Ok, let's straighten out some things about Fed X/RPS and Airborne/DHL.
I worked for the old RPS, ran a 350 mile route through the Mark Twain National Forest in Missouri. Would see several UPS trucks during my jaunt, after inquiring, found that I was running an area that was serviced by different drivers from 3 different terminals.
Fed Ex was around, but was mostly running very small pickup trucks in the rural areas, biggest I ever saw was a cargo van, one time the driver had to bring the line haul truck because of a huge delivery, it was a cube van.
During a contractor roundtable, we were told by a RM that Roadway Services had plans to merge Roadway Global Air and RPS. That never came to fruition as RGA got shuttered and what was left of it was supposedly sold to BAX Global or whatever they were called during that time.
According to "Thinking Outside the Box", the story of RPS; Fred had called Ivan about a merger before the UPS strike actually happened. Nothing ever came of it. My personal opinion was if UPS had not gone out on strike, Fed X would have never bought Caliber Systems (Roadway Services less Roadway Express).
Now moving on to DHL and Airborne. After leaving RPS in 99, I went to work for an Airborne Express contracted cartage company. I have never seen such a badly run operation in the time I have been in the delivery business. Even when I ran with the small freight line out of St. Louis, we were better organized and more professional than those cartage companies.
The drivers did not have much professionalism, I could easily run circles around any driver they had. I used to deliver my first and most heavy town, and take flexes for other drivers on my way out the door, and I was still at my house by 11 am, for lunch and a 2 hour break; before I moved on to the second town, and into another state for pickups.
DHL was around then, mostly in the larger cities. They ran white vans and trucks with red lettering. I think they used local air freight companies to pick up their shipments in towns that they did not service regularly.
In conclusion, it looks like the "Three Musketeers" now, but don't let that fool you. There could very well be plans in the works for another company, as there are regional parcel companies covering the population centers. Sure, APX Logistics (American Package Express-a DSD shipper-like Fed EX Smart Post) bit the dust, but every time someone goes down, someone else comes along.
ups should of bought out dhl when they merged with airborne.they could of made it an int'land air div.they would only be concerned about fedx and postoffice.
it's sad fedx is out that early.
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