hvydriver

I agree with you about the irony SB. The government can however dictate what a company can and cannot do if there is a violation of anti-trust laws. So far, both House committees have called on the DOJ and the FTC to investigate this, and the Chair of the Senate anti-trust committee has called for the deal to be stopped due to unfair competiton. Both Presidential candidates have asked for an investigation as well. (Politics there, I agree.) You cannot be an express delivery company, give your entire operation over to your primary competitor and still claim to be able to chart your own destiny and compete effectively in a free market economy. DOJ has asked for documents to be preserved and supplied to them concerning this deal from DHL. DHL's claims of $1 billion in losses YOY is a joke. The only way to prove that will be through investigation of the company's accounting procedures. There is a lot of shuffling going on with the funds between divisions in the company, has been for years. Losses on ground ops. I'd believe. To this magnitude though? Doubtful. We'll just have to wait and see.

hvydriver

I'm very happy with that statement Buck, because it is fact. Unless you want to say these guys were lying to the Congressmen/women during the hearings. If you would care to look at the archived footage of the Transportation Committee hearings, Mullen stated that UPS contacted DHL about the deal. Wallace did not contradict him.

Transportation and Infrastructure Committee:

hvydriver

High volume, low yield. If DHL pulls out, then they might as well hand the keys to the company to Brown, because they will be out of business globally in five years or less. You can't give up 40% of your revenue stream and stay in business. Think globally FO, not just the US.

UPSFO4LIFE

I am, look around. You make the assumption that the economy is in good shape. Look man, DHL is losing business on a daily basis. As a business owner, if I wanted to sign a shipping contract, DHL would be the last company I would use. WHY??? It doesn't matter if they intend to pull out of NA or not. THEY SAY THEY WILL!!!! Why would I sign a contract with a company that claims they will not be around in the US? I have business owners all around me in my hood and have been told the same story by both FedEx and UPS sales. If there is no vloume to ship, you don't ship. Like I said before, you lose customers like IBM, which I believe was a major Airborne customer, you are not going in the right direction.

Buck92

OK, I read Mullen's written testimony and concede that he did state "...susequently DHL was approached by UPS..." [the pdf file doesn't lend itself to cutting/pasting here and I'm too lazy to retype the whole thing], so I'll stand corrected on that.

I still think it's important to understand what came before "subsequently" in the above quote, which parapharsing, was that DHL was hemmoraging big money on the ASTAR/ABX arrangement, according to Mullen.

I guess my issue with the word "poaching" is that implies some kind of hostile takeover of DHL, or more specifically your flying -- as if DHL was sailing along just fine making a profit until along came evil UPS to scoop them up, which I don't think happened. Generally the way these deals go down is the company (DHL) lets it be known they are looking for ways to cut costs with air transpo and other vendors (UPS) come to them with their offer for service. I guess it's a chicken/egg argument, but are you saying that if it weren't for UPS approaching DHL, DHL would have never thought of getting someone else to do their flying?

Sideshow Bob

So that is the lynch pin as to whether DHL is "justified" in selecting another VENDOR to move their product in the U.S.? If $1 billion is disproved, what number is acceptable? Get the point? Or, if DHL selected Kittyhawk, Kalitta, Amerijet, Fed Ex a resurrected Emery and the fleabag I used to fly for called Patriot to move their volume instead of you guys would that be OK and you'd just accept it? I think not. Sorry bro, but this KIND OF sounds like many geezers who used the ageism and social justice line when the age 60 law was in play. Not trying to pick a fight here, keep in mind I spent many years as a contractor to other people's volume, and took a lot of crap for it (ironically at the CVG DHL sort among others). With the geezers overwhelmingly it was about greed, poor planning and boredom that drove them to all of a sudden be crusaders for justice. I get you're going to try everything, and I would too...but dressing it up as something it really isn't doesn't become you. I for the most part have found your posts to be the most reasoned and well written on the subject from your camp considering how personal it is.

FR8K9

I'm not happy at all to see anyone lose their job, but I cannot save the world hvydrvr.

I made a decision to come to UPS because I felt it was a solid and dominant company. I left a legacy airline (not on a furlough either) to come to UPS because I saw the writing on the wall for the pax carriers, and I decided to leave.

You chose to stay at Astar when it was obvious that things were going downhill. I speculate that you probably could have easily gotten a job at UPS when I did. In fact, I think I just flew with an ex-DHL/ASTAR guy a few weeks ago.

You made your decisions in life, I made mine.

Do I hope that UPS gets the DHL volume? Yep, I sure do.

hvydriver

That's correct Buck. When DPWN came out with the big plan, DHL was planning a refleet/and hopeful merger of Astar/ABX for the US operations. The DPWN announcement caught everyone (including DHL) off guard. As to the "poaching" thing, perhaps that was a bit harsh, however, it still stands that UPS approached DPWN with the idea, and thus DHL's reorganization plan was derailed. That's what you get when a micro-biologist is in charge of DPWN, I suppose.

hvydriver

Just to be clear, it wasn't "obvious" to anyone that DPWN would take the actions they did. I'm pretty sure I know the gentleman you're referring to, given your info says you're an MD11 guy. He went back and forth about going to UPS. Myself and some others helped him decide to go Brown, because of his position on our seniority list. It had nothing to do with the situation at the time of his departure. You presume too much.

hvydriver

The UPS deal isn't just another "vendor" SB. It's with a primary competitor. There is a distinct difference. If they chose say, Cappy, ATI, et.al, there would be no conflict because all they do is fly aircraft. They are not direct competition with DHL. UPS is.