You know .... some companies actually die of natural causes. DHL is probably one.

[Stinky The Clown]

DHL is one of the players in the "absolutely, positively has to be there the next day" business.

My little company (four people) used to spend several thousand a year just on Fedex. We produce plans (think architect - we're not, but kinda like them .... anyway ..... ) and lots of pages of stuff that always accompanies such plans. Sometimes we'd have to send out four, six, eight, more copies of everything. That shipping bill by itself could easily be a few hundred bucks.

Fedex invented the genre. UPS (an older company) joined in this high end part of the small parcel delivery business. So did other companies.

Including DHL.

And then along came e-mail.

And Adobe Acrobat.

And ftp sites.

And paperless bidding.

And laptops on job sites in place of paper plans.

And the "absolutely, positively has to be there the next day" business was starting to slow down.

UPS had an older business that was still thriving.

Fedex got into that part of the small package delivery business, too, with Fedex Ground.

DHL didn't. But even if they did, the field was getting crowded for a declining/contracting marketplace.

Then Fedex raced ahead of them all. They bought Kinkos and combined two business.

It is now cheaper and faster, when a client has to have paper, to e-mail everything to the Kinkos nearest him, have them print it all (large scale drawings and the reams of paper that accompanies it) and deliver it to the client by bike or on foot. For clients in big cities, this is actually cheaper than doing it in house and paying delivery. Just send it to the Kinkos nearest the client office and its done.

The business changed.

The "absolutely, positively has to be there the next day" business is substantially less than it was before. And if that was your core business, you're gone.

And that, pretty much, is what happened to DHL.

DOA ...... natural causes.

[yardwork]

1. I hadn't thought of this but of course you are right!

It is now cheaper and faster, when a client has to have paper, to e-mail everything to the Kinkos nearest him, have them print it all (large scale drawings and the reams of paper that accompanies it) and deliver it to the client by bike or on foot. For clients in big cities, this is actually cheaper than doing it in house and paying delivery. Just send it to the Kinkos nearest the client office and its done.

[sandnsea]

2. I thought DHL bought Airborne Express

which I think was created to fill increased need for shipping due to internet buying. Internet buying was supposed to increase exponentially, never a downturn as more and more people went online.

[SoCalDem]

3. and then came people like me whose search criteria starts with

"free shipping no tax" :evilgrin:

[sandnsea]

5. Sure, but shippers don't ship for free

The business owner still has to pay for that. But you knew that. :hi:

[SoCalDem]

6. I know

:P..

I actually sprang for 3 day air charges for something important .last week..and of course it took 5 days because of the "weekend", so I wasted $50.. :silly:

[sandnsea]

7. I did that with my birth certificate

which I had already ordered within the last couple of years for something or other. Can't find it. Needed it to renew my drivers license and of course was just sure I would find it, but didn't. So I paid extra for some kind of expedited shipment, which occurred over whatever holiday that was in October. The stupid part was that they called on Sunday to tell me to I had to be there to sign for the shipment, which I did. Except it was a holiday so it never came. :crazy: Then I had to sit the whole next day and it didn't come until 8:00 that night. UPS is as bad as the cable company in my estimation.

[TomInTib]

4. And USPS can overnight reefer for far less than any of them. nt

[Stinky The Clown]

8. Unless you're the mayor of a small Maryland town and the sheriff shoots your dogs

http://www.boingboing.net/2008/08/07/swat-team-raids-mayo.html

It was later proved that the mayor was completely innocent.

The dogs remain dead.

[TomInTib]

10. Where, in the ever-loving heck of it, do you find this stuff?

I am gonna miss you.

As soon as Boosh is outta here, I will be, too.

Tom

[sendero]

9. As long as it...

.. positively, absolutely might get there overnight is good enough.