DHL hikes parcel rates in peak season

For the past three years, DHL has been charging German online retailers a surcharge for parcel deliveries in November and December. This year, an additional hefty fee will be added during two peak weeks. It could lead German online stores to focus more heavily on Singles Day.

The discount day imported from China traditionally falls on November 11, which is outside the period during which DHL will apply its new highest rate in Germany. The market leader, which recently signed a pact with Temu, will charge an extra 0.50 euros for shipments during the two weeks with the highest volumes in the run-up to Christmas. This year, that period runs from Monday, November 24 through Sunday, December 7 – also known as Black Week and Cyber Week, due to Black Friday and Cyber Monday falling within those dates.

On top of existing surcharge

DHL’s decision highlights how popular the originally American discount season has become in Germany. Thanks to the deep discounts, consumers place more orders during this period than in the weeks closer to Christmas. The new surcharge comes on top of a 0.19 euros fee DHL introduced in 2022 for the entire months of November and December.

Webshops pay 69 cents more in total

Altogether, online stores are now paying 0.69 euros more per shipment during the peak weeks than in the first ten months of the year. This may prompt online retailers to try to get shoppers to place their orders either earlier or later than Black Week and Cyber Week – for example, on Singles Day, which is a Chinese rather than an American phenomenon.

Costly additional measures

Spreading out demand makes it easier for DHL to maintain delivery quality. “The surcharge is necessary because during this period we expand the capacity of our network through very costly additional measures to ensure we have the resources needed to process the large volume of shipments”, the company said in a statement to Onlinehändler-News.