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.
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.