|
WASHINGTON—United Parcel Service Inc. is using its
planned collaboration with Deutsche Post AG’s DHL unit
to snatch customers from DHL, Astar Air Cargo Inc.
alleged Tuesday.
Astar, a
DHL vendor and shipping customer, made the assertion to
a US House panel in written testimony by chief operating
officer Gary Hammes, citing a comment by a UPS
salesperson that DHL service would become “substandard’’
under the new alliance.
“It is
our belief that these sales calls are working,’’ Hammes
testified. DHL volume has decreased “significantly,’’
possibly as much as 40 percent, since the May 28
announcement of a plan to have its US air freight flown
by UPS, Hammes said in his testimony and in an
interview.
Hammes’s
comment opened a new front in the criticism of the
UPS-DHL partnership by groups including labor unions and
lawmakers from Ohio, where Astar and another DHL vendor
operate hubs. The House Transportation and
Infrastructure Committee held a hearing on the effects
of the DHL-UPS plan.
Questions about the future of DHL’s money-losing US
operations have hurt volumes this year, which is why the
company wants to conclude the UPS agreement, DHL Express
chief executive officer John Mullen said in an
interview.
A drop
in volume of as much as 40 percent “is not right,’” said
Mullen, who declined to cite a specific figure. While
individual UPS salesmen may cite the May 28 accord to
try to win business, “I’m absolutely confident it’s not
a sanctioned management directive,’’ he said.
UPS
spokesman Malcolm Berkley called Hammes’s statements
“unsubstantiated’’ and said the world’s largest
package-delivery company isn’t using its planned
collaboration with DHL to compete more vigorously than
usual for customers.
UPS said
on May 28 it was working on a 10-year agreement to take
over US shipments from Astar and Air Transport Services
Group Inc.’s ABX unit, which would bring UPS as much as
$1 billion in annual revenue.
Closely
held Astar is 49-percent owned by DHL. Miami-based Astar
gets 90 percent of its revenue from DHL, and all of its
1,007 employees as of May 28 would lose their jobs
should the UPS-DHL plan be completed, Hammes said in his
testimony.
DHL,
aside from being a vendor, is also a customer of DHL’s
overnight express services and it was in that context
the UPS sales call was made, Hammes said in his
testimony.
Unions
and Ohio lawmakers have said the UPS-DHL alliance would
cut jobs in the town of Wilmington, where Astar and ABX
have hubs. (Bloomberg) |
