After Struggling for YearS to gain a foothold in the U.S. delivery market for years, Deutsche Post, parent company of DHL, said Nov. 10 it is shutting down its DHL Express business in the U.S. as of Jan. 30.
DHL Express will discontinue all domestic air and ground services within the U.S., though it will continue to offer international service. It is shutting down all ground hubs and reducing the number of stations from 412 to 102. As a result, DHL is cutting 9,500 jobs.
DHL Express CEO John Mullen said during a conference call that on top of the grim global economy, UPS and FedEx proved to be tougher rivals than DHL expected. “The combination of that strategic weakness in the market, and now the very severe economic losses on top, were just too much to go on supporting,” he said.