FDX/DHL boat race

[oldawg]

Got this from a friend...
[FONT=Default Sans Serif,Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif][FONT=Default Sans Serif,Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif]An American company ( FedEx ) and a European company (DHL) decided to have a canoe race on the Missouri River. Both teams practiced long and hard to reach their peak performance before the race.

On the big day, the American company won by a mile.

The Europeans, very discouraged and depressed, decided to investigate the reason for the crushing defeat. A management team made up of senior management was formed to investigate and recommend appropriate action.

Their conclusion was the FedEx team had 8 people rowing and 1 person steering, while the DHL team had 7 people steering and 2 people rowing.

Feeling a deeper study was in order; DHL management hired a consulting company and paid them a large amount of money for a second opinion.

They advised, of course, that too many people were steering the boat, while not enough people were rowing.

Not sure of how to utilize that information, but wanting to prevent another loss to FedEx, the rowing team's management structure was totally reorganized to 4 steering supervisors, 2 area steering superintendents and 1 assistant superintendent steering manager.

They also implemented a new performance system that would give the 2 people rowing the boat greater incentive to work harder. It was called the 'Rowing Team Quality First Program,' with meetings, dinners and free pens for the rowers. There was discussion of getting new paddles, canoes and other equipment, extra vacation days for practices and bonuses. The pension program was trimmed to "equal the competition" and some of the resultant savings were channeled into morale boosting programs and teamwork posters.

The next year FedEx won by two miles.

Humiliated, the DHL management laid off one rower, halted development of a new canoe, sold all the paddles, and canceled all capital investments for new equipment. The money saved was distributed to the Senior Executives as bonuses.

[FONT=Default Sans Serif,Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif]The next year, try as he might, the lone designated rower was unable to even finish the race (having no paddles) so he was laid off for unacceptable performance, all canoe equipment was sold and the next year's racing team was out-sourced to UPS.

Sadly, the End.[/FONT][/FONT][/FONT]

 

[freighthound]

Now that there is funny! All to true, but still funny!

 

[Secret Squirrel]

But the big question is who wins the race next year? Maybe UPS has too much going on and leaves DHL on the docks because of its own priority rowing contracts.

 

[JohnnyCash]

either way ups still gets paid.

 

[Whistlin' Dan]

But the big question is who wins the race next year? Maybe UPS has too much going on and leaves DHL on the docks because of its own priority rowing contracts.

That might have been true 5 or 10 years ago, but Domestic air shipments are on their way DOWN. I think UPS was anticipating some forthcoming "empty seats on their boat" and was happy to offer them to DHL in exchange for their assistance in penetrating foreign (particularly Asian) markets.

As for how UPS will treat DHL-branded business in a few years when things turn around, who gives a f****g f**k? I know I won't be a part of it, and that's all that matters to me.

 

[ke4lir]

Kinda reminds you of the Craftsman Tools commercial where the rowing teams boat falls apart at the dock.

 

[AV80R]

Now that there is funny! All to true, but still funny!

It's funny and sad at the same time for the sake of ABX and Astar employees...

It's weird though because several months ago my buddy who's at purple heard from someone in their training department that Fedex would soon be doing DHL's flying. He said "it's a done deal! They just haven't announced it yet."

Well, obviously that didn't happen, however Fred is a very aggressive businessman so who knows what'll happen in the end? Remember – so far no contract has been signed between DHL and UPS...

 

[AV8OR]

It's funny and sad at the same time for the sake of ABX and Astar employees...

It's weird though because several months ago my buddy who's at purple heard from someone in their training department that Fedex would soon be doing DHL's flying. He said "it's a done deal! They just haven't announced it yet."

Well, obviously that didn't happen, however Fred is a very aggressive businessman so who knows what'll happen in the end? Remember – so far no contract has been signed between DHL and UPS...

Can I just say, (and this is AV8-O-R, not AV8 zero R talking) how much all of us at AStar wish we could some how be sold/bought buy either UPS or FedEX in such a way that would allow us the high pleasure of helping BURY DHL!!! It's been very difficult investing money time and effort into a company that made stupid mistake after stupid mistake and then blamed US for their problems. We have taken old crappy aircraft, applied professionalism and genuine caring about squeezing the most performance out of them and produced remarkable performance results thinking that in time, the folks at DHL/DP would realize what could happen if they actually invested in us, and instead, they have slit our throats.

My next statement will most likely go nowhere, but in the event that anyone at either FedEX or UPS has ANY ability to copy this and show it to management that can make a difference.....

