what can be shipped by dhl, that would be illegal going through the usps... and if found who gets tagged if the shipper doesn't know about it???
Posted on 07/03/2008 1:00:10 PM PDT by locke22
BREAKING: DHL Shipping company closing major centers, and is using the US Mail to deliver packages in their system. How widespread or number of closings not determined. However, according to DHL vendor, thousands of zip codes....so far.
(Excerpt) Read more at oldgloryradio.podbean.com ...
Email from first individual:
Tom – I have to profusely apologize for this mess. We were hit a pretty big blow this week when DHL announced they were cutting back on their delivery areas. Their announcement was made on Monday of this week, while your package was in mid-transit. Their change affected thousands of zip codes, and unfortunately your area was one of them. What DHL is doing is passing shipping along to the postal service, which your package was on 7/2. Many shippers are running into this and finding problems as they happen. We had no way of knowing that this announcement would have been made.
Isn’t DHL owned by the German Post Office?
It’s great!
They’ve done this for a while with PO boxes, where DHL flies it overnight and then hands it to the local Post Office.
Now they look like they are using that method to offload some of the last mile in less popular areas....why keep a driver to replicate a route that the USPS already pays for in areas where DHL may only have a few packages a day?
DHL we hardly knew yee.
I had my first experience with them about two years ago. I had never heard of them until they came to pick up a damaged ipod. They arrived within an hour of reporting the problem to Apple. I thought they would be giving UPS and Fed Ex a run for their money. I say this is probably more fuel price woes.
That’s another place this is great. Sending a package from overseas to a Post Office box is a dicey proposition.
But DHL has good online customs tracking and such, and then you have confirmation of it getting to the postal carrier.
I wonder if the cutover was really planned and these shippers weren’t paying any attention?
ABX and it’s parent company ATSG are going to take a beating if this is true.
http://messages.finance.yahoo.com/mb/ATSG
They're leveraging the USPS last mile, the one thing that the USPS actually does well.
If you owned the USPS and UPS and FedEx and DHL all under one company, wouldn't you think your cost structure to deliver a set amount of packages was dumb if you had 4 sets of delivery trucks and one of those sets was subsidized by the fedgov?
I received a book order from Amazon Tuesday via DHL with USPS as the final carrier. Now I see why.
Completely agree, but that isn’t what this article is about. The issue here is the sudden closing of thousands of zip codes.....thousands, who knows how many more. In my case, packages sat in fresno for about five days before they even drove them over to the post office. Or at least that is the story DHL is apparently telling their vendors.
If people are going to use DHL they should be aware they might be using the US mail on half the trip, doubling the transit time. Apparently the SOP now is trucks dupm packages in a center and they sit until someone sorts it and decides to take them to the post office.....IMO UPS stock looks pretty good right now.
When I worked the outgoing mail for a major publisher, DHL was ace for the international shipments.
I’ve always had great experiences with the company.
I guess fuel costs are probably to blame, they definitely were giving UPS and Fedex some competition.
“What DHL is doing is passing shipping along to the postal service”
By the way, DHL isn’t the only company doing this. UPS has a program with the USPS to be the end deliverer of some packages.
And it pissed me off because I had ordered something from LL Bean for Christmas and they sent it to me UPS. When I looked at the tracking number, it said it was delivered to my local Post Office for final delivery...but I never got it. And of course when I contacted my local post office, they had no clue where it was and suggested I talk to my mail carrier....WHAT?!!?
So anyway, luckily LL Bean sent me another at no charge but this time sent it Fedex direct...got it in 2 days.
A few things I have ordered online have been shipped by DHL’s economy method, in which they handed off the parcel to the USPS at my city. It didn’t get here any faster or cheaper than if USPS had done the whole thing, so I wondered what the point was.
I just got some info...
DHL worker unions are wildcat striking as we speak, this has been going on since the morning of June 29th,
DHL announced 2600ish layoffs but the real number is over 10,000
http://www.aircargoworld.com/regions/northam_0708.htm
Quote:
“If DHL does everything they’ve indicated, the end result is a loss of around 7,000 jobs in Wilmington,” ABX Air President John Graber Graber said. “We [ABX Air] would directly lose 6,000 positions.”
DHL also owns the Wilmington airport, the largest privately owned airport in the country. Jonathan Baker, director of public relations for DHL said the Wilmington air sort hub would be closed once the company ends its relationship with ABX Air and ASTAR.
