Officially taking over as Deutsche Post CEO, former mail and logistics chief Frank Appel, 46, pledged to seek a resolution "with urgency" for the company's troubled U.S. operations, Cargonews Asia reported March 19.

Deutsche Post's supervisory board also extended by two years the contract of CFO John Allan, the report said.

Deutsche Post has lost nearly a billion dollars on its U.S. operations, centered around its acquisition in 2005 of Airborne Express.

The German mail carrier, Europe's largest, recently announced it was separating its logistics business into two units - a supply chain division and a freight and freight forwarding division. Each posted 2007 revenue of roughly $20 billion.

The company was also rocked in January by the arrest of CEO Klaus Zumwinkel on suspicions of tax fraud. He resigned and was released.

William Hoffman
Traffic World