DHL Plans Even Deeper U.S. Cuts

DHL management is rubbish. I once worked for them and its unbelievable to see how things are being managed there. They have so many incompetent managers who only walk about scheduling pointless meetings. I am not surprised that they are doing this bad.

good one...

I dont know what else DHL Can cut. They have not told the whole story. In the Los Angeles area. They have been cutting all year. Where once they had over 200 full time employees as dockworkers. They now have 88 full time employees and have cut others to part time. And part time is only 3 hours a day. No one can live on a salary of 3 hours a day. They are only doing this so that is does not look like they are laying off loads of employees. My Husband has been with the company for 15 years and the thanks that he just got was notice that starting in one week he will only work 15 hours a week. DHL is in all terms no longer doing business in the US they are just using the US as a layover location for their international business. They have to care for the American Workers or there troubles.

DHL Express has already cut 90% of US sales team. Is the DHL Global Forwarding or Contract Warehousing division next?

DHL is not just " likely on Nov 10 to announce cost cutting measures" It is going to happen with certainty and will include massive layoffs staggered over the next quarter. There has been a precipitous drop off in package and freight volume.

Keep in mind that there are business units that do well such as Global Forwarding, Logistics, Supply Chain that will remain, as far as the US Express unit, look for complete withdrawl from the US using partnerships to deliver in the US, international to US will not be affected. This means thousands of layoffs next year..Nov 10th confirm the above.

on nov 10 dhl will announce what ? something we all konow already . they are bailing out, no more ground, maybe some air, just international

Thanks to everyone for their comments, and my sympathy to those of you who are directly affected by DHL's problems. I just wanted to respond to the comment from "Jack" and underscore the point made by DHL Source: the cuts affect the Express unit, not the global forwarding, logistics and supply chain operations.
--Jack Ewing of BusinessWeek

In the Cleveland area we had 187 drivers between two hubs (CLE & PVZ). We are down to 73 drivers now.

What else can they cut?? They are going to get rid of all US (domestic) shipping except Ground Service or get rid of ground and keep next day 1200 service.They are going back to there old ways. They are not completely withdrawings.

their proposed deal with UPS has ended up being their downfall. And now, UPS is welcoming DHL customers with open arms

Every day my husband comes home from work, he brings more bad news home too! On top of massive layoffs in the NJ/NY area and complete loss of Overtime, just been told this morning - no more Saturday deliveries either. Slowly but surely this company is will dissappear.

Closing the Scottsdale Data Center...

To Jack Ewing:
I too have witnessed DHL management incompetence time and time again. It's my belief these cuts will be the first of many. The first response from Kay is accurate - DHL has serious problems with operations management and also customer service in all business units. Because of this and the current economic situation, cuts in the Global Forwarding, Contract Logistics and Supply Chain are inevitable.

Changes are evident across all business lines in the US. DHL US is no different, these changes must occur as DPWN modifies its business model. The Airborne acquisition, today's economy, and tomorrow future are precipitating change. Look at our next President and “change" is in the air. Look back at DHL prior to AB and you will see a stable company, today we are tearing apart the merged companies and rebuilding from the ground up. Unfortunately lives, futures, careers, and reputation are on the line. In the end DHL US (Express) will rebound and become more efficient and bring back the business (profitable) to their business unit.

It's a matter of time before it all comes to an end. And those who stand will publish.

I was a DHL Reseller. DHL will announce on Monday that they are ceasing all express and ground operations in the US by the end of the year. Unishippers was the biggest reseller for DHL. They have already taken their customer base to UPS. Another reseller is slotted for UPS. If you are a driver or employee for DHL, you will not have a job in the near future.

Let me remind you that DHL Express is the LARGEST international express carrier. They wouldn't have gotten there with "so many incompetent managers who only walk about scheduling pointless meetings." MOST companies are suffering with the global crisis and cutting jobs.

DHL has struggled in the US market for a number of reasons. The US is no level playing field, with a duopoly (Fedex on air express and UPS on ground) heavily shielded by protective aviation laws and regulations.

To Caesar what is Caesar's. This sounds more like a forum for disgruntled former employees than an educated discussion. Go dump your grudge somewhere else. And, yes, I write this at my own free will.

DHL is a joke. Until they get rid of the management there is no hope...

They did manage to increase the volume of express packages shipped over what Airborne was shipping, but the ego of DHL management created so much infrastructure bloat that it was just too much. They tried to expand into market share that didn't exist. Airborne survived because they did things as cheap as they could. DHL management is to blame here for taking a viable business and running it into the ground. Just where I work (which I expect to be leaving Monday) there is one manager for every four employees. From me to C-level there are seven levels of managers.

there are so much problems within the DHL system, that they are trying to band=aid fix it by closing a bunch of centers and
canceling I/C contracts to save monies but are sacrificing great service from various I/C across the nation. An area that should be looked at is they're billing system. #1 customer complain is being billed twice for shipments or being billed twice as much. What about the millions invested in advertising in the Olympics as well as the baseball world series. Fix what needs to be fix not areas of great service.

