From end-January 2009, DHL's US Express business will focus entirely on its international services, and will discontinue its domestic-only air and ground services.
According to DHL Express global CEO John Mullen, this is the right move for DHL's US Express operations given the current economic climate and for the long run.
In order to meet its financial goals, DHL US Express will close its US ground hubs and reduce the number of stations from 412 to 103.
This will result in another 9,500 redundancies, on top of the approximately 5,400 jobs already reduced since January.
These measures will allow DHL's US Express business to cut its operating costs by more than 80%, from $5.4 billion to less than $1 billion.
The company will retain 3,000 to 4,000 US Express employees, and will maintain its international express service in the US at today's levels.
The US will remain an integral part of DHL's global network, with all international shipments to and from the US being delivered and 99% being picked up.
Mullen points out that DHL remains committed to the US express market.
"A continued US presence is essential to our entire global Express network.," Mullen says.
"Close to half of our top 200 customers are based in the US, and US trade lanes make up close to half of our global volume, and half of our global shipments touch the US."
"We are here to stay.These measures will not affect services offered by other DHL / DPWN businesses in the US."
Global Forwarding, Freight, Supply Chain, Customer Information Services (CIS) and DHL Global Mail will continue to conduct their US operations with more than 25,000 employees across the country.
Source: Eyefor Transport