsidized by the federal government? Which one ~ USA or Germany?

[muawiyah]

Just a minor correction ~ the Private Express Statutes give the Postal Service a monopoly on LETTERS, not just non-urgent letter mail.

The statutes also provide for exceptions ~ permanent ones in fact ~ for instance, checks.

In this way the Congress did not give an inch on its right to control the mails.

[buckalfa]

“By the end of next year....it wouldn’t surprise me if FEDEX and UPS rates are double what they are today”

And you might add that one of the two might be out of business or looking to merge with the other.

UPS is struggling with their Overnight Express acquistion—fuel costs and the subsequent declining shipping volumes.

[Malsua]

Ah hah! Now it makes sense. We were having a 3rd party ship an item to Honduras and the rate they got from DHL was dirt cheap, specially since DHL doesn’t have a presence in Honduras. Now it makes sense...us postal mail.

[Gorzaloon]

One thing to remember, 99% of the delivery people, trucks, facilities are subcontracted out so when you have that problem it is usually the subcontractors fault but DHL’s in the long run for doing it that way.

That's what the local driver told me. He was OK..Trouble is, I asked him how come he did not come for one of the pickups, and he said, "I was on vacation last week".

Well, good. I like vacations. But I never heard that from Fedex or UPS..A different driver showed up once in a while.

Now that I am back with UPS, it's OK, but will cost me a little more for the holidays, since THIS driver prefers Smithwick's.

[Dr. Sivana]

Thank you for your gentle correction. I was working off of memory, which can be faulty at times.

[Dr. Sivana]

Sorta like AMTRAK, Huh ???

Very much so. However, I believe that Amtrak still gets enough subsidy to keep it floundering around. This would be an excellent time to privatize, as interest in rail travel must increase with the price of fuel as it is. Amtrak is not equipped to address that.

[PubliusMM]

Actually, DHL owns the airport at Wilmington. And, last we heard, they were going to run a day-sort truck hub on that property. ABX has leased some of the hangar space from DHL, but that is all up in the air, at this point.

Fuel Costs? That’s a part of the issue, but not nearly all of it...IMO.