I worked for DHL/Airborne for over seven years. From the start when DHL bought Airborne they had "no clue" on how to make the US profitable. Beyond service issues they would give any customer that breathed credit. For instance, UPS average days outstanding is 22, FedEx (28), on average it took DHL 60 days to collect on invoices.

DHL should cut down their managment not the drivers.Because they just dont do anything.

DHL problems stemmed from the purchase of Airborne Express, This was a losing operation. DHL was told Airborne was profitable, but the books were cooked. DHL Management now are mostly Airborne management.

Rumor around the station is that they will cut all ground service by the end of next week and my shut down DHL dansis

I regret sayin that my employer tried DHL and after a year we dropped them like a sack of useless rocks. The account manager lied to us about the 2nd day service, they left packages with random strangers on numerous occasions, damaged/lost packages and refused to pay the claims etc. We ship about 5,000 or more packages a week and after all is said and done I hope that they do withdraw from the US. The managers are incompitent and the drivers seem ignorant and lazy. Heck the drivers I have personaly dealt with were rude and very apathetic. I will celebrate if I hear DHL has withdrawn from US operations or gone out of business completely.

Eric's comments are what led to the problems at DHL. When you have workers who don't care and drop packages anywhere they feel like, you will only come to a bad end. Some say DHL had bad management but the managers were not delivering the packages. DHL will survive...they have far greater markets than the USA and only need to service the States for their foreign accounts. It's unfortunate that many Americans will lose their jobs, both workers and management, but some will stay employed and many will still prosper.

After 10 years with DHL, I left last year. It was obvious to me that the management they had in place in the U.S. was absolutely clueless. My farewell email detailed exactly what would happen with the next year and it has all come true. How could a company be so blind? Mark my words, within the next year, the DHL/Deutsche Post debacle will be one of the most studied business cases at Harvard, Wharton, Stanford, and other schools of business. An excellent example of how a multi-billion dollar global company can fail in the U.S. by incompetent management. What a joke and what a shame.

I have worked for DHL for 22 years. I have a background in management and have an MBA with a concentration in International Business. For 22 years I have watched DHL suffer through countless changes in ownership, management and strategy. Their biggest problem exists in the highest levels of the company...the lack of sound, methodical leadership. Everything has been geared toward short-term survival...putting out fires and getting through another day. UPS and Fedex are thinking 20 years down the road. DHL has always thought about just getting through the day. You see this in their business model, in their sales strategies and in their lack of capital investment in key areas. I hate the idea of so many people losing jobs over the debacle in the U.S., but this is a result not so much of the economy as it is a result of incompetent management forcing the company into a squeeze when competitive forces increase.

Addressing DHL Delivers. No, DHL Express Management is not Airborne management. Airborne management was substantially released late in 2004. The few remaining attempted to educate, yet were quickly sidelined, or quit. The enormous cost structure created in 2004 through 2006 was simply unjustifiable from a business standpoint. Lower cost approaches to business development or integration were always available. From my internal observations, the new DHL Express management simply were too inexperienced with the low-margin aspects of this B2B commodity market in the domestic products. Behavior, accordingly, failed to unify a reasonable strategy response leading to each functional department to develop their own objective with no real alignment across the US company. And no, again, DHL Delivers, those books were not cooked and are still available on public record with the SEC. Profitable, yes they were. Highly profitable – no they were not. The record is clear, however, that the USA domestic market is challenging. Nobody should be misled by stories of Airborne as the scapegoat; the many mistakes made at integration and beyond lay square on the shoulders of the DHL management of all levels.

As for Eric's comment. DHL couriers are not lazy nor incompetent. We all realize that a lot was done wrong, but DHL has given many people jobs. As for Eric maybe that IC hired a lot of ignorant couriers. Many are awesome drivers and my hats off to them. I don't want any corporation going down the tubes. Are you sure you're not working for FeDex or UPS with that IGNORANT comment? I wish DHL well, and with the economy the way it is...I say "Eric" get a life. Wonders if Eric was that rude courier, because he seems not very intelligent.

I think Fedex is worse. My mom has a store and used to ship many packages via Fedex. We had a lot of delayed packages, and for international package, they hold package on their terminals and ask extra money. They never refund money too. I heard they lost almost every lawsuit from their customers. Once we switched UPS, we had not a single problem.

I've been with Airborne Express in Wilmington Ohio for over 21 years. We were a small but profitable company. The bulk of the blame does not lay entirely with DHL. ABX AIR Management didn't have to climb into bed with DHL. And now there are over 8,000 of us soon to be unemployed.

