Why is DHL in business?

[phucheneh]

And the USPS can't keep afloat?

A three-day journey via USPS takes approximately eight days via DHL. And then they have to give it to the USPS, because they have no delivery trucks.

WHY THE FUCK DOES YOUR BUSINESS EXIST?!?!

Hey, I'm gonna start a fast food joint called McBurgerPrince, and we'll charge the same prices as McDonalds and Burger King, but we'll have zero locations. So when you're hungry, you can call us up and order some food, and two weeks later a guy that works for McDonalds will drive by your house and throw it out the window. SURELY THIS SOUNDS LIKE SUCCESSFUL BUSINESS MODEL.

Dumb Germans. You don't have to invade Poland to make mail work.

 

[MagnusTheBrewer]

And the USPS can't keep afloat?

A three-day journey via USPS takes approximately eight days via DHL. And then they have to give it to the USPS, because they have no delivery trucks.

WHY THE FUCK DOES YOUR BUSINESS EXIST?!?!

Hey, I'm gonna start a fast food joint called McBurgerPrince, and we'll charge the same prices as McDonalds and Burger King, but we'll have zero locations. So when you're hungry, you can call us up and order some food, and two weeks later a guy that works for McDonalds will drive by your house and throw it out the window. SURELY THIS SOUNDS LIKE SUCCESSFUL BUSINESS MODEL.

Dumb Germans. You don't have to invade Poland to make mail work.

Strangely enough, they do quite well in Germany and are respected. I guess something got lost in translation here in the US.

 

[ponyo]

DHL is pretty big in Europe and Asia/Pacific.

 

[Kaido]

Yeah, they randomly show up at my house. I thought their US arm went bankrupt or something. Newegg loves to ship with DHL...free shipping but takes 3 weeks, haha!

Half the time when I ship USPS, the person gets the package before the stupid tracking number even shows up in their system

 

[MagnusTheBrewer]

Yeah, they randomly show up at my house. I thought their US arm went bankrupt or something. Newegg loves to ship with DHL...free shipping but takes 3 weeks, haha!

Half the time when I ship USPS, the person gets the package before the stupid tracking number even shows up in their system

Newegg doesn't ship with DHL. The USPS. and others contract with DHL in some areas. Newegg has no control over it which is why you shouldn't go for the cheapest shipping option.

 

[Mixolydian]

I thought DHL pulled out of the domestic shipping market a few years ago. :hmm:

 

[phucheneh]

Newegg doesn't ship with DHL. The USPS. and others contract with DHL in some areas. Newegg has no control over it which is why you shouldn't go for the cheapest shipping option.

I think that's backwards? I thought DHL contracted with USPS.

I mean, I know a 'contract' is a reciprocal thing, but I think it was DHL that basically said 'we don't have the resources to keep operating, please help us, USPS.'

And I think the USPS gets the raw deal out of that...it's them who have to show up at someone's house a week late and basically take the '-rep' caused by DHL.

Also...I think I may have posted about this before. Except, ironically...I think I was bitching about the USPS, and someone corrected me and explained the whole 'shipping partner' thing.

But my initial point stands....DHL is a middleman where none is needed. Charge customers a tiny bit more for FedEx, or get past whatever is preventing dealings with the post office (no commercial pickup or something? I dunno). Everyone wins.

 

[rockyct]

I thought DHL pulled out of the domestic shipping market a few years ago. :hmm:

They did, from wiki:
"30 January 2009 DHL ends domestic pick up and delivery service in the United States, effectively leaving UPS and FedEx as the two major express parcel delivery companies in the United States[18] Limited domestic service is still available from DHL, provided that the packages are tendered to USPS for local delivery. NewEgg is one such company that uses this option as of May 10, 2011."

 

[phucheneh]

T-Shirt Hell is another notable user, then. Kinda funny...back when they were a much newer company, I seem to remember shirts taking like 5-10 days to be printed and shipped [but then arrived quickly].

Now it only takes them like a day to get them sent out, but they spend the same 5-10 days in DHL hell before USPS finally gets them and sends them your way. I seriously just watched it take like five or six days for a package to travel from Phoenix to Memphis...it wasn't a stall after 'shipping info received' or something...that actually appeared to be the literal transit time before they handed it off.

 

[Humpy]

They did, from wiki:
"30 January 2009 DHL ends domestic pick up and delivery service in the United States, effectively leaving UPS and FedEx as the two major express parcel delivery companies in the United States[18] Limited domestic service is still available from DHL, provided that the packages are tendered to USPS for local delivery. NewEgg is one such company that uses this option as of May 10, 2011."

Weird. Just back in August I got several deliveries from overseas that were shipped by DHL and delivered in beat up DHL vans. From India and Thailand to the SW United States took 2 days.

 

[Matt1970]

They did, from wiki:
"30 January 2009 DHL ends domestic pick up and delivery service in the United States, effectively leaving UPS and FedEx as the two major express parcel delivery companies in the United States[18] Limited domestic service is still available from DHL, provided that the packages are tendered to USPS for local delivery. NewEgg is one such company that uses this option as of May 10, 2011."

