Ship

News

24.09.2025 - Resumption of postal merchandise shipping to the USA and Puerto Rico

Effective immediately, it is possible again to generate labels for shipments to the USA and Puerto Rico using "Ship - Parcel & Goods". Please note that the following adjustments are mandatory:

  • Shipping is only possible with our product "DHL Paket International". Shipping to the USA with the product "Warenpost International" remains unavailable.
  • For shipments with a customs value of up to 800 US dollars or 680 euros, the PDDP service must be booked. Otherwise, customs clearance for these shipments is not possible and the shipments will be returned to the sender. For shipments above this value, booking PDDP is not intended. If the service is nevertheless booked for these shipments, they will also be returned to the sender.
  • For addresses in the USA, the state must always be provided in the address element "Federal State" (when entering the shipment in the Post & DHL Business Customer Portal), "province" (for CSV import, Polling Software, and via the SOAP API), or "state" (via the RESTful API), regardless of the booking channel.
  • In addition to the previously required information for goods items, it is now mandatory to provide the customs tariff number and country of origin for shipments to the USA.
  • All item values and shipping costs for customs purposes must be stated in euros or US dollars. Other currencies are not permitted.
  • Please ensure that all required customs documents are physically attached to the shipment. For each shipment, a commercial invoice or invoice for customs purposes and the CN23 form are required. Depending on the value and type of goods, additional documents may be necessary, such as the Export Accompanying Document (EAD). All documents must be attached to the outside of the package in a shipping pouch.

Further background information can be found on this webpage and in this customer information.

Due to current developments in the USA, shipping of goods will only be possible with DHL Express starting August 26, 2025. All shipments to the USA that are handed over to us after this date will need to be returned to the sender. For technical reasons, the blocking of shipment bookings in the function Ship can only take place on Wednesday, August 27, in the afternoon. We kindly ask you to adjust your ordering and shipping processes accordingly. Further background information can be found in this customer information.

On August 14, 2025, we successfully rolled out a new version of function Ship without any usage restrictions. In addition to general technical optimizations, the display of user groups has been removed from the user interface at the following locations. The use of user groups has no impact on these areas of the "Shipping" function:

  • End of Day times
  • Shipment Archive
  • Templates
    • Shipment Data Export (Overview and Detail Page)
    • Shipment Data Import (Overview and Detail Page)
    • Country Codes (Overview and Detail Page)
    • Product and Service Descriptions (Overview and Detail Page)
    • Address Data Export (Overview and Detail Page)
    • Address Data Import (Overview and Detail Page)
    • Import Templates
  • Address Book:
    • Recipient (Overview and Detail Page)
    • Sender (Overview and Detail Page)
    • Import Addresses
  • Settings:
    • General Settings
    • User Groups (Overview and Detail Page)
    • Customs Item Mapping(Overview and Detail Page)
    • End of Daily Closing
    • Cost Centers (Overview and Detail Page)
    • eBay Profiles (Overview and Detail Page)
    • Cash on Delivery

Please note that the use of user groups is intended to assist you. With them, you can define within your company which users can process shipments and which billing numbers are available to them for shipment entry.

On August 22, 2024, a new version of the "Ship" function was successfully installed.

This is the content of the new version:

  • Completion of the US states including the "military post" and some other territories to enable delivery by the USPS
    • AA - Military Mail America
    • AE - Military Mail Europe
    • AP - Military Mail Pacific
    • AS - American Samoa
    • GU - Guam
    • MP - Northern Mariana Islands
    • PR - Puerto Rico
    • VI - US Virgin Islands

 

The content of the new version also includes bug fixes:

  • Shipment archive
    From now on, the date filter in the shipment archive can be used correctly again.
    • This will display shipments from the current day again in the shipment archive.
    • In addition, shipments from the current day can be exported again using shipment data export. The error had, among other things, led to shipments from the previous day being exported instead of those from the current day.
  • End of Day Closing Lists
    The time on the End of Day Closing Lists is now displayed in 24h format instead of 12h format, i.e. 18.45h and no longer 6.45h (pm).
  • Recipient Reference
    From now on, recipient addresses can be edited again if the recipient references contain special characters, e.g. recipient reference "ABC GmbH & Co.KG".

On August 8, 2024, a new version of the "Ship" function was successfully installed.

