DHL Wins the global race

[Jurassic Jet]

http://www.ajc.com/search/content/business/stories/2007/05/01/0501bizrace.html

DHL flexes global muscle in wacky race

By MATT KEMPNER
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 05/01/07

Disney and package carriers got it wrong. It's not such a small world, after all.

The proof is in the results of the latest Great Package Race, a more or less yearly exercise by a professor and students at Georgia Tech's Supply Chain & Logistics Institute.

Their event tests the logistical muscle of three of the biggest package delivery companies in the world: FedEx, DHL and Sandy Springs-based UPS.
The idea is to use the carriers to simultaneously send identical boxes stuffed with Georgia Tech T-shirts, baseball hats and coffee mugs to remote, odd or dangerous corners of the globe. This year's destinations included Tikrit, an insurgent hotbed in Iraq; Harare, the capital of troubled Zimbabwe in Africa; Yangon in Myanmar in Asia; Apia in the Pacific island nation of Samoa; and Florianopolis, on an island off the coast of Brazil.

The race — admittedly not a careful experiment so much as an "expression of spring fever at a technical institute" — is pretty much done, though in this contest it's not unusual for some boxes to be locked in an international time warp somewhere between sender and receiver.

The winner? DHL.

In last place at last check? UPS.

The race started at noon April 13 in Atlanta. By April 20, DHL had delivered all five packages. By April 27, FedEx had delivered three. UPS, last year's winner and the world's biggest package deliverer, succeeded on only two. One of its boxes lodged in Auckland, New Zealand. Two others — the ones marked for Tikrit and Yangon — were returned. Also, a UPS phone representative insisted Samoa was not a country, race organizers said. (It is, but there is also a nearby U.S. possession called American Samoa.)

A UPS spokesman said the company doesn't deliver to Myanmar because of a U.S. government ban and doesn't offer service to Tikrit. A FedEx spokesman said service to Myanmar has been suspended. Unlike FedEx and UPS, DHL's parent company is based in Germany, not the U.S.
Professor John Bartholdi, who runs the contest, picks locales that will poke carriers at some of their weakest points.
"We are pushing each of these organizations' processes out at the fringes," he said.
There, carriers usually rely on subcontractors to make the final delivery, Bartholdi added. "You can't have guys in brown shorts driving through downtown Tikrit."

The delivery charges ranged from the $76.96 that DHL charged for the Florianopolis run to FedEx's charge of $169.10 for the Apia delivery. But the money question is still unsettled. According to Bartholdi, he won't know UPS' final charges until they show up on credit card bills.

 

[Whistlin' Dan]

As a percentage, how much of the global express market is represented by traffic between Atlanta and Tikrit, Harare, Yangon (the one in Myanmar, not the other one), Apia and Florianopolis?

Whatever it is, the article does point out what may be at the heart of DHL's recent problems. The average consumer simply doesn't realize how useful DHL can be for shipping fairly robust items such as coffee mugs and T-shirts to war zones and obscure islands off the coast of Brazil.

Coming next month - Georgia Tech will conduct a road test between a Lexus 460, a Mercedes-Benz S550, and a Bajaj motor scooter, to determine which one is easiest to parallel park.

 

[Sporto]

As a percentage, how much of the global express market is represented by traffic between Atlanta and Tikrit, Harare, Yangon (the one in Myanmar, not the other one), Apia and Florianopolis?

Whatever it is, the article does point out what may be at the heart of DHL's recent problems. The average consumer simply doesn't realize how useful DHL can be for shipping fairly robust items such as coffee mugs and T-shirts to war zones and obscure islands off the coast of Brazil.

Coming next month - Georgia Tech will conduct a road test between a Lexus 460, a Mercedes-Benz S550, and a Bajaj motor scooter, to determine which one is easiest to parallel park.

Now that's funny stuff there. :laugh:

 

[AV8OR]

As a percentage, how much of the global express market is represented by traffic between Atlanta and Tikrit, Harare, Yangon (the one in Myanmar, not the other one), Apia and Florianopolis?

Whatever it is, the article does point out what may be at the heart of DHL's recent problems. The average consumer simply doesn't realize how useful DHL can be for shipping fairly robust items such as coffee mugs and T-shirts to war zones and obscure islands off the coast of Brazil.

Coming next month - Georgia Tech will conduct a road test between a Lexus 460, a Mercedes-Benz S550, and a Bajaj motor scooter, to determine which one is easiest to parallel park.

That is pretty funny Whistlin.

 

[rotor&wing]

As a percentage, how much of the global express market is represented by traffic between Atlanta and Tikrit, Harare, Yangon (the one in Myanmar, not the other one), Apia and Florianopolis?

Whatever it is, the article does point out what may be at the heart of DHL's recent problems. The average consumer simply doesn't realize how useful DHL can be for shipping fairly robust items such as coffee mugs and T-shirts to war zones and obscure islands off the coast of Brazil.

Coming next month - Georgia Tech will conduct a road test between a Lexus 460, a Mercedes-Benz S550, and a Bajaj motor scooter, to determine which one is easiest to parallel park.

Actually I heard Georgia Tech is going to do a study on just how much bull$hit someone can put on a resume before they're caught and fired.......

 

[BobbyBiplane]

Actually I heard Georgia Tech is going to do a study on just how much bull$hit someone can put on a resume before they're caught and fired.......

If that's the case, they should start with the folks at ASA GO

 

[AV8OR]

If that's the case, they should start with the folks at ASA GO

Mmmm, I think rotor was referencing a little "inside the AStar family" laundry.

It was pretty funny though. Wondered when someone might drop a similar line.

 

[Brazilgun]

As a percentage, how much of the global express market is represented by traffic between Atlanta and Tikrit, Harare, Yangon (the one in Myanmar, not the other one), Apia and Florianopolis?

Whatever it is, the article does point out what may be at the heart of DHL's recent problems. The average consumer simply doesn't realize how useful DHL can be for shipping fairly robust items such as coffee mugs and T-shirts to war zones and obscure islands off the coast of Brazil.

Coming next month - Georgia Tech will conduct a road test between a Lexus 460, a Mercedes-Benz S550, and a Bajaj motor scooter, to determine which one is easiest to parallel park.

You're as ignorant as a a$$. Florianopolis is one of the biggest cities in Brazil. You should spent less time here and more studying your map. The only thing obscure is your knowledge.

 

[Brazilgun]

DHL did a better job. What's the big deal? Sometimes FEDEX is better, sometimes is UPS and other times DHL wins. Is it hard to believe just because they are based in Germany? I'm sorry to brake to ya, but the world has more than 50 states.

 

[Jurassic Jet]

As a percentage, how much of the global express market is represented by traffic between Atlanta and Tikrit, Harare, Yangon (the one in Myanmar, not the other one), Apia and Florianopolis?

Maybe not much, but the person that does ship something to any of those places sure would like it to get there.