UPS and DHL have terminated months-long negotiations over a plan under which UPS would have provided air transport services within North America for DHL’s international shipments.
“The companies have mutually agreed to terminate these negotiations,” a UPS spokesman says. He adds that UPS chairman and CEO Scott Davis and chief financial officer Kurt Kuehn will comment further on the matter during the company’s first-quarter earnings call on Thursday, April 23.
“DHL and UPS had been speaking regarding a potential agreement for UPS to provide point-to-point airlift in the U.S. as a substitute for the U.S. airlines currently providing this uplift for DHL Express in the U.S.," a DHL spokesman says. “Last Friday, DHL and UPS acknowledged an end to talks on the provision by UPS of airlift services for DHL's shipment volumes in the U.S.”
DHL Express continues to obtain cargo services under existing contracts with its current airlift providers, the spokesman adds. “Nothing has changed in this regard,” he says.
DHL, a unit of Germany-based based Deutsche Post AG, discontinued its U.S. domestic-only air and ground transport services on Jan. 30, 2009.
If DHL is unable to secure a long-term agreement to handle the North American leg of international shipments, shippers will still have other options, experts say. Bob Boylan, president of fulfillment services company Xpert Fulfillment, says his clients that use DHL for international shipments routinely use the U.S. Postal Service and other carriers for the domestic leg of deliveries.
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