On Monday DHL will announce the end of ground operations. No more Saturday service, no more 10:30 service, no more haz-mat, and the closures of major stations in the NY/NJ area. I guess, like usual, it must be the drivers' fault.

In response to Eric, DHL will not go out of business. They are the No. 1 express company in the world. It is just in the US market that they struggle. If you travel outside the US will you see yellow trucks everywhere and hardly any brown or purple.

I was laid off from DHL 5 weeks ago when they let the majority of their US sales force go. It was very sad.

I will stand by my manager and tell everyone on this board that not all managers with DHL are worthless.

It is like any company, you have good ones and bad ones. DHL just needs to get back to what it does best--International.

On Monday DHL will announce the end of Ground Delivery Service, 10:30 Service, all Sat Service & Haz Mat handling. They will also announce closures to certain NY/NJ stations. I guess that's the drivers fault too. Management continues to get a free pass.

As a competitor, here is a different view on DHL. Both FedEx and UPS drivers view DHL as lazy. If you have ever looked in the back of their trucks and seen how little freight is there, you had to wonder how they made money.

A typical UPS driver in a metro area handles close to 800-1000 packages a day, a FedEx driver 500-600. This counts deliveries and pickups. We often see DHL drivers on the side of the road reading the newspaper and drinking coffee. How can that be profitable? I once interviewed for a DHL management position, since I am management with one of the competitors. I could not believe the crude and archaic methods they use--and that they had just in the early 2000s begun to benchmark.

Benchmarking is the only way you can be profitable in a labor-intensive business. I have seen accounts in our area that have shipping rates so low that DHL loses money just picking up the package, never mind moving it to its destination and delivering it. Falsification is a problem as well. My wife's employer frequently sends her signature-required shipments, and every time the driver forges her name. When she filed complaints, they were never followed up on. At either FedEx or UPS, and even the USPS, there would be hell to pay for forgery.

Dear Eric, we are not all ignorant and lazy. Unfortunately they're everywhere. I've been w/ Airborne Express/DHL for 14 yrs. Deutsche Post did not do their homework. Airborne was going under because of mismanagement. FYI most of its managers/sups were ex-UPS flunkys. DHL kept the same mgrs/sups in place. Bad idea. Millions in advertising, no infastructure(trailors/hubs), terrible pricing for ground freight (post office/Dell, etc.) and then merging DHL hubs and Airborne hubs without proper equipment, manpower, or time. No wonder they were losing $1.3 billon a yr. I'm a week or two from being laid off. A new life free of DeweyHeweyLouie.

I saw the corporate DHL office from within. Four CEOs in four years, and a new VP for every change of weather. Now, they have a VP of Customer Retention, a new department desperate to hold on to the little that is left.

Yes, there are many useless temporary VPs, partying, and spending, while customers are screaming for their untrackable shipments and incorrect bills in collections. To think that this will not affect Global Forwarding, Global Mail, and Solutions, is childish. All customers see is the DHL brand, and they do not want to ship with DHL because of the lack of quality service.

Sales people are leaving in masses from all other BUs, suffering the spillover effect.

I feel badly for DHL workers... As for management, what a joke! Bye, bye DHL.

There was at one time drivers 880 strong in the chicagoland area,now it's going down to 340 left!

I got pushed to the streets on 27Oct08. What about a severance pay for the DHL USA Express drivers? DHL approved a $260 million dollar severance package, where is it? We need help from a company that just throws you out!

Sholandra, yes indeed and Kevin too. I have had view into DHL's four major offices in the USA. Basics to business managment and operation management are rarely applied if considered. I do suspect you will find those offended at the comments we find here. But filter through the speculations and bias, even my own, and you will still see that the promise of competition in the USA was found more in the hype of marketing then in the reality of environmental operational and business competitive design. And I do agree, the major B-schools would do well to study these past five years as an example where well meaning intelligent people - yet inexperienced - individually and collectively contribute to the failure of the corporation.

Say Good night gracie

I have been a Contractor for Airborne and DHL for 10 years. I have over 100 employees that I am sure are all going to lose their jobs because of this. We have been planning for months to secure other work so we can salvage as many drivers positions as we can doing other work. Unfortunately the decline has happened so fast there has not been enough time to react. We have 80 some vehicles of which about 45 are still being financed...

DHL not only ran their business into the ground but also mine. We had one facility closed in June and had to "layoff" our 15 couriers there. At that point DHL offered a small severance package for the drivers and helped us out of our vehicles. I am sure this will not be the case this time. Last time DHL was attempting to stay in the US so they wanted keep good relations with the US.

