DHL Express today announced rates increases from January 2018 for most markets in Europe, Asia Pacific and parts of the Americas, with a global average rise of 4.5% and local increases ranging from 2.9% to 10%.
The increases, which were announced on a country-by-country basis, generally refer to lighter conveyable shipments up to 70kgs (or 300kgs in some countries). There are higher rises for heavier non-conveyable shipments which require additional manual handling.
A DHL Express spokesperson told CEP-Research that the global average rise was 4.5%, excluding several important markets to be announced later this year.
In Europe, there is a 3.9% average increase across EU markets and a 4.9% rise for non-EU markets.
Among major European markets, DHL Express prices will go up by 4.9% on average in the UK, France and Poland, by 3.9% in Spain, Netherlands, Belgium and Sweden, and by 2.9% in Switzerland. A high 10% increase in Russia is partly due to currency exchange rate effects.
However, no average increases have been announced for Germany or Italy. Instead, DHL Express will negotiate individual agreements with customers in these two countries, the spokesperson explained.
In Asia Pacific, DHL Express rates will go up by 5.1% on average. There will be an average increase of 6.9% in India, Malaysia and Vietnam. Rates in China, Hong Kong, Korea, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia and the UAE will increase by 4.9% on average. Japan will see a lower rise of 3.1%.
The higher increases for heavyweight shipments vary considerably by weight and market. Shipments over 70 kgs will go up by 5% to 15% in Thailand, by 7.5% in Japan and by 10% in Australia. Shipments weighing over 300 kgs will increase by 9.9% in India, 10% in Indonesia and 18% in Malaysia.
In Latin America, the average increase will be about 5%, including 5% in Colombia and 5.5% in Chile. However, changes for the two largest markets in the region, Brazil and Mexico, will be announced later in the year.
Similarly, DHL Express will announce its new rates for the USA and Canada at a later date. Traditionally, the company has tended to follow market leaders FedEx and UPS in North America. FedEx Express announced earlier this week that it will put up shipping rates by an average of 4.9% for US domestic, US export and US import services as of January 1, 2018. UPS has not yet announced its rates changes for next year.
Commenting on DHL’s pricing changes, CEO Ken Allen said: “The DHL Express customer promise is that we will provide the very highest levels of service quality for their international time definite shipments and their business… Our annual price increase ensures that we can make the investments needed to meet our customers’ expectations and to continue to make them successful over the long-term.”
He pointed out: “Over the last year, we have added new hubs with automated sorting capabilities to our international network and further strengthened our security measures in order to meet the requirements of our customers, partners and transport authorities. We have announced further investments in modernizing our aviation fleet, introducing more green vehicles for inner city delivery and enhancing our ground infrastructure around the world. We have also deployed new solutions – such as On Demand Delivery and Parcel Lockers – to make the delivery process even more convenient for retailers and their customers in the dynamically growing e-commerce segment.”
DHL Express noted that it adjusts its prices annually, taking into account inflation, currency dynamics and other rising costs, such as expenses related to compliance with enhanced security regulations, in each of the more than 220 countries and territories that it serves. Price adjustments will vary from country to country, depending on local conditions, and will apply to all customers where contracts allow.