“A few things I have ordered online have been shipped by DHL’s economy method, in which they handed off the parcel to the USPS at my city. It didn’t get here any faster or cheaper than if USPS had done the whole thing, so I wondered what the point was.”
I’ll bet the retailer has special pricing with DHL, but charges you the same.
I think I'm dumb. Are you saying that it is impossible for any business to compete with the federal government? It is tough to compete with city hall, unless of course you are selling good service. But with the price of fuel people might start caring about costs more than service.
I sent in for a new pair of headphones to Apple two days ago. DHL delivered to the wrong office building. After several calls they sent out the non-English speaking “delivery person” to get the box from the wrong office and deliver it to me.
I don’t know that I’d use them again.
Now that you mention it, the guy that picked up the ipod was pretty ethnic looking and not all chatty and friendly like my Fed Ex guy.
They were surprised that I stopped my overnight shipping of time-sensitive documents with them. Go figure...
We used to use DHL quite a bit here because of the cost savings but “you get what you pay for.” Too many lost/damaged parcels/letters, poor customer service.
They’re in trouble probably because they deserve to be.
They were for a while, and I was rooting for them. There was no way that some competition for Fedex and UPS could be a bad thing for the shipper.
So, having UPS and Fedex accounts already, I gave DHL a try for 2007. Things started out very well. There were real cost savings, and the delivery times were competitive.
Then, last Fall, the wheels began to fall off.
First, I began to get complaints from customers who were out a ways from the cities. The package was sitting at the DHL destination facility, but no one seemed to want to deliver it the last distance. One customer called and was told to "Come Get It". I got a violent email from him telling me never to ship with them again.
Then, there were the No-show pickups. I would have a pickup order in, then my goods were still sitting there the next day. After three of these, I had to give up on them, for the silly reason that if my goods do not go out, I do not get paid.
So, back to the Brown Truck again.
Good riddance to DHL! Locally they’ve been nothing but a pain in the backside. Two packages I was supposed to receive were delivered to the wrong address. According to their employees, my house moved *rolls eyes* Eventually they were delivered by USPS.
They shouldn’t be in operation if they can’t handle the volume, nor if they hire idiots.
Guess that answers the question if the nation could handle a third carrier on top of USPS...
The reality of the fuel woes....will eventually convince half of us not to use overnight services and go back to the USPS. By the end of next year....it wouldn’t surprise me if FEDEX and UPS rates are double what they are today.
As a firmer DHL driver, it sounds like they are just expanding the DHL@home service started by Airborne Express and the USPS about 8 years ago. DHL handles the pickup, transit, sorting and then delivers the package to the addressee’s post office for postal delivery. If that is 10 packages a day to the post office, that is 10 less deliveries the driver has to make which equals savings for DHL and the shipper. In some rural areas it may be 30 mins between deliveries because of milage and that causes problems with time and wastes gas when the postal service is going there anyway. Sounds like someone just went into panic over this.
Now starting late this year or next year I believe, all DHL shipments will actually be sorted and shipped via UPS, DHL will only handle the actual pickup and delivery. More money for UPS, savings for DHL customers. Bad news is Astar and ABX, the 2 companies who own the aircraft and fly the freight, plus the Wilmington/Airborne Airpark airport which is owned and operated by ABX are screwed. Since DHL is foreign owned they can’t own or run the aircraft like UPS and FedEx can.
Also,the DHL sponsored Top Fuel driver Scott Kallita
died in a horrible accident last week in Englishtown NJ.
Makes sense. I know that the bulk rates for other shippers such as UPS are much lower than consumer rates.
One thing to remember, 99% of the delivery people, trucks, facilities are subcontracted out so when you have that problem it is usually the subcontractors fault but DHL’s in the long run for doing it that way. When I worked for Airborne Express before DHL bought them out we ran the same system and it ran much smoother. DHL’s purchase of Airborne was a disaster.
Which one of those do you believe is subsidized by the federal government?
Postal Pingski
This handing off business has been going on with all the shippers. First of all there have been times when FedEx has given our local post office the privilege of delivering their package.
I sent a package UPS to a family member in another state. I arrived before the package and was surprised to be there when it was delivered by FedEx.
Sorta like AMTRAK, Huh ???
Ae you telling me DHL was being subsidized by the federal government? Which one ~ USA or Germany?
