Tag: UPS

DHL’s yellow and red delivery trucks are on the road as its USD1.2 billion investment in the United States gets rolling, but investors waiting for the company to make a dent in the businesses of its two major U.S. rivals may need to be patient.

DHL, the U.S. express and logistics business of Germany’s Deutsche Post AG, plans to have a U.S. ground network equal or better to its rivals FedEx and United Parcel Service by the end of 2005.

“We’ve decided to accelerate efforts and hit the ground harder, faster, sooner,” Richard Metzler, DHL America’s executive of vice president of marketing, said in an interview.

Until DHL came along, FedEx and UPS had a seemingly comfortable duopoly in package delivery. It is getting less comfortable.

The German post office is not so German anymore. Deutsche Post World Net, as it is now named, still earned most of its USD1.7 billion in profits last year delivering letters. But Chairman Klaus Zumwinkel has bought some independence from economic stagnation at home with USD18 billion worth of acquisitions, most prominently DHL International.

Now his air and ground forces have launched a U.S. invasion under the DHL banner–right into the teeth of a FedEx-UPS duopoly that holds 79percent of this market.

DHL’s USD50 billion (revenues) parent is already the world’s largest airfreight carrier, flying to more places than anyone else. Deutsche Post had a small investment in the San Francisco-based courier for years but bought the company lock, stock and delivery van two years ago. Outside of Germany it looks more like the intrepid DHL took over Deutsche Post than the other way around. Either way, what Zumwinkel wants is to rule global logistics.