Starting January 1st, 2025 the amended German Postal Act (Section 73 PostG) contains legal requirements that will impact parcel service providers and customers who transport heavy weight shipments.
DHL and their customers will be required to ensure correct shipment weight information on piece level and clearly mark domestic and international shipments with an increased weight in order to comply with all occupational health and safety regulations for our employees and service partners.
If you are using shipping tools listed below, DHL Express will take care of adding the correct weight icons to the shipping label.
- MyDHL+
- MyDHL API
- DCGFW (Edi2Label)
- ELP
- GLS Offline
- ShipNow/eMobile
- POS solutions
Results of incorrect/ no labeling
- Additional costs and efforts for DHL due to inspection and re-labeling
- Possible delays in the delivery time of parcels with increased weight due to the need for post-processing to ensure correct labeling
How can I avoid delays?
- Please ensure that the correct weight information is provided for the shipments on piece level
- Attach labels with correct marking to the shipments
If you have a question about shipping heavy packages, please get in touch with your DHL contact person.
FAQ
A1: All domestic and international shipments with destination Germany are affected and require weight icon indications on individual piece level (no transit, in facility or pickup handling affected yet)
A2: For shipments with a weight exceeding 10 kg or 20 kg, the appropriate icon must be applied to ensure recognition by us for delivery. There is no allowance for weight variance.
A3: These icons are not provided by the German government. The law states that there need to be two different clear weight indications that couriers can see at first sight. The provided icons are aligned within Post & Parcel at the DHL Group level.