Old Glory Radio

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. How this has been keeping quiet this week is interesting. Find below portions of two emails I received from a major company that I had merchandise orders with today The following emails were in response to my wondering where my orders were.

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.

Second person confirmation:

Hi Mr. Fredriksen,

I apologize. DHL has closed many of their delivery centers. We received notification on Monday but many of our packages shipped last week got caught in the transition. We’re going to ship your order again for delivery on Tuesday. The original package should be delivered by the postal service on Thursday. Please let me know when it arrives do I can have it picked up. I apologize for the delay

To recap, according to the vendors, DHL is closing centers, not delivering packages to who know where and is re shipping what they have via US Mail. Well at least that is what they are telling people. I am not naming the companies I had merchandise orders with, as frankly, they are a victim in this as well. What is curious is that according to one company, DHL told them that it would arrive to me in another eight days via US Mail. Eight days? To go a few hundred miles? Something fishy?

A call recording from DHL on a specific package tracking number was sent to a voice recording that stated that the package was given to a third party.

More on this during the live show.

Attempts my myself to contact DHL were not able to get past recordings. 07/03/08

FOLLOW UP: Free Republic poster JerseyHighlander posted the following follow up information.

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.

MORE FOLLOW UP: “Chode” writes at Free Republic on this topic….

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???

Good question as guns and supplies etc can (my understanding) be shipped UPS and DHL. Pitty the poor guy who tries to follow the law only to have the Feds arrest him for shipping things legal through UPS and DHL only to have them hand it off to the United States Post Office………

EVEN MORE FOLLOW UP: July 4th: I did some digging and SUPPLY CHAIN DIGEST ARTICLE….yes there is actually a watchdog trade publication dealing with shipping companies….did an extensive interview with DHL executives on June the 23rd of this year EXACTLY about what I am talking about in this article. For those of you wanting more information and still thinking this is just some sort of “foul up”….read it. Dry as toast unless you are in the industry, but pay attention to the DHL exec talking about notifying their customers…….

DHL EXEC TALKING FROM THE ARTICLE…..

DHL’s Sales personnel have been making personal calls to their customers since the announcement to advise them of the impending changes.

DHL will continue to deliver to 100% of the ZIP Codes that we deliver to today. The USPS will provide final mile delivery to sparsely populated areas of the country (these shipments represent only about 2.4% of total current volume.)

Customers can view revised transit times online on the DHL website at www.dhl-usa.com or obtain information by calling DHL Customer Service at 1-800-CALL DHL.

Ya right…well apparently you missed some calls….lots of them, oh and my small community of 50,000 people is rural? I tried calling that number and all you get is a recording telling you that your package has been handed over to a third party……no tracking.

Nice try guys….. the author of the article saw everyone of these problems coming and a bunch more I didn’t think of.

FINAL WRAP UP: July 7th - My worst fears came true as the post office did their thing and bright and early Saturday morning placed the package containg several hundred dollars of needed electronic equipment on the doorstep of the studio. Of course it was the 4th of July weekned and I wasn’t even in town…so the package sat in front of the door for two days in full view of the busy street……by an absolute miracle, it was still there two days later. This is the problem with this not telling people you are handing off your package to a third party. Had the package been stolen, where is the signature of delivery? Tracking? Who pays the loss? It is my opinion that if shippers knew this was going to happen, they would perhaps choose their shipper differently. The reason we use you shippers is to protect our package, not hand it off to the post office.