DHL is stating a possible lay off of 40,000 employees... this is just the DHL employees, it does not account for the 300+ Contractors out there. Each of the 300 contractors have a crew of employees that are all at risk.

I fear this will actually be around 100,000 or more employees that lose their jobs over this mess

The only reason that DHL has succeeded internationally is because they have not had to compete. FedEx and UPS are still trying to break into those markets. They both have great business models although UPS will probably come out ahead. As for DHL, this is only a sign of things to come for that company. They only had 2% of the market share prior to purchasing ABX Air. They have now managed to lose most of the acquired business and are almost back to pre-ABX levels. Why? A-Star had no idea what customer service and next day air meant. DHL had no idea why ABX had been successful -- because ABX prided themselves on being a low cost provider and their "can do" attitude.

The arrogance of both DHL and A Star has contributed to this disaster.

I feel sorry for all employees and members working for DHL .I have worked hard for this co. And seen 4 hub mgrs and lots of supervisors in the 2 years of service.Poor management and economy has alot to do with this mess. I have seen employees that served 18+ years for this co.That have to relocate and find new employment.

The Germans are now 0 for 2 with US companies. Mercedes' merger with Chrysler and Deutche Post World Net's acquisition of Airborne.

I don't think they will ever try again...

DHL made its biggest mistake when they continued the Airborne Express business model. I have worked with them since they bought out Airborne Express. They did not come in and clean house immediately, but maintained the same business model, run by the same management, and made the same mistakes. Anlot of people have went bankrupt over the years due to this massive mistake. It left a really bad taste in my mouth for them.

Yes, US news posted to DHL-USA.COM outlines the service reductions by January 30.

I am associated with DHL here in Houston and I can say it's no surprise to me this awful company is going away. The service in Houston sucks and there's no professionalism from the employees driving those god-awful yellow and red vans. Good riddance to DHL!

In response to "Independent Contractor," I am sorry and I know how you are feeling. I am another one of the contracted employees that this will affect. It is a pretty scary thing.

And in response to almost everyone on here, ex DHL/ABX employees as well, there are employees that care about their jobs and strive to do their best each and every day. (Every company has their bad apples that spoil it for the rest.) I would consider myself one of the employees that cares about my job and the company as a whole, not really in management but also not a driver, I struggled every day to make customers happy and try and change the image DHL has become in the USA.

It is true though, throughout the world, DHL is the MEGA and it will most likely remain that way because old habits die hard, those people are used to DHL and have great service and relationships. FedEx and UPS will struggle to make their way elsewhere in the world, just as DHL struggled to make a way here in the USA.

When in Europe all I saw was the yellow trucks and it gave me a sense of pride...let's not lose the pride in ourselves or our jobs. The economy will rebound and all of those employees that have kept there heads up will also rebound. It's just our way...we are AMERICANS by gosh!

DHL was a good company in terms of service, however it declined over time. The purchase of Airborne helped the decline. The majority of DHL employees are great but as they expanded, service and employee action dropped.

People, every time a European company buys into the US market, they fail. Why? Because they do not understand the competitive nature of doing business in the US. They apply their European business standards, which don't work in the US. Just look at the Chrysler/Daimler fiasco.

American business is based on profit first, people second. The Europeans don't think or do business that way.

Sorry to see tens of thousands of DHL people lose their jobs, and the contractors with them...Liam

By May of 2009, all express stations will be closed. DHL has already presented packages to existing ops management to get them to stay till the end. DHL layed off almost all sales regardless of performance, and the rest will be gone before the middle of next year. This is not sour grapes, it's fact.

I was fortunate to have worked for ABX/RDU from 12/88 through 12/98. Started as a P/T Contractor left as a FSS. During that period the stock split multiple times and business grew. At each stop we delivered a bunch of shipments or we picked up a bunch of shipments. It was simple B2B before that was even a catch phrase. Then Brazier and Cline, the men that built ABX, retired. With them left their leadership style, and a new vision was conceived.

"Be like UPS and FedEx...deliver the residential crap from mail order...offer 2nd day, 3rd day..." The GOA became a glass house.

Leaders cannot simply justify their positions through reports and audits. Operations cannot succeed when they are constantly being forced to explain occurences rather than focusing their attention fixing and preventing the variables that caused disruption in the first place. Then throw in a gov't-owned entity and implement a socialist business model in a capitalist environment? Lights out.

Managers were forced to become numbers guys rather than concept guys and when you lose the concept of vision...the numbers will always fail.

Good people are going to be displaced because of bad leadership.

My sweetheart has been flying for DHL for more than 20 years. Knowing this was coming has not made anything easier. At least we didn't move to Wilmington like so many other faithful employees.