Normally when you hire a new pilot, you want a motivated individual who will care about getting the job done. He's motivated by professionalism, financial reasons, aircraft to be flown, and career longevity. You hope that these motivations are there for a long time and combined with skills produce a crew member who will give 100% in service to your customer.

AStar is going away after 30 years of dedicated service to an owner who we have worked mightily for in helping achieve success. When we continued to fly old equipment, we operated to the maximum of performance. When faced with the challenges of a horrible integration in ILN, we stepped up the the plate to get the job done under tremendous durress. When DHL's citizenship was challenged in court, many of us wrote congress and the administrative law judge to help defend our company. Yet every year that went by, while their competition at FedEX and UPS invested in infrastructure, DHL would blame their financial losses in the US on the aviation side of the table. They NEVER, not one time, looked themselves in the mirror and asked "What are WE doing wrong?" And now, in a final blow, they are not only leaving the US market, while they are doing it, once again, we the dedicated, high performance, highly efficient workforce flying the aircraft, are the problem that needs to go.

We have had enough beatings from our master. Please, please, please help us bury him. We will bring a love of flying, a knowledge of night freight, all of the motivational attributes listed above and one other....a desire to quite literally help you BURY DHL IN EVERY CORNER OF THE WORLD THAT THEY SERVE.
Not only will we be there to feed our families, and serve our employer, it will be nice to know that every time we push on time, park on time and beat Big Yellow, we have stabbed another dagger into DHL's heart. It's not psychotic, it's simply a desire to finally see justice rendered.

To those at FedEX and UPS that would consider the pilots at AStar: You will not find a more highly motivated, competent professional aviator to help you both grow your business AND bury your competition. Whether you hire us or not....Best of luck to you in that endeavor.

Warm regards..

AV8OR

 

[AV80R]

Yet another disclaimer, we (av80r and av80r) really are two different people! :laugh:



Well, from a brown av80r to a yellow av8or – I’m yet to meet a UPS pilot who isn’t concerned about the Abx and Astar pilots. The conversation usually starts with “so what do you think will happen with this DHL deal?” After the typical – “who knows man, we’ll probably find out all the details from UsaToday anyways…” the next question is always “… but what will happen to all those DHL pilots…? They got some really good guys over there…” Etc, etc. I’m really encouraged to see that our guys show so much concern for pilots at other airlines; I’ve seen quite the opposite behavior at some other places…

Personally, I doubt UPS would ever consider strictly buying out Astar or Abx. They got plenty of TWA, NWA, etc. guys in management who’ve seen how poisonous the atmosphere can turn when you merge two pilot groups and one group feels they were treated unfairly. Hmmm… Then again, maybe that would be a win-win for the manglers?

Personally, I hope we’ll hire our poolies first because I look at them as “our own” already – they’ve been very persistent and very patient so I think calling them first followed by Astar and Abx guys & gals would be the right thing to do. The poolies wouldn’t really be a ‘threat’ to y’all anyways because there aren’t many of them, only ~50 or so.

I agree with you that it’d be a huge gain for brown if we could absorb as many former Abx and Astar pilots (and other employees) as possible. For one, the ‘new jobs’ were previously ‘your jobs’ therefore I think it’d be appropriate to invite y’all first. Most of all, we would be welcoming a very competent and loyal group of pilots into our ranks, guys and gals who’d finally become a ‘part’ of their company and not just a part-owned ‘contracting’ airline. That alone would make them ready to take on any competition out there…

Then again, who cares what av80r or av8or thinks anyways right?

My next statement will most likely go nowhere, but in the event that anyone at either FedEX or UPS has ANY ability to copy this and show it to management that can make a difference.....

Well, I don’t know if it will go “anywhere that really matters” but I did copy and paste your message and sent it to a couple of managers I know… I’m not holding my breath here but maybe they’ll forward it higher up and someone in the HR department will realize the great potential you guys could bring to us…

I, along with all UPS pilots I know, sincerely wish all Abx and Astar pilots & other employees the very best during those challenging times…

 

[FastHap]

UPS and FedEx tried for nearly 25 years to put Airborne Express out of business, but never could quite do it.

It only took DPWN through DHL about 5 years.

 

[EuroWheenie]

Loved the bit about hiring consultants. Was in corporate HQ in Bonn last week, surrounded by oxygen thieving consultants.

Was sent on a "Finance for Decision Makers" course, run by a Dutchman who took no prisoners. My oh my, what nuggets he distributed!

Anyway, on the subject of consultants, guess how much DPWN spent in 2006. 10 million? 100 million? 1 Billion? Nope, 2.450 Billion Euro's! That's fcuking mad!

