ABX furloughs 12

[T-DOGGIN]

Who is the little english guy picking up all the OPF in the 9. Isn't he the same one who was sooooooo vocal about this while he was on furlough.

 

[av8rnate]

"Are we to be a bunch of Lemings smiling, wearing the "full and complete uniform", flying on time and providing excellent service to our customer until ALL flying has been elimintated?" abxaviator

Quick question, by Lemings are you refering to the small rodents that committ mass suicide every four years? Or are you refering to the former ABX chief pilot K. Leming. If you're referring to the creatures, that would be spelled with a lower case L; lemmings.

 

[abxaviator]

Well, excuse me, but I don't know of that CP, I was indeed referring to the creature. BTW, it's "commit", one t, not two.

 

[shooter]

DHL wake up calls

NO MORE RECOVERIES WHILE WE HAVE GUYS ON THE STREET.

That being said, I definitely agree that ways need to be found to get DHL's attention and REVERSE the slide! quote]

I hope you guys don’t mind my nickel in this thread. But abxaviator, you are more correct than you may know. DHL does need the call to reverse the slide. The DHL management in America from the "old days" (as they seem to fondly refer to it) are so pro-Astar for no logical business reason it makes one wonder. I know you guys know some of the treatment they get vs. ABX.
I don’t want to come on here and bash Astar. I only want to vent about how ABX was doing fine in their niche, and then along comes DHL saying they want to be in the lucrative North American express package business. And being able to support that business is the ONLY way they can be successful in competing with UPS and FedEx. They were not able to do that in CVG and if they stick to the same business model that was failing there they will fail in ILN. ABX jobs are on the line here, and if DHL cares, their jobs are at risk too due to nothing but failure to deliver and customers will leave. ABX has been providing that service successfully for years. The track record proves it.
But the only way you can open the eyes of DHL, is with DHL in Europe, not here in the U.S. The DHL guys here obviously do not know how to read the numbers. All we should need to do is keep doing what we do. Hope the new DHL vice-president of aviation (who is a veteran DHL Europe guy) reads the performance differences. And hope that the Astar lawsuits against DHL for flying freight/international flying does not hurt us even more than the Kentucky good ol’ boy network is.
Just one other thing from the non-flying side of the operation, we as ABX accept our mistakes and try to learn from them to prevent them from happening again. We do not need to be blamed for others failures. If someone needs to learn how to taxi, that’s not the fault of ABX. (okay 1 little jab, not really bashing )

 

[goastar]

Airborne was purchased for the customer base, not the system. DHL is impatient, and now it is costing them more money than had they expanded at a reasonable pace.
As for your few guys being furloughed, hundreds of loyal DHL employees and good friends (some with 20+ years) were canned with the purchase of Airborne. I would say the trend has finally "reversed" itself! People are people, regardless of your job postion!!!

 

[abxaviator]

They did indeed make the acquisition for the customer base and have since steadily squandered it. DHL's market share of US Express business is just over HALF of what Airborne Express had, THAT slide needs to be reveresed.

 

[goastar]

Agreed!

They did indeed make the acquisition for the customer base and have since steadily squandered it. DHL's market share of US Express business is just over HALF of what Airborne Express had, THAT slide needs to be reveresed.

 

[goastar]

The only way to stop the problem is to stop squabbling amongst each other and collectively go after DHL. But we all can’t seem to figure that out.

 

[Clipperskip]

The Problem

The only way to stop the problem is to stop squabbling amongst each other and collectively go after DHL. But we all can’t seem to figure that out.

Although I agree with Goastar that we should stop our squabbling between the two airlines unfortunately this will not fix the problem. What we need are charasmatic leaders in DHL management with vision and an understanding of the US express business model. What we have seen recently at ABX is a concerted effort from our management to show DHL how "cheap" we can be (furloughs, etc.). Although good economics are definitely important to the overall model it really will not matter if the the freight is not delivered to the customers on time!

I know for a fact that ABX and Astar can deliver the freight to the various airports on time with consistancy. The question that I have is can the DHL "contract" delivery people get the package to the customer in a friendly and appealing manner. Will these individuals have the financial support and managerial oversight to ensure a pleasant experience for our customers. Without success in this part of the process we are all doomed. DHL has shown that they have deep pockets but they are scrimping on our point of contact with the customers by using the lowest bid contractors instead of doing it themselves.

Although I am sure that I am preaching to the choir here, please note the appearance of the next DHL delivery person you see and compare them to the professional delivery men and women of UPS and FedEx! It will pretty much sum up the problems that we face here with DHL. On a side note, while passing through the MEM airport last week I spoke at length to a recent DHL customer who ask me lots of questions when he found out that flew freight on behalf of DHL. He said that a DHL delivery van recently backed in to his restored 1965 Ford Mustang causing several thousand dollars of damage. The DHL contract driver apologized and put him in contact with his manager. Unfortunately after 4 months of runarounds with the contractor the customer was force to retain legal representation in order to have his vehicle repaired. He also called DHL North America to see if they could be of assistance. They explained that the driver that hit his car was an independent contract delivering on behalf of DHL and that DHL was not responsible for the damage. Lots of finger pointing and one upset customer who vowed to never use DHL again. It goes on and on. The moral of the story is that if a customer sees a yellow truck with DHL written on the side they expect that individual to be an employee of DHL. This is most often not the case and is the source of the problem.

 

[hvydriver]

Clipperskip,

I agree with both you and goAstar that we need to band together. With that said, and I do not mean this as a slam against ABX Air, you summed up the main problem perfectly. The ground delivery system is a shambles. However, that system is the one that Airborne Express was using. DHL took ABX's word that it was a good system, and slapped a coat of yellow paint on it. They are going to have to figure out how to fix it. It's too bad that DHL fired over 3000 folks when they bought ABX. They should have kept them on. At least there would have been some semblance of a ground delivery network. Where they can go from here, I have no idea. One thing is for sure. This ain't a good situation for either us, or you.