Simple and transparent - everything you need to know about our surcharges for business customers can be found here

The costs entailed in the provision of our services is increasingly determined by external factors over which we have almost no control. In addition, extraordinary investments are also required to accommodate the high parcel volumes we experience during the Christmas season in particular, and these costs must be allocated on the basis of their causes. To improve transparency, we list these costs separately as surcharges on the base price. Key information on this topic can be found here on this page.

  • Toll and CO2 surcharge

    The toll and CO2 surcharge currently consists of the following statutory duties:

    • The distance-based fee for the use of heavy commercial vehicles on federal highways in Germany ("toll")
    • The CO2-based levy for the average emissions per parcel (according to independently certified methods) resulting from the consumption of fossil fuels during parcel transport

    The toll and CO2 surcharge is currently 19 cents per shipment.

    The surcharge applies to the following products: 

    • DHL Paket
    • DHL Paket production-based billing
    • DHL Paket International
    • DHL Europaket
    • DHL Retoure/DHL Retoure Online
    • DHL Retoure International

  • Energy surcharge

    The cost of energy is highly volatile. The energy surcharge reflects fluctuations in energy prices (diesel, gas and electricity) and is based on publicly available, independently ascertained price indices. It is calculated as a percentage of the base price for the following products:

    • DHL Paket
    • DHL Paket production-based billing
    • DHL Retoure/DHL Retoure Online
    • DHL Kleinpaket

    Additional information, including the current amount of the energy surcharge, can be found here:

    Additional information

  • Peak season surcharge & Peak-in-Peak-surcharge (as of November 24, 2025)

    The provision of much higher capacities around Christmas not only requires investments in our infrastructure in general but is also associated with enormous personnel costs. Added to this are increased costs for additional transport capacity at short notice. As a result, we will be charging a peak season surcharge of currently 19 cents per shipment in November and December.

    During certain weeks - the peak times of the year - our network is particularly heavily loaded due to disproportionately increasing shipment volumes. This requires additional cost-intensive measures. Therefore, we levy the peak-in-peak surcharge during the period with the highest shipment volumes - usually during Black Friday and Cyber Week each year. The period is announced by July 1 each year. This surcharge will be applied independently of any additional surcharges (especially the peak surcharge).

    The peak-in-peak surcharge is currently 50 cents per shipment.

    In 2025, the surcharge will apply from November 24 to December 7, 2025.

    Both surcharges apply to the following products:

    • DHL Paket
    • DHL Paket production-based billing
    • DHL Paket International
    • DHL Europaket
    • DHL Retoure/DHL Retoure Online
    • DHL Retoure International
    • DHL Kleinpaket
    • Warenpost International