Not surprisingly, the shareholders went bananas over this, so DPWN promised to reduce the amount spent. Did they succeed? Did they fcuk! In 2007 they managed to spend almost 2.6 Bn! The excuse was that DPWN was having a bit of a spending spree in 2007, buying almost 500 (five hundred) companies around the world. Still, that is a ridiculous amount of money to spend on McKrapsky and Accidentura.

 

[hvydriver]

Loved the bit about hiring consultants. Was in corporate HQ in Bonn last week, surrounded by oxygen thieving consultants.

Was sent on a "Finance for Decision Makers" course, run by a Dutchman who took no prisoners. My oh my, what nuggets he distributed!

Anyway, on the subject of consultants, guess how much DPWN spent in 2006. 10 million? 100 million? 1 Billion? Nope, 2.450 Billion Euro's! That's fcuking mad!

Not surprisingly, the shareholders went bananas over this, so DPWN promised to reduce the amount spent. Did they succeed? Did they fcuk! In 2007 they managed to spend almost 2.6 Bn! The excuse was that DPWN was having a bit of a spending spree in 2007, buying almost 500 (five hundred) companies around the world. Still, that is a ridiculous amount of money to spend on McKrapsky and Accidentura.

I'd expect nothing less from the Postmen. They could have revamped virtually the entire US operation for that kind of money. They deserve all the pain that is coming.

 

[AV8OR]

Loved the bit about hiring consultants. Was in corporate HQ in Bonn last week, surrounded by oxygen thieving consultants.

Was sent on a "Finance for Decision Makers" course, run by a Dutchman who took no prisoners. My oh my, what nuggets he distributed!

Anyway, on the subject of consultants, guess how much DPWN spent in 2006. 10 million? 100 million? 1 Billion? Nope, 2.450 Billion Euro's! That's fcuking mad!

Not surprisingly, the shareholders went bananas over this, so DPWN promised to reduce the amount spent. Did they succeed? Did they fcuk! In 2007 they managed to spend almost 2.6 Bn! The excuse was that DPWN was having a bit of a spending spree in 2007, buying almost 500 (five hundred) companies around the world. Still, that is a ridiculous amount of money to spend on McKrapsky and Accidentura.

That's what happens when you've got a theif and a chemist running a multi-Billion dollar company.

 

[hvydriver]

That's what happens when you've got a theif and a chemist running a multi-Billion dollar company.

Exactly my man. All they did was purchase ABF, then sit back. No integration of sorts, upgrading of anyone's fleet, no investment of any kind at all. Just paying for 2 sort operations for 5 years. (In a way 3, if you count the note they're still carrying on CVG.)There was a carousel of new CEO's almost annually though. And then their excuse for failure in the US is everything that they should have dealt with after the integration. But not to fear, it's not their fault. It's those ratty contract airlines they used. Pathetic. DHL is now the laughing stock of the industry, thanks to DPWN. Am I bitter? No, just disgusted.

 

[EuroWheenie]

Exactly my man. All they did was purchase ABF, then sit back.

That's not exacly right, and you know it. Even if it was, you're looking at the US express market only, which represents less than 10% of DPWN turn-over. As such, the board could be quite right in only allocating 10% of its time and resources to that market.

Far from sitting on their backends, DPWN actually bought 500 companies in 2006/7, and so far this year has bought a further 50-60ish. I know you're hurting guys, and trust me us DHL guys on the far side of the pond don't exactly feel happy that UPS will be doing the flying for us.

But please don't suffer from any grand illusions about the importance of the US Express market from a DPWN point of view.

 

[shooter]

That's not exacly right, and you know it. Even if it was, you're looking at the US express market only, which represents less than 10% of DPWN turn-over. As such, the board could be quite right in only allocating 10% of its time and resources to that market.

Far from sitting on their backends, DPWN actually bought 500 companies in 2006/7, and so far this year has bought a further 50-60ish. I know you're hurting guys, and trust me us DHL guys on the far side of the pond don't exactly feel happy that UPS will be doing the flying for us.

But please don't suffer from any grand illusions about the importance of the US Express market from a DPWN point of view.

WOW, 500 companies in that time frame is absolutely amazing! Too bad within those hundreds of companies they could not find one, just one guy or gal that knew what the F$%& they were doing and not lose the 18% market share Airborne had prior to them getting their grubby little hands on it.

 

[hvydriver]

That's not exacly right, and you know it. Even if it was, you're looking at the US express market only, which represents less than 10% of DPWN turn-over. As such, the board could be quite right in only allocating 10% of its time and resources to that market.

Far from sitting on their backends, DPWN actually bought 500 companies in 2006/7, and so far this year has bought a further 50-60ish. I know you're hurting guys, and trust me us DHL guys on the far side of the pond don't exactly feel happy that UPS will be doing the flying for us.

