DHL are raising their prices for business customers as of the 1st of September 2019, citing investment and better service as well as ongoing transportation costs as the reason. At the same time, they are splitting out parcel surcharges.
In March, DHL announced annual investments of 4150 million for personnel, further automation and the expansion of their postal and parcel infrastructure. These investments which DHL say will benefit customers by improving quality and performance, especially as volumes in the parcels market continue to grow, have to be paid for.
DHL added that with the price increase, they are also responding to the generally significant increase in transport and personnel costs in order to ensure the high quality of service for customers in the future as well.
“In order to reliably process the increasing parcel volumes, we are continuously investing in the expansion and modernization of our parcel network. In July 2019, we also transferred around 13,000 employees from subsidiaries to the company’s collective agreement, thereby further improving working conditions and fair wage structures.”
– Ole Nordhoff, Chief Marketing Officer Post & Parcel Germany, Deutsche Post DHL Group
DHL introduce parcel surcharges
With the price adjustment, DHL say that they also responding to the wish of many customers to disclose external influences, such as government charges, on transport costs in the course of the expansion of the truck toll on federal roads to mid-2018 and the increase in toll rates in January 2019. For the sake of transparency, the company will therefore report the toll parcel surcharges of €0.10 euros per parcel separately from the parcel price as of the 1st of September 2019.
A less kind view might be to consider these parcel surcharges a stealth price rise, giving DHL the ability to hike surcharges in the future outside of their general price increase, just as many couriers already do with fuel surcharges.
DHL Freight have already announced a Christmas Courier Surcharge running for the whole peak season from September to December, so it looks like add on costs will be the norm for the carrier.
DHL Paket prices to rise later in the year
As in the previous year, DHL Paket will adjust the prices for customers with individually agreed prices at a later date.
One Response
just had this through….
Dear customer,
It was reported in the trade media this week that DHL Parcel is planning to increase prices for business customers in September. These articles refer to price increases in the German parcel business of DPDHL only, and not the DHL Parcel UK business.
I would like to assure you that DHL Parcel UK do not have any planned general price increases for the remainder of 2019. Apologies for any confusion caused.
Yours faithfully,
Peter Fuller,
CEO DHL Parcel UK