Opinion Only “DHL”
The Post is ashamed of its name – and apparently of Germany as a location
Status: 21.06.2023 | Reading time: 3 minutes
By Jan Dams
Head of Department Economics, Finance, Real Estate
World author Jan Dams would not be surprised if the group soon turns its back on its headquarters in Bonn
Source: picture alliance/Snowfield Photography; Verena Bruning
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New boss, new name. Deutsche Post DHL changes its name and removes “Deutsche Post” from its name. There may be reasons for this from a corporate point of view. For politicians, on the other hand, it is a clear warning that Germany is becoming increasingly weak as a business location.
It almost got lost in this week’s general news stream: Deutsche Post DHL Group is changing its name. It removes the words Deutsche and Post from its name and will in future only be called DHL.
It sounds nicer, so crisp and short. And somehow still really German. Although one has to guess what DHL could stand for: German high-speed logistics? Maybe also: Do you have delivery problems?
It’s not that complicated: DHL doesn’t really pronounce the original German “DeHaEll” – which would somehow be uncool – but “DieEhtschEll” and stands for Dalsey, Hillblom and Lynn. These are the surnames of the men who founded the San Francisco parcel service in 1969, which the Post Office later bought.
More about Deutsche Post
The official justification of the new CEO Tobias Meyer for the name change: 90 percent of the group’s sales came from businesses under the umbrella of the DHL brand, which is also quite international.
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As a German postal customer, you had that impression for a long time. The letters have been arriving later and later, but often in thick bundles. Which, after the renaming, seems to confirm the suspicion that Dalsey, Hillblom and Lynn (DHL) is delivering the mail via the Berlin-San Francisco-Berlin airlift.
Or another idea: does the new boss with the new name want to make people forget internationally that it is his company that is delivering letters less and less reliably in its home market and yet regularly increases postage prices?
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“220,000 jobs at risk”
It’s a fool’s play that a company that is more than 20 percent owned by German taxpayers is trying to erase the reference to it from its company name. A company that is still negotiating parts of its business with local politicians no longer finds the reference to it up-to-date.
It’s ashamed, you could say. Perhaps two years later it is also ashamed of Bonn as a location? San Francisco sounds so much more international. From a management point of view, that would of course be nicer, by the sea, and certainly more lucrative financially.
And as we all know, a good environment always has a positive effect on work performance. Surely the post would come back on time? And would the courier really bring the delivery to me and not to the “neighbor” who lives a mile and a half away?
The name change should give politicians food for thought
But seriously: This decision by the letter and parcel company should give German politicians food for thought. If even Deutsche Post, a veteran of the local corporate world, is ashamed of it, something is wrong with the location.
Then Germany no longer stands for high-tech, German engineering and reliability, but for “You have delivery problems”. Because energy prices are high. Because bureaucracy stifles entrepreneurship. Because here, viewed as a whole, very little is progressing quickly.
In this respect, DHL should also mean for the federal government: The homework is left behind. And that should be done soon, so that BASF doesn’t change its name in the near future, for example to The Chemical Brothers.
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In order to display embedded content, your revocable consent to the transmission and processing of personal data is required, since the providers of the embedded content as third-party providers require this consent [In diesem Zusammenhang können auch Nutzungsprofile (u.a. auf Basis von Cookie-IDs) gebildet und angereichert werden, auch außerhalb des EWR]. By setting the switch to “on”, you agree to this (which can be revoked at any time). This also includes your consent to the transfer of certain personal data to third countries, including the USA, in accordance with Art. 49 (1) (a) GDPR. You can find more information about this. You can withdraw your consent at any time via the switch and via privacy at the bottom of the page.
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