"Anti-trust Laws: Federal statutes that regulate trade in order to maintain competition and prevent monopolies. Many common business practices are governed by these statutes. The Sherman antitrust act of 1890 made price-fixing (the setting of prices in cooperation with competitors) illegal. The Clayton act of 1914 outlawed price discrimination (charging different prices to different buyers), as did the robinson-patman act of 1936.
Antitrust refers to government policy to regulate or break up monopolies in order to promote free competition and attain the benefits that such competition can provide to the economy and to society as a whole."
DHL is hiring UPS to fly their packages in North America--end of story. The current DHL fleet is old and will have to be replaced/upgraded in the near future (big money). Many of their aircraft do not use the igloos that are used to transport the freight like UPS and FedEx (very inefficient). Their parent company has poured billions into their US operation to compete with FedEx and UPS and they have come to the conclusion that to continue serving the US, they need to radically change how they operate in the US. They made a business decision to cut costs and use a more efficient method to transport their packages.
DHL Ground will still exist and still compete with UPS and FedEx. DHL Express will still exist and still compete with UPS and FedEx. Outside the US, DHL is the market leader for international express shipments and the Deutsche Post is much larger than both UPS and FedEx.
I just hope this doesnt bite ups in the ass later when dhl starts saving some money to come back stronger in 10 years. I still think ups has its eyes on dhl in the future...jmho.
Customers in the US can choose from DHL, FedEx, UPS, USPS and a host of regional carriers to get their stuff from point A to point B. Plenty of competition in the package delivery business---ask any sales person in the industry. How does this deal change that?
The USPS hired FedEx and UPS to transport most of their Priority Mail and 1st class mail. FedEx, UPS and DHL all use other carriers to deliver to areas that would otherwise be a money-losing operation for them. Outside of the US, DHL uses many different airlines for their airlift. FedEx and UPS do the same thing.
While it is certainly unfortunate that many people will lose their jobs, it is business. At the end of the day, DHL made a business decision to cut costs in the US and hire a company to perform a service. No anti-trust issues here.