But please don't suffer from any grand illusions about the importance of the US Express market from a DPWN point of view.

Actually when you are objective about it Euro, that is exactly what they did. No attempt at integration at all. Just let 2 airlines and 2 sorts run day in day out for 5 years. Then act surprised when it costs hundreds of millions to do that. Then blame everyone else for their lack of action, and give the product to their prime competitor. As to DHL not being happy about UPS doing the flying, well no surprise there. UPS is already poaching customers left and right from DHL. It's just beginning. Further, all you have to do is look at DPWN's stock performance to know the shareholders don't approve. Buying companies without doing DD is not "doing something". It's being a fool.

 

[AV8OR]

Actually when you are objective about it Euro, that is exactly what they did. No attempt at integration at all. Just let 2 airlines and 2 sorts run day in day out for 5 years. Then act surprised when it costs hundreds of millions to do that. Then blame everyone else for their lack of action, and give the product to their prime competitor. As to DHL not being happy about UPS doing the flying, well no surprise there. UPS is already poaching customers left and right from DHL. It's just beginning. Further, all you have to do is look at DPWN's stock performance to know the shareholders don't approve. Buying companies without doing DD is not "doing something". It's being a fool.

Exactly heavy. Here's a just a few things DPWN/DHL management has never understood conceptually....

1. Timing - Might want to build a $200 Mill hub during not after the biggest boom economy in the last 50 years.....or...not.

2. Loyalty - Customer, partner, employee..... whatever. Just loyalty to someone other than the highbrow martini crowd of Bonn. DHL/DPWN seems to not have ANY regard whatsoever conceptually of actually honoring anything they say in contracts or otherwise. Too name just a few folks they've backed out on: 3000 loyal DHL drivers, The State of Kentucky, The State of Ohio, The pilots of AStar, the Owners of AStar, Walmart......etc

3. Humility - DHL apparently thought they could buy ABX, (an inferioir product by their own admission than FedUPS) paint it yellow, do NOTHING different and then compete head to head with FedUPS. It was like they thought they could arrive on US soil with flashy adds giving the finger to the competition, paint everything yellow, and the US consumer would simply say, "Thank God you showed up!"

4. Responsibility - Since day one here, I have never, ever, heard anyone at either DHL OR DPWN EVER take responsibility for why they couldn't make a profit in the US. Not once did they EVER talk about why they couldn't SELL THEIR PRODUCT! They only spoke of how non-profitable we were due to expenses. Always. They have invested in modernizing nearly every major DHL fleet in the rest of the 1st world....but never in the US. They didn't want CATII at AStar and then b1tch cause we can't get in. They want fuel savings but then won't pay to refleet. Want to be in a position of having multiple airlines whipsawing each other, but then b1tch about the cost of not consolidating the US airline ops. IT"S NEVER their fault.....always ours.

5. Negotiations - DHL/DPWN never asks politely, ever! They never negotiate a compromise...ever! They simply decide what they want and steamroll anyone who get's in their way. (See 3.) Arrogance in thinking they shouldn't have too....they're DPWN/DHL

6. Money - DPWN thinks that if you throw enough money at something long enough, even if you don't change ANYTHING materially that affects operations positively, it will eventually just organically go "poof", all better! THEN, when it doesn't they just act like it's not their responsibility to manage, teach, innovate, or grow the operations. They remind me of a barrel racing instructor my daughter once had who, didn't know jack about barrel racing, but needed to act like she did because otherwise nobody would use here. Her method of "instructing" her students during a barrel racing lesson was to simply yell, "Go faster!!" without ever telling em how. That's DPWN for ya. Don't ever really change or manage things, shovel the money towards the gaint sucking sound, and then complain that you're losing money and it's their fault.

I could probably go on.....but to sum it up....

DPWN arrogance + incompetence = Colossal Failure

Now go look in the mirror you SOBs!!

 

[penguin22]

2. Loyalty ....(to) the Owners of AStar....etc

Actually Daz already got his big payoff when DHL purchased 49% of his company. The game's over for him, he already won, and he's just waiting to be told to turn off the lights.

 

[AV8OR]

Actually Daz already got his big payoff when DHL purchased 49% of his company. The game's over for him, he already won, and he's just waiting to be told to turn off the lights.

I think you may be 100% correct on that Peng. That's why, when Daz refuses to pay us WHEN he shuts off the lights, and claims DHL hasn't paid him so he can't pay us, there'll be some dandy lawsuits flying demonstrating he's been MORE than compensated to pay for our severance.