When COVID-19 began to expand well beyond the borders of China, economies throughout the world shutdown. But global delivery giant DHL leaned into innovation to make sure it could serve customers who were suddenly stuck at home. Now the company says business is better than ever, with demand exploding in its e-commerce division.
"We're experiencing right now peak season type volume," Mike Parra, CEO of DHL Express Americas, told Cheddar Monday. "As a matter of fact, when we took a look at our forecasting, the volume that we've seen really puts us in a 2022 position."
A vast majority of the shipments are business to consumer, Parra notes, adding that more than three-quarters of deliveries are to residential addresses.
While the pandemic forced the U.S. Postal Service to suspend service to dozens of regions around the world, DHL has been looking for opportunities to fill the void.
"Every day we're getting different news about different opportunities for us," Parra said. "We'll step in there and help those small to medium-sized customers that are looking to go global."
In addition to giving every employee a "Thank You" bonus of about $350 for working through the pandemic, DHL is also creating 2,000 more U.S. jobs.
"We just can't keep up with the demand that we're facing," Parra said, well aware that this stream of business is a good problem to have.
Disney content has gone dark on YouTube TV, leaving subscribers of the Google-owned live streaming platform without access to major networks like ESPN and ABC. That’s because the companies have failed to reach a new licensing deal to keep Disney channels on YouTube TV. Depending on how long it lasts, the dispute could particularly impact coverage of U.S. college football matchups over the weekend — on top of other news and entertainment disruptions that have already arrived. In the meantime, YouTube TV subscribers who want to watch Disney channels could have little choice other than turning to the company’s own platforms, which come with their own price tags.
President Donald Trump said he has decided to lower his combined tariff rates on imports of Chinese goods to 47% after talks with Chinese leader Xi Jinping on curbing fentanyl trafficking.
Universal Music Group and AI platform Udio have settled a copyright lawsuit and will collaborate on a new music creation and streaming platform. The companies announced on Wednesday that they reached a compensatory legal settlement and new licensing agreements. These agreements aim to provide more revenue opportunities for Universal's artists and songwriters. The rise of AI song generation tools like Udio has disrupted the music streaming industry, leading to accusations from record labels. This deal marks the first since Universal and others sued Udio and Suno last year. Financial terms of the settlement weren't disclosed.
