Discuss: DHL parent to proceed with UPS deal, despite outcry

[cheryl]

DHL parent to proceed with UPS deal, despite outcry - Atlanta Business Chronicle
A day after Ohio's congressional delegation called on German Chancellor Angela Merkel to halt DHL's plan to abandon its Wilmington air hub, the head of DHL's German parent said it has no alternative but to proceed, according to newspaper reports.

Frank Appel, chief executive officer of Deutsche Poste World Net, reportedly told the German daily newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung and The Wall Street Journal that DHL is losing $5 million a day in the United States, and that even more jobs would eventually be lost if it dropped its proposed plan to outsource its U.S. air transport operations to rival United Parcel Service.

It's kind of ironic that Appel is implying that UPS is DHL's 'knight in shining armour' to (a) save more jobs than are lost by the deal and (b) saves DHL's presence in the USA. I remember not long ago (2004?) the triumphalism of DHL's re-launch of its new corporate identity and services, with ads crowing that 'Yellow is the new Brown'. Well, seems like Brown is the new Yellow (for domestic airlift anyway), or perhaps a Brown Knight in Shining Armour. Mr. Appel is a pragmatist though, with rational economic arguments, but the way DHL has mis-handled the soft 'human' issue in the midst of a financial meltdown makes one wonder if the German parent of DHL has learned anything about the USA. The lack of early consultation with local and Federal regulatory authorities and apparent insensitivity to the Wilmington workforce seems grossly negligent for a CEO, even if the business argument does stack up. But an Appel a day won't keep the House Committee at bay.