DHL wins The Great Package Race of 2007, not FedEx or UPS

Posted May 2nd 2007 4:51PM by Kevin Shult
Filed under: International Markets, Industry, Consumer Experience, Competitive Strategy, FedEx Corp (FDX), United Parcel'B' (UPS)

In my Battle of the Brands: UPS vs. FedEx, many people commented on how one company handled remote locations better than the other. If you think Avoca, Minnesota is a "remote location" check out this study.

Each year, students at the Supply Chain & Logistics Institute at Georgia Tech in Atlanta, GA send packages to locations around the world through different parcel carriers and observe the results. This year, the students chose United Parcel Service (NYSE: UPS), FedEx Corp (NYSE: FDX) and Deutsche Post's DHL to deliver five packages to five of the most remote locations on globe:

Apia, the only city on Upulu, one of the islands of Samoa. Upulu lacks something important for parcel carriers - street addresses.

Florianopolis, an island off the Brazil near Uraguay, which is considered a "remote area" by carriers.

Harare, the capital of Zimbabwe, which is now in a state of political unrest.

Tikrit, the birthplace of Saddam Hussain in war-torn Iraq.

Yangon, which was the capital of Myanmar until recently and formerly known as Rangoon, Burma. Myanmar is one of the most isolated countries in the world.

While the race is not over, the Institute has already declared DHL the winner over both FedEx and UPS. Deutsche Post's DHL delivered three of the five packages first and came in second place for the remaining two in a matter of seven days. As of seventeen days, April 30th, FedEx delivered three of five packages and UPS had delivered two.

Some funny observations from the team:

The phone representative at UPS said that Samoa was not a country.

The FedEx package to Harare, while fully prepaid, was held for reasons unknown. When the correspondent attempted to pick up the package it could not be found.

The package to Tikrit was delivered by both FedEx and DHL, but UPS's package was diverted to Dubai and returned.

DHL was able to tell the team the final costs upon deliver. FedEx was able to provide some costs but not all. UPS said the team would have to wait for the credit card bill.

Check out the details of the race for yourself here.

Tags: delivery, DHL, fdx, fed ex, fedex, parcel, transportation, trucking, united parcel, UnitedParcel, ups

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Reader Comments (Page 2 of 2)

7-15-2007 @ 9:12AM

Harry Lee said...

Maybe the terrible service and lower shipping cost with DHL can be directly related to the horrible wages paid to their employees. At least 8.00 per hour less than your average top of range FEDEX driver and around half what a UPS driver makes. Hard to imagine the disparity in the third world countires that this test shipped to. It wouldn't suprise me to find out that the ultimate delivery person did so at threat of execution. And before the tirade about FEDEX And UPS drivers making too much money, you need to check out the turnover ratio for drivers at DHL. Its unbeleivable. They can keep cost down for sure, but will never be able to compete with the the big two until they can keep experienced employees on the road. "You get what you pay for" is right.

21 year FexEX employee

7-30-2007 @ 7:51PM

Vivian said...

DHL is a joker. We have package support to delivery at July 20. 2007 by DHL next day air. Today is July 30. We have not seen the package yet and the DHL tracking system indicate the package is in the DHL center waiting for pick up. I called them and found out that no body knows where is the package. I will not use DHL for all cost.

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