I, along with a number of former employees, could see this coming as far back as 2004 following the Airborne express acquisition. DHL chose to move to an outsourced delivery model contract all/most of its ground services. It also resulted in many senior Airborne delivery personnel being let go damaging lots of relationships with customers at the time (and loss of local knowledge). The new contracts then negotiated with the carriers were so poorly structured that they often financially encouraged drivers/contractors to deliver less packages. The upside-down contracts that DHL backed itself into because DP and the Germans were so much smarter than us dumb Americans resulted in a total loss of quality control and eventually a brand that was so steeply associated with poor quality that it couldn't be saved.

Lots of folks made lots of money, which was mostly at the expense of DP shareholders. And in the end, the arrogance of DHL to think they could step in and knock off FedEx or UPS with their foreign expertise cost employees their jobs.

Just for clarification, Unishippers is not DHL's largest reseller in the U.S. The company called Worldwide Express was DHL's largest partner, and is now UPS' largest reselling partner.

Worldwide Express has outsold Unishippers for years, and will continue to do so. So please don't be mistaken.

I think a lot of the negative feedback about DHL expressed above is not unique to the US alas. I am a DHL account holder in Ireland and have had nothing but headaches with DHL. The service is appalling and I have now switched to using an American competitor, which has proved itself to be far superior.

DHL's mantra at one point was "I'm on it",however when a company has a customer service department that punts off queries by customers to account executives it is no wonder that the demise of DHL has come to fruition.Instead of benchmarking the best practices of its competitors,there was a an overwhelming perception by customers that they could not get an clear response to their issues.Often they were told they had to call their account executive who then had to take time away from prospecting for new customers and had to research an issue that was clearly the responsibility of a customer service rep.

I agree that business schools will have a field day disecting what occured with DHL's overt lack of strategic intitiatives to compete in the domestic market.It seems to me if those in a leadership postion at DHL would have emnulated the competitions long standing effective processes the demise of this company would not have occurred.

The reason for the "lazy and ignorant" comment is because of the independent contractors. In many parts of the US there was no enforcable dress code or apperance standard. I have seen DHL drivers with all color shoes, shirts untucked, not have shaved in 4 days and smoking on the job. If you dont think these things matter just ask any business manager making decisions. I worked for Airborne for 3 years in college and have now worked for UPS for 18 years and i can tell you the IC is the biggest reason along with non unionization for their failure. With UPS you get the same service in Oregon you get in Virginia, but with DHL you never know what may or may not show up.Bottom line is load all those red and yellow trucks back up on the train and send them back to Germany

Thanks once again to everyone who has shared their experiences with DHL as employee, customer or competitor. Your comments have helped me appreciate what went wrong, and have provided a vivid picture of the human impact of this kind of corporate decision. That's something we journalists too often overlook. I would like to call attention to a Nov. 10 news story which details DHL's plans to stop offering deliveries from U.S. destinations to other U.S. destinations. Here is a link: http://www.businessweek.com/globalbiz/content/nov2008/gb20081110_975682.htm?chan=top+news_top+news+index+-+temp_news+%2B+analysis

I retired from UPS in 2005. When DHL bought Airborne, UPS management was worried. But as time went on, we never saw any real changes in service. Airborne was always a low-cost carrier and because of its inferior service, was never really a threat.

Then DHL, before getting a strong infrastructure in place, starting running all those extremely arrogant commercials belittling UPS and FedEx. As a driver, I know for a fact that most UPS customers loved their driver and UPS as a company. I am sure many FedEx customers felt the same. Those bold DHL commercials offended many UPS and FedEx customers. It must be a cultural thing, but it sure didn't work here.

I worked for DHL for more than 5 years in sales. I was laid off on 10/1 with 90% of the sales force. Many of us saw this coming and chose to stay on to the end. Out of loyalty. Out of false hope. Out of naivete.

I agree with everyone who states that there was poor management (at high levels). Money was spent out of control, there were too many levels of VPs and there was absolutely no consistency across the board. This among many other things (economy, competition, etc) led to the demise of DHL US. I want to clarify, however, that mid-management was not to blame. They did their jobs and were effective at it. A lot of excellent workers have already lost their jobs, in sales, ops, corporate and more. Those people should not be blamed.

I was very saddened to hear the news yesterday (but not one bit surprised). DHL was a part of me, and I feel like a friend has died. I have many friends still left at the company trying to support families and wondering if the next day is their last day. It's a tough place for all of us.

I don't regret my years at DHL. I made good friends. I made a good living. I gained work and life experience. Best of luck to not only those of us who were laid off, but to those who are left. I think you will all need it.

"I have seen DHL drivers with all color shoes, shirts untucked, not have shaved in 4 days and smoking on the job."

In my DHL station in NJ, its also union workers who do this. Part of it was the attitudes of MOST of the drivers that helped bring the fall of Airborne Express before DHL showed up. I saw a youtube comment about how DHL drivers are thugs and was offended until I took a look at my union bretheren the next day. We are thugs and we stink. The whole company was a lemon. Yellow was appropriate.

