Distribution Business Articles

Corporate restructuring is seldom a god thing for the hard working folks on the front-line, and in this case about 200 of those hard working folks are going to be terminated in the next 60 days. The actual restructuring of DHL's United States operations was announced earlier this summer (May 28th), so needless to say there have been a lot of sleepless nights for ABX employees since then. Apparently, these first batch of cuts are due in part to the retirement of 23 DC-9 cargo planes this year, with the rest of the planes retired sometime in the next calender year. DHL has also announced that after this first round of terminations, additional cuts will be made following the retirement of more planes. Terminated employees have been granted a number of severance options such as continued welfare and health benefits. John Graber, ABX's President said, "We saw this coming when we heard the news from DHL on May 28th." In addition to President Graber's forsight, Frank Appel, CEO of DHL's parent company Deutsche Post claims that the decision is irreversible due to the need to reduce nearly $1 billion in annual DHL losses in the package delivery business. Although the agreement has been reached, it will be interesting to see what kind of taste this leaves in consumers mouths, if any.