DHL Downsizing

Well it was announced this morning that DHL is ending all shipping for domestic service in the United States. Most or all of that business is supposed to go to UPS. This could be good news for the railroads as DHL never shipped via rail.

SecaucusJunction wrote:Well it was announced this morning that DHL is ending all shipping for domestic service in the United States. Most or all of that business is supposed to go to UPS. This could be good news for the railroads as DHL never shipped via rail.

I thought about that today aswell but I'm not so sure as to what will happen regarding the railroads.

SecaucusJunction wrote:Well it was announced this morning that DHL is ending all shipping for domestic service in the United States. Most or all of that business is supposed to go to UPS. This could be good news for the railroads as DHL never shipped via rail.

What does this have to do with railroads in New Jersey?

Otto Vondrak wrote:

SecaucusJunction wrote:Well it was announced this morning that DHL is ending all shipping for domestic service in the United States. Most or all of that business is supposed to go to UPS. This could be good news for the railroads as DHL never shipped via rail.

What does this have to do with railroads in New Jersey?

I think the angle hes going for is the UPS trailer trains that come throught NJ and Frequency or longer trains? I don't know but thats what I suspect.

I just read about it online CNN. DHL is getting out of the domestic air business - they are going to outsource all that to UPS. Which may mean more trains. They are going to only ship international, which is what they did years ago. They have 400 airport facilities which are being reduced to 100 and 8,000 jobs are gone.

UPS ships a lot by train. I don't know about Fedex though. The highways are full of Fedex trucks.

Uh, carajul, ...............might wanna check that spelling in the last line there hahahaa
Fixed it, UPRR

Im waiting until FedEx and UPS merge and we get....



FEDUPS!!!

HAHHAHAH

Yes I would agree this is definatly a big NJ thing. A very large amount of UPS traffic originates in NJ, right in North Bergen yard in fact. They do lease alot of trailers so its very often disguised and not known that its UPS traffic unless however your a railbuff and you know these things.

SecaucusJunction wrote:Well it was announced this morning that DHL is ending all shipping for domestic service in the United States. Most or all of that business is supposed to go to UPS. This could be good news for the railroads as DHL never shipped via rail.

I doubt the package volume that DHL is shedding would likely result in any extra trains
since most of DHL's traffic was express air service. Anyway, UPS, FedEx, and the USPS will more or less absorb the extra volume collectively rather than all of DHL's old customers just switching to UPS alone.

SecaucusJunction wrote:Well it was announced this morning that DHL is ending all shipping for domestic service in the United States. Most or all of that business is supposed to go to UPS. This could be good news for the railroads as DHL never shipped via rail.

This is a "reach" topic at best, but I moved it to General Discussion since there is nothing specific to New Jersey (or any other region) in the topic.

-otto-

You're right about the DHL thing having no impact for UPS rail. Most of UPS is large shipper and receiver contracts (mail order houses, distribution firms, etc.) that have volumes in point-to-many or many-to-point patterns (like reverse logistics shipments).

DHL started as a courier of documents to very hard places to send to in the world. They can even get your envelop delivered to and from Cuba (which I have done many times) or even North Korea. They are a specialty, mostly small envelop of documents type of carrier. They have gone after contracts for mail order companies, but without the density and span that both UPS and FEDEX have (especially with air), they've not been able to gain much traction there.

This was inevitable looking back two-three years ago. But, their owners tried valiantly to have it work out otherwise.

Otto is right; there will be no New Jersey impact and it is a reach topic.

As a soon-to-be-underemployed DHL part-timer, I can add a bit more:

DHL is a wholly-owned subsidiary of DeutschePost which, in turn, probably owes a lot of its success to providing basic postal services in a re-unified, capitalist Germany. DeutschePost prides itself as the world's second-largest employer (after WalMart) and likes to present itself as in sycnh with global, rather than national values.

DHL was founded in the USA; the 'D" in DHL stands for the surname of one of its three founders; nothing "Deutsche' about it. It has never been the dominant player in the US, but is prominent in the rest of the world, primarily through its acquisition of Danzas, International, a Belgian-based freight forwarder which traces its origins to its founders' role as managers of the supply chain for the campaigns of Napoleon Bonaparte.

The "Thoroughbred" containers occasionally seen on US rail movements are a Danzas subsidiary, but I'm nearly certain these are import/export moves. DHL moved domestic shipments within the US almost entirely by highway, using a number of contract carriers.

One minor correction; The 400-or-so "airport facilities" are actually local pickup/delivery hubs. These in turn feed 18 central sorting facilities, of which a hew hub near Allentown, Penna. (built as a successor to the former Airborne Express) and a centrally-located facility developed on the grounds of the former Wright-Patterson Air Force Base near Dayton, Ohio, are the most prominent.The company plans to maintain about 130 offices oriented exclusively towards shipments either originating or destined outside the United States.

"a centrally-located facility developed on the grounds of the former Wright-Patterson Air Force Base near Dayton, Ohio, are the most prominent.The company plans to maintain about 130 offices oriented exclusively towards shipments either originating or destined outside the United States."

The overnight airfreight industry and south Ohio since 2000 is a tragic story.

DHL opened a new sort facility at the Cincinnati airport (CVG= Covington, KY). They mothballed this facility when they moved to the Airborne Express facility in Wilmington, OH as part of their buyout of ABX. ABX owned everything, including the airport. DHL has offered this facility to the State of Ohio. The Emery sort facility at the Dayton Airport was downsized and slated to move to truck service only after UPS bought Emery.

At least the BAX Global (Burlington Air Express) faciliy in Toledo is still open.

This is connceted to railroads since I would watch trains when I made sales calls to these places. Too bad a reduction in airfreight does not lead to more rail traffic...

Not necessarily related....but I have a 41 pound package coming via UPS to NY from CA. Its obviously being transferred by rail, or at least was. They've rescheduled the delivery date at least twice now, but its coming so slow. I mean, I'm really happy UPS does rail, but could they make it any faster? Jeez...I'm anxious for it to get here! lol