DHL Moving all to Wilmington

[goastar]

Check your PM.

 

[steamgauge]

Let me try again.

I see you're furloughed and that sux mightily but you're missing the point (or illustrating the problem).

I meant that we should work together or we run the risk of racing to the bottom thereby giving up everything we fought for in our contracts to this point. Not pretty.

Not blending; cooperating in negotiations, etc. DHL will never let us merge. The poison pill provision in the ABX Air bylaws prevent FedEx and UPS from buying you but also prevent us from doing it as well. Apparently, we tried and DHL said no. Wonder why? Ask the european contractors.

We should at least "pattern bargain" which should not be too difficult since our contracts are similar anyway.

Blending; merging? Nah. Haven't seen a merger yet that didn't get screwed up. At least the way it is if we lose a route or you lose a route, we didn't do it to each other. DHL made the decision without regard to either of us. Just like they did with the ILN decision. Throw away $400 mil here; spend another $500 mil there. Just business to them.

The whole blending of the two groups is going to be very tough, if it ever does happen. I am for it,as long as all of ABX's furloughs(<20) are brought back on the property as a condition. A question...would "they" let it happen?

 

[vc10]

DHL will never let ABX Air merge with ASTAR. In fact, the real question is whether DHL will bring a third or fourth or fifth carrier into the mix.

DHL's position with ABX Air and ASTAR is analagous to that of a major passenger airline with respect to its regionals---DHL doesn't want any single contractor to be able to bring it down, so spreading its risk among more rather than fewer carriers is the right strategy (from DHL's point of view). Also keeps labor rates under pressure...

While it might not have been a no-brainer, DHL moving to Wilmington was reasonably predictable. It's in the middle of nowhere and it's totally controlled by them, so they'll never have noise complaints and they'll always be able to do exactly as they please.