DHL Halted Express services in the U.S.

I am really behind the times because I just noticed this breaking news yesterday that DHL halted its domestic express and ground delivery services in Nov, 2008.

DHL bought Seattle based Airborne Express for 1.05 billion in Apr, 2003.  With that acquisition and subsequent merger, DHL’s U.S. market share immediately leapfrogged to 5 percent, making it the no. 3 American player, challenging FedEx and UPS in their home market.  However, the truth turned out to be that DHL lost nearly 10 billion dollars in the last five years in the U.S. market since the acquisition, and finally in Nov, 2008, DHL announced the largely withdrawal from U.S. market, surrendering its market share to the big two.

DHL will continue to offer international import and export services in major U.S. metropolitan areas, which account for 90% of international traffic.  DHL revealed a proposal in May, 2008, to use UPS to provide domestic air express services for its customers.  In this proposal, UPS would provide all airlift services for DHL Express U.S. domestic and international shipments from airport to airport within North America.  UPS would provide major main hub package sorting services at UPS’ Louisville, KY’s based hub.  The deal was supposed to be completed by the end of 2008, but it was finally announced in Apr, 2009, that the negotiation talks were ended without agreement because they were not able to come to draw a conclusion acceptable by both parties.

DHL fell back on ABX Air and Astar Air Cargo, the subservice cargo airlines that have been handling its U.S. air business for more than five years.  Its air hub was relocated from Wilmington, Ohio to Cincinnati to sort 250,000 packages nightly.

Advertisement