It may affect other business unit

DHL is the worst company I have ever seen. The demand/supply split bankrupted the IT division and nothing was ever done. Outsourcing led to the knowledge being owned by other companies (Infosys and Cognizant) and they nickled and dimed DHL for the smallest of IT items. It was the worst company I have ever worked for, and thank god I got out before this news.

As simply a recipient of packages delivered at my work and home from DHL, I have been infuriated at their customer service. More often than not there were problems making the delivery, leaving packages at the wrong place, and even negligent destruction of personal property at my home. When I called to complain there was a so-what attitude.

If I'm dissatisfied with DHL's deliveries, why would I ever choose them as a shipper?

And yes, poor work ethic and production in the core business is directly attributable to poor management.

I pity those losing jobs because of incompetent mamagement, but DHL is simply reaping the results of their own actions. Cause and effect.

As a former DHL employee in ground and airport operations for 18 years in Atlanta, I could see it coming after all of our station's ground and operations employees were laid off after Labor Day 2003, along with approximately 3,100 other personnel in the U.S.

This was due to the merger with Airborne Express. These long-term, dedicated, career-oriented, loyal employees were shafted with no notice and replaced with contract employees who already had the reputation of thugs with no loyalty to the company or caring for their customers, always out of uniform and working for basically minimum wage. DHL was a company that had become profitable before the merger, according to management, and was a good company to work for.

But to compete with UPS and FedEx you cannot replace your professional staff with a bunch of morons and thugs and expect to compete and or survive in this fast-paced business. I have no regrets having experienced this line of work. I am now a professional in the water treatment business.

Liam, you said, "American business is based on profit first, people second. The Europeans don't think or do business that way."

I agree, but probably not the way you mean. European companies seem to value their own employees far more than they do their customers' needs. That's great for the workers, but it sucks for the customer. Maybe American companies are too far the other way, but at least Americans understand that their countrymen won't put up with shoddy service. You can't make a profit here if you don't put the *customer* first.

I am a frequent DHL customer, and I can tell you it is massively frustrating to deal with their seemingly endless chain of people who know only how to pass the buck. I actually beg people not to use DHL if they are going to ship to me, but of course I often don't get a choice.

I'm still waiting on a damage claim of more than $700 from back in September. They tell me it takes at least 45 days -- when they've already admitted fault and given me a paper to prove it. What takes so long to cut a check?

Also, some of the drivers are surly or ignorant of their own company's policies. And the sloppy way they handle my packages makes my blood boil. The people on the phone and at the warehouse gave me the runaround about a redelivery for weeks, so that I finally had to drive to the warehouse to pick up some packages, and then I was forced to wait to be acknowledged by a couple of workers who wanted to finish their personal conversation.

Once I stated what I wanted, they wandered around slowly scratching their heads looking for my stuff as if its location were a mystery to them. Which it apparently was. Then they locked the gate on me, and I had to drive back and shout somebody down just to get out of the parking lot.

From a customer perspective, DHL people appear to have no clue what they are doing and can't find their backsides with both hands. The fault no doubt lies with management policies and lack of guidance, but still there's no excuse for drivers and warehouse people who are surly, ignorant, slow-moving, and sloppy. Sorry to all those who worked hard and tried to make a go of it, but it seems to me DHL deserves to go under.

Management would worry and write you up if you had a sweatshirt under your jacket to keep you warm in 20-below weather. Wrote one driver up for spraining his ankle. When we left in the morning with full trucks some packages were left behind. Noboby would be called in to get those out. Night crew was not asked to take any out. We were told to punch out on time...no o.t. allowed. So what happened to those customers? Management didn't care; getting us off o.t. insures management bonus...screw the customer was their motto.

I am still employed with DHL, but will be gone, not by choice, in a few months. A lot of people are just blaming management, should be more specific and say upper management. Management at station levels are basically told what and how to do it, even if they don't agree. I was with Airborne to begin with and I was hoping for a change when DHL took over that never came. They did in fact keep too many old Airborne execs and kept running the same way and spent way too much on advertising as Airborne spent 0 dollars.

Drivers are to blame as well. I have seen incredible drivers who care, and I have seen drivers who could care less, because they are in the union and thought they were untouchable. Drivers steal time on the road, write a packages up closed just because they didn't want to go there. Sorry to say for the management of a union station, it takes a lot to fire one of these drivers and the drivers know it. #

So the downfall of DHL is a combination of poor management, which came from poor decisions from upper management, drivers, and employees who don't care--and of course the economy. Right now DHL is pissing off not only its employees, but the customers. They think those customers are going to come back, but it is going to be a long hard struggle for DHL to survive after this debacle.