Yep. I used DHL quite a bit till then. They always seemed to be cheaper. One problem was their website was an absolute disaster. Though a series of 10 pages or so you only got to see the cost of your shipment one time. They were in dropdown menus so one scroll of the mouse wheel meant you were now shipping your box overnight.

 

[BladeVenom]

From my experience, they were better than the rest.

 

[Exterous]

From my experience, they were better than the rest.

Heh - oddly my experience was the exact opposite. My old company was quick to jump ship to a cheaper shipping options and used DHL for paycheck delivery to our location. Once they lost the check shipments and the other time they literally fell off the truck in transit. The direct deposit slips arrived fine but only the paper checks the driver could catch in the wind\scrape up off the ground made it - many too torn\muddy\wet to actually use. We switched back to UPS for check delivery

 

[ponyo]

I just remember Outpost.com offering free overnight DHL delivery for every order. Those were the days...

 

[ElFenix]

And the USPS can't keep afloat?

A three-day journey via USPS takes approximately eight days via DHL. And then they have to give it to the USPS, because they have no delivery trucks.

WHY THE FUCK DOES YOUR BUSINESS EXIST?!?!

Hey, I'm gonna start a fast food joint called McBurgerPrince, and we'll charge the same prices as McDonalds and Burger King, but we'll have zero locations. So when you're hungry, you can call us up and order some food, and two weeks later a guy that works for McDonalds will drive by your house and throw it out the window. SURELY THIS SOUNDS LIKE SUCCESSFUL BUSINESS MODEL.

Dumb Germans. You don't have to invade Poland to make mail work.

i don't think i like this hand off delivery crap. the profitable portion of any distribution network is the long haul, distribution center to distribution center. the money losing portion is the last mile. so, this hand off stuff takes the profitable portion of the delivery and has DHL/UPS/FedEx do it, then dump the shitty portion off on the USPS.

the counter argument would be that maybe there's some money savings to be had by using excess capacity in DHL/UPS/FedEx's fleets and the USPS is going to every address anyway so the additional cost to the USPS is near 0.

 

[notposting]

Yeah the DHL dump to USPS thing sucks. Worst is that for me (Detroit area) they give deliveries to my local post office...in Chicago?!?

 

[XavierMace]

And the USPS can't keep afloat?

A three-day journey via USPS takes approximately eight days via DHL. And then they have to give it to the USPS, because they have no delivery trucks.

WHY THE FUCK DOES YOUR BUSINESS EXIST?!?!

Hey, I'm gonna start a fast food joint called McBurgerPrince, and we'll charge the same prices as McDonalds and Burger King, but we'll have zero locations. So when you're hungry, you can call us up and order some food, and two weeks later a guy that works for McDonalds will drive by your house and throw it out the window. SURELY THIS SOUNDS LIKE SUCCESSFUL BUSINESS MODEL.

Dumb Germans. You don't have to invade Poland to make mail work.

You know what most other international parcel delivery services do with a package once it hits the US? They hand it off to USPS. I've had oodles of packages shipped from the UK, Japan, Taiwan, and Hong Kong via DHL or Speedpost. They always get it from their respective country to LA far faster than USPS gets it from LA to Phoenix.

Me thinks some of you don't understand how international mail works.

 

[Wreckem]

UPS's and FedEx's version of this same shipping method is just as bad/slow.

 

[LennyZ]

DHL delivered a package the other day to me.
3 days Hong Kong to NJ impressed the hell out of me.

 

[OutHouse]

I thought DHL pulled out of the domestic shipping market a few years ago. :hmm:

they just stopped express deliveries.

 

[phucheneh]

You know what most other international parcel delivery services do with a package once it hits the US? They hand it off to USPS. I've had oodles of packages shipped from the UK, Japan, Taiwan, and Hong Kong via DHL or Speedpost. They always get it from their respective country to LA far faster than USPS gets it from LA to Phoenix.

Me thinks some of you don't understand how international mail works.

Arizona is not a country.

 

[SparkyJJO]

Drop it
Hide it
Lose it

Seems that way anyway.

 

[NFS4]

I just remember Outpost.com offering free overnight DHL delivery for every order. Those were the days...

 

[Old Hippie]

they just stopped express deliveries.

Which is basically all USA deliveries.

I have a friend that's worked for them for 30 yrs and the planes come in and pass everything off to USPS/FedEx or UPS.

Pretty much a bummer for the Wilmington Ohio hub which had New Egg, Amazon and other company's warehouses/distribution centers on the premises.

Even using free shipping I often got next day delivery.

 

[dr150]

Strangely enough, they do quite well in Germany and are respected. I guess something got lost in translation here in the US.

I can vouch that DHL is great in Germany and Europe.

I agree they suck a nut sack in the US though.....Shitty management, in addition to drastically downscaling in the US due to getting righteously clown stomped by UPS/Fedex.