UPS Competitor DHL Ends All Domestic Services
November 12, 2008 – 3:37 pmUPS has lost a competitor, as DHL recently announced that it will soon end all domestic services. Effective November 10, 2008, DHL stopped accepting shipments from customers at its distribution centers unless they were shipped using an account. DHL will still provide express services from the United States to international locations and vice versa, but it will discontinue its ground service domestically as well as discontinue domestic express shipments.
Those following this story remember that DHL proposed to offload alot of its volume to rival UPS. The issue became political almost immediately, as many feared massive job losses in Ohio, where the company had its main sort facility in Wilmington. As is often the case with politics, the big picture gets ignored and what has happened now is far worse than the lost jobs (some of which would have been replaced as new hires at UPS due to increased volume) that DHL will now post as it closes nearly all of its package centers, lays off nearly all of its 13,000 employees in the US and closes its facility in Wilmington.
For UPS, the victory is likely bittersweet. Anytime you get rid of a compeitor, its a good thing for your company. But a joint UPS-DHL venture would have provided UPS with a boost to its bottom line, some expected the total could top $1 billion annually in additional revenues.