Oh yeah, I think it is funny some of these drivers are writing about taking away their overtime. Most of them sit and try to get overtime.(And that's not stealing?)

I am still employed with DHL, but will be gone, not by choice in a few months. A lot of people are just blaming management, should be more specific and say upper management. Management at station levels are basically told what and how to do it, even if they don't agree. I was with Airborne to begin with and I was hoping for a change when DHL took over that never came. They did in fact keep too many old Airborne exec's and kept running the same way and spent way too much on advertising as Airborne spent 0 dollars. Drivers are to blame as well. I have seen incredible drivers who care and I have seen drivers who could care less, because they are in the union and thought they were untouchable. Drivers steal time on the road, write a packages up closed just because they didn't want to go there. Sorry to say for the management of a union station, it takes a lot to fire one of these drivers and the drivers know it. So the down fall of DHL is a combination of poor management, which came from poor decisions from upper management, drivers and employee's who don't care, and of course the economy. Write now DHL is pissing off not only it's employees, but the customers. They think those customers are going to come back, but it is going to be a long hard struggle for DHL to survive after this debacle.Oh yeah, I think it is funny some of these drivers are writting about taking away their overtime, most of them sit and try to get overtime.(and that's not stealing?)

I also agree that former airborne mngnt is bad!!!!!!!!!!!!!always about bonus for them. The biggest challenge for indy mngmnt was where to get lunch.What a &^%#^%^ joke we also have bunch of lazy%$@&% drivers here in naptown. Best of luck to all who arent thug lazy drivers take care!!!!!

the management after 2003 would be like putting a child molester in charge of a day care center.Dhl does not know to handle volume like airborne did,should have left wilmington alone.The original airborne

abfc

DHL relies mainly on its management team in Germany to tell them what to do, who gets raises and who doesn't. DHL needs to get their customers back and by losing all the express customers this is going to be hard. I don't believe Hans really cares about USA like he does his Germany office. Everyone needs to work together and they will get through this.

Folks, I suggest that we all sponsor a book on DPWN. Once the US restructure is complete the will have essentially the same company they had before the airborne acquisition - the only difference being that they destroyed several billion dollars of shareholder value and many thousands of personal lives.

The DHL Management team who set the US on this collision course with disaster was promoted 18 months ago to run DHL globally.

Personally I believe that there has never been a more incompetent team placed in charge of a major company. Indeed DHL was once great, it is a testament to the power of the brand that they are even still in business.

The entire DHL Global Management team should be dismissed and the division sold to a company who can create value with what is still a very powerful brand

hi my name is k.siraj living in INDIA and i am having agencies of BOMBINO EXPRESS for last 5.years - previously company used UPS for domestics delivery with in US.but company changed to DHL.and believe it or not our business gone TRIPLE.that's call the service.but it hurt me that DHL is closing there many office in US.in my view that was not a good decision taken by dhl.i thing that is not the solution for this problem.

I been with Dhl 12 years. I came from Dhl not airborne. I was a driver for 12 years. Dhl went wrong when they purchased airborne express. They should have research more with the TEAMSTERS. Airborne was already going down by its self. I can see why they made the purchase for the company to go BIG. But if they just waited for airborne express to go down by self. and then they have been more successful. I have never met so many people in a work place that had no work integrity. The TEAMSTERS drove Dhl into the ground.They didn't care enough. And still there like ...."ah what happen??" I believe that if they took pride more in there work. We could have had a chance. Because if Ups can do it. And they are also Teamsters and still get the job done. Dhl is a sad story.

I have worked with DHL for 21 years starting out outside the USA and spending some time in the Houston area.
It has been a long and exiting ride and if the company has run out of gas, then we need to stop take stock refuel and set off again. This organization has tons of potential in America and around the world. Out of loyalty and unflinching belief it its position in the global shipping encvironment, I would consider myself a "lifer" I have friends who have lost thier positions and I feel for them and their families.

DHL is not promoting business or it's employees. It is demoting business. The German's do not care about the people in the US, and they don't invest in their people. They play mind games with everyone in these poor economic times. They are giving their customers away. DHL gives the worst raises, the worst incentives, has way to many managers that don't move out of their chairs once in the course of a day other to get their coffee.

Bad leadership and over spending are two of the biggest reasons they are in the position they are in today. However, the first impression a customer has with DHL comes from the drivers and customer service and in both cases DHL has the worst of both compared to the other two carriers. I know some drivers will get upset about this statement and I do recognize there are some good areas and good drivers but I am referring to the majority.