The statutes also provide for exceptions ~ permanent ones in fact ~ for instance, checks.
In this way the Congress did not give an inch on its right to control the mails.
“By the end of next year....it wouldn’t surprise me if FEDEX and UPS rates are double what they are today”
And you might add that one of the two might be out of business or looking to merge with the other.
UPS is struggling with their Overnight Express acquistion—fuel costs and the subsequent declining shipping volumes.
Ah hah! Now it makes sense. We were having a 3rd party ship an item to Honduras and the rate they got from DHL was dirt cheap, specially since DHL doesn’t have a presence in Honduras. Now it makes sense...us postal mail.
That's what the local driver told me. He was OK..Trouble is, I asked him how come he did not come for one of the pickups, and he said, "I was on vacation last week".
Well, good. I like vacations. But I never heard that from Fedex or UPS..A different driver showed up once in a while.
Now that I am back with UPS, it's OK, but will cost me a little more for the holidays, since THIS driver prefers Smithwick's.
Thank you for your gentle correction. I was working off of memory, which can be faulty at times.
Actually, DHL owns the airport at Wilmington. And, last we heard, they were going to run a day-sort truck hub on that property. ABX has leased some of the hangar space from DHL, but that is all up in the air, at this point.
Fuel Costs? That’s a part of the issue, but not nearly all of it...IMO.
what can be shipped by dhl, that would be illegal going through the usps... and if found who gets tagged if the shipper doesn't know about it???
THAT is a very good question. My Son in Law is a gun guy and purchases antique things, loading supplies etc, I asked him about that and he told me that the US post office can not be used but that UPS/DHL is fine and legal.
Does this practice (1) leave the shipper or the person receiving the goods liable for criminal prosecution? Or both?
thx... i didn't know if dhl does guns or not. i know one of them stopped shipping guns awhile back not which one
It is owned by the German Post Office. They poured billions into DHL trying to recreate FedEx Ground’s success. FedEx Ground was run by businessmen instead of government lackies, however.
One last follow up. The DHL Corp office visited the article page via a link from this thread. Still no contact from them.......So to the DHL corp guys watching this thread and article....please do contact me, I would be happy to put your reaction up. In addition, several posters here have some interesting questions I would like to ask you about.
On another note....the area I am in had...had....a full staff and trucks here. Eureka Ca is a town of about 30,000 and services another 20,000 or so on the outskirts, including a State University. If DSL is not able to deliver anymore to communities of 50,000......there are indeed questions......lots of them.
As a current DHL employee, and a near 20 year DHL employee, I can tell you that the DHL@home service will be discontinued on Sept. 1, 2008 because it is not a money maker for us. On my route I have a Post Office, a large one, in a main city, and for all of the post offices that our station handles we have material coming in every day and we deliver it to the post offices every day. Lately for me it is approx. 60 - 240 pieces a day. Christmas time is another story, lots more. On Mon., Wed., and Fri. we pick up from the post offices the rejected or sent back packages that customers want to return. I cannot say what happens at other stations or independent contractors stations in the middle of nowhere (obviously it’s somewhere for the people that live there) but you know what I mean. We do have additional day(s) transit times for outlying areas of course in which it is only sensible to have the post offices do the delivering to. Residential stops are very time consuming, DHL wanted to keep us mostly on main roads to do businesses. We do still p/u and deliver to residences of course. I’m not totally trying to defend my employer, seeing as I’ve been screwed plenty in the past and present ( I may be looking forward to a layoff soon... ) but there are DHL employees that are dedicated, and really care about the image they portray and the service they provide. But, if the whole operation is not on the same page, it just falls apart...
Thanks for the information. It’s very much appreciated.
I knew two DHL people....great guys, I was pulling for them myself. What I personally don’t like is a sneaky company. According to the shippers, DHL knew well in advance the packages they were picking up would not be delivered in the four days they quoted them and it would be a good two weeks. All tacking lost as well. But rather than let everyone know, they take the packages and smile.....screw the customer....make the sale.
It might be good business in the short term, but as you can see, things are changing. This type of behavior can not happen in the dark anymore. I can say this with certanity. When I am ordering things on line in the future, I will be paying much more attention to how and by who my order is being shipped. There is no substitute for being honest and up front with people, and that applies to businesses. Once the trust is gone.....good luck staying in business.
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