Wal-Mart ends merchandise flight with DHL (U.S)

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. ended its agreement to have DHL fly Wal-Mart merchandise nightly from Fayetteville, Ark., shortly after DHL’s May 28 announcement that it intended to hire United Parcel Service for its U.S. cargo airlift work, according to a pilot who flew the route for ASTAR Air Cargo, a DHL contractor.
The flights typically carried 40,000 pounds of jewelry each night for Wal-Mart, Pebler said.
Wal-Mart quit using DHL for the flight from Fayetteville, where it has a jewelry distribution and repair center, because DHL had changed its flight route patterns in ways that didn’t serve all the locations Wal-Mart has, said Dan Fogleman, a spokesman for the retailer. Fayetteville, about 30 miles from Wal-Mart’s corporate office in Bentonville, Ark., was among the areas affected by the DHL route changes, Fogleman said.
Fogleman declined to say how much additional business Wal-Mart does with DHL, or whether the retailer has shifted any of its shipping business to DHL competitors UPS or Federal Express.
DHL declined to discuss its business with Wal-Mart.
“Although we cannot speak about specific customers due to confidentiality agreements, we have no indication of customer loss as a result of our pending agreement with UPS,” DHL said.
The pilots’ unions have been critical of DHL’s plan, and have made their concerns known to both major-party presidential candidates. The unions have also lobbied Ohio’s congressional delegation, which is calling for a government antitrust investigation to determine whether a DHL-UPS would reduce competition in the U.S. express shipping market. DHL and UPS say it would not, and that they are negotiating what could be a 10-year contract.
“The agreement would be solely a customer-vendor arrangement whereby DHL purchases certain airlift and related services from UPS, as we do currently from other providers,” DHL said.