The list is endless but here are a few more of the many bad decisions/plans and frivolous spending made by upper management that I don't think have been mentioned yet.
Constant change in management - I don't know how many CEO's and VP's there had been over the past 5 years but moving one failing leader to another position doesn't solve problems (with no accountability) and promoting another clueless exec from another country to run things in the US doesn't either. Just because they were successful in their country where there is no competition doesn't mean they can manage a monster of a company in the US
Spending millions to move the corporate office to Plantation FL - resulting in the loss of many knowledgeable employees from DHL (San Francisco) and Airborne (Seattle)
Maintaining three major offices in Plantation, Scottsdale, and Houston - travel expenses were out of control and by the time they put a freeze on travel it was to late
Keeping multiple offices open even when unoccupied - mainly because no one really knew what was going on
Overpaid executives who refuse to give up bonuses and instead cut budgets needed to fix and grow the biz so they can keep their quarterly bonus checks. Even Airborne was smart enough to cut bonuses when numbers were not met
Paying an exhausting amount of money on campaign ads with no follow through "Customer Service is Back in Shipping" and "I'm on it". DHL has the worst customer service and no one is on it
Spending on unnecessary sponsorships - what gain does sponsoring fashion week get a transportation company
Getting rid of the majority of the Airborne corporate employees. Think about it...when DHL purchased Airborne they new from the start they would have to keep the ABX infostructure, as DHL's was not sustainable for the volume they were about to inherit from Airborne. Yet, even knowing this they let the majority of the experts from Airborne go. In the end they hired many back as contractors/consultants at double and sometimes even triple their original pay and in many cases covering all expenses and temp housing for months on end.
Hiring employees with no transportation knowledge. With the exception of the DHL drivers, the longevity of a DHL employee is minimal. When I began working with/for DHL corporate in 2004 the average tenure of an employee was maybe a year at best and with no knowledge of transportation. You can't run a small business if you don't know the business your in
In the end, they just might have been able to make it had they committed as they said to the US market and kept the deal with Walgreens. The advertising and name recognition that would have been gained by being affiliated with Walgreens across the US would have done wonders.

we lost people get on with life now!ex dtw17yrs gone

I worked for dhl many years ago and I worked for Fedex for nearly 20 years they just throw you to the wolves Dhl has got to be better the those purple and orange guys

DHL Global Forwarding is riding a terrible storm. The storm should be heading South soon and business should pick up. With all the projects Obama has in store, business will regain strenth and dignity. The motto is they want to give their employees the tools to learn and make the company a better place. Now is a great time to push this and save your dedicated employees.

Well Jack it's official DHL Global Forwarding supply chain has announced we're next in the cheese line. I find it hard to believe they couldn't see this coming three months ago and probably spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on just organizing how to get the word out to employees that DGF would be alright. Now look.

I called Deutsche Post in Bonn after seeing the comment by SEA Forwarder saying that DHL Global Forwarding is next in line for cuts. According to the Deutsche Post spokeswoman, DHL is not exiting the global forwarding business in the U.S. If readers or DHL employees have heard differently, please get in touch.
Jack Ewing, BusinessWeek Frankfurt correspondent (jack_ewing@businessweek.com)

If anyone has any information about when DHL/Deutsche Post first began to study a complete domestic express pullout (contrary to its public statements in March 2008 that such a pullout was "not in the offering," then please post here or email me at shoffer2@yahoo.com.

DHL Global Forwarding big hub (ORD) Chicago is cutting heads, left and right. Letting the good ones go and keeping most hispanic's. Layed off last week. Ten years of service. No reason or rhyme. They just don't care. Way too many supervisors. They need to really take a look at the ones who want to work and the ones who don't work. They are being watched by many other forwarders. Good Luck DHL Chicago. It is apparant you favor those with less seniorty and less knowledge of the freight industry and skillful workers.

Hans Togweiler came in the Chicago office. We were sent a e-mail he would be in town February 10th and we should keep our area's clean. He would probably be talking to some of the employees. Well Mr. GERMAN CEO, you never talked to ANYONE. CARED ABOUT ANYONE. You came and you left and the next day HEADS WERE CHOPPED. But today you have jobs posted for CHICAGO. Couldn't you of saved a few jobs and refused your BONUS or promoted from within. JUST NOT YOUR STYLE IS IT?

DGF will never pull out of the US, they are a Market Leader Globally and in the US. They do not operate jointly with DHLE, but most customers do not see that, as stated above, they see the DHL brand and lump all of the companies together which has tarnished the reputation of DHL Global (Fomerly Danzas), which in combination with the downfall of DHLE has put them in a financial downfall. No doubt, They will remain fully operational in the US, However, they are Cutting DGF jobs in every station as SEA and ORD have stated. I too was laid off, unexpectedly, last month after 6 years of Dedication and hard work, We were told prior that we had nothing to worry about, but obviously that is not the case. Such is life.

My dear friend who was laid off from the DHL will hopefully make it through the tragic accident.