Seems like DHL is in big time trouble in the US!
From what I see DPWN basically tried to make DHL profitable by cutting costs, using independent contract drivers and sacrificing customer service, instead of investing to expand the ground network. To further gain market share DHL wooed low margin customers and as reliability faltered even these customers started jumping ship.
Further more, gross mismanagement, for example rushed shifting of the entire DHL sort to Wilmington, coupled with stiff competition from UPS and FedEx as well as lack of ground infrastructure appears to have contributed to DHL’s demise.
Your post now clarifies for me that the flying part (ABEX and ASTAR) are not the culprits of DHL’s problems in the US except for slightly dated equipment.
What you write about rapidly falling volume levels, is to me is an indication that the DHL USA operation is imploding. DPWN is basically pulling the plug on a money losing operation. From what I have read, DHL USA appears to be past the point of no return and the company can be equated to a crumbling house of cards. With rising fuel prices it now makes even more sense for DHL to shift volume to UPS since it is not justifiable to keep flying half empty airplanes in their own system and also pay for a sort. The model they are adapting appears similar to TNT’s relationship with FedEx, where FedEx delivers packages in the US for TNT.
Even if ABEX/ASTAR were to keep flying for DHL, the root cause of DHL’s problems have not been addressed so the question really becomes; is DPWN willing to cough up billions of dollars to start from scratch and build new infrastructure in the US and go toe to toe with UPS and FedEx in an economy that is not firing on all cylinders?
Again, good luck guys!