These are the contents of the new version:

  • Adress types for produkt DHL Paket Connect removed
    Delivery to foreign Packstations and parcel shops has been completely removed from the "Ship" function. If addresses of Packstations or parcel shops abroad are now used, they are treated like normal street addresses and the DHL Paket International product can be used for these addresses. Previously, these addresses could only be sent using the DHL Paket Connect product.
    This change does not mean that delivery with DHL Paket International to foreign Packstations and parcel shops is actually possible in the relevant countries, but only that these addresses are no longer checked.
    Please make sure that you only send items to addresses to which the state postal service can deliver.
  • Correct shipment weight required
    On all domestic shipments within Germany and on all DHL Paket International shipments, weights over 10kg or over 20kg are now indicated. The new weight symbols are printed above the weight information on the labels.
    Note: To ensure that the labeling requirement for shipments with increased weight is met, the correct weight for shipments must be entered in "Ship", even if you have contractually agreed on a flat rate with DHL Paket that is independent of the weight.
  • Term "shipment number" to name the barcodes
    When using Packstations, the shipment number to be scanned could often not be identified on the package label because the naming of the barcodes was not clear. Therefore, the barcodes are now labeled "Sendungsnummer" or "Shipment Identifier / numéro de l'envoi" instead of the old designation "Identcode/License Plate".

The content of the new version includes a bug fix:

  • Format of Customs identification number
    Spaces, slashes and hyphens can now also be entered in the customs identification number. This is especially necessary for the recipient's tax number for shipments to Brazil.

On May 29, 2024, a new version of the "Ship" function was successfully installed. More areas with the new interface design are available to you in the "Ship" function in the Post & DHL Business Customer Portal.

These are the contents of the new version:

  • New interface design of the two Address Books (Sender and Recipient) and the Assignment of commodity items
    There are no functional changes, only the design is new. New online help is also provided to you in German and English.
  • Adjustment of weight limits and maximum dimensions for Australia
    From now on, a maximum weight of 20 kg applies with a length of 105 cm, width of 60 cm, height of 60 cm and a girth of 200 cm.

On April 4th, 2024, a new version of the "Ship" function was successfully installed.

These are the contents of the new version: goods items

  • Improvements in goods items in the shipment registration
    • Previously, the system set an incorrect decimal separator in the shipment registration mask when entering the weight of a goods item. This pure display error no longer occurs.
    • In addition, all of the goods items that have been stored but were not accessible can now be selected again in the shipment registration mask.

On March 7, 2024, a new version of the "Ship" function and the respective webservices was successfully installed.

These are the contents of the new version:

For shipments to the dutiable receiving country Great Britain, a minimum goods value of £135 / EUR156 must be reached to book the pDDP service. If the value of the goods is less than this amount, users will receive an error message.

On February 22, 2024, a new version of the "Ship" function was successfully installed.

These are the contents of the new version:

  • Europaket
    Shipments to remote areas that are subject to a surcharge are clearly marked as such with a yellow note in the shipment registration mask.
  • Irish addresses
    Irish addresses are now displayed correctly on the label.
    Since full Irish addresses contain too many lines for DHL labels, Name 2 and Name 3 are printed on one line when all data fields are filled.
    Irish addresses are now printed as follows:
    • Name 1
    • Name 2
    • Name 3
    • House number / street
    • Town (address addition 1)
    • City ??state
    • EIR code (zip code)
    • Country
  • Group profiles
    Users now always see all products and services available to the EKP in the templates and in the lists of product and service abbreviations, regardless of restrictions imposed by group profiles.

On January 25, 2024, a new version of the Ship function was successfully installed.

These are the contents of the new version:

  • For DHL Europaket to countries subject to customs duties, the information on the goods items for customs clearance has been expanded for up to 99 possible entries.
  • For international shipments to countries outside of the European Customs Union, you can now enter a Master Reference Number (MRN) with up to 18 characters if required. Dutiable shipments with a high value of goods require an export declaration. The MRN serves as identification number of the export declaration in the processing process.

FAQ

Printing shipping labels

The following errors are due to the same cause:

  • Printing a shipment, no shipping label (as PDF) is displayed.
  • Printing a shipment with an enclosed return, only the PDF for the enclosed return is displayed, but not the shipping label.
  • Printing a shipment with customs documents, only the customs documents are displayed, but not the shipping label
  • Opening of an end-of-day closing list and message that the end-of-day closing list has been printed. No end-of-day closing list is displayed

Problem: Printing

The shipping label can only be printed if the pop-up blocker is disabled, since the shipping label is displayed as a pop-up.Please check in the top right corner of your browser's address bar that you have allowed popups for the entire Post & DHL Business Customer Portal. If you do not explicitly allow the Post & DHL Business Customer Portal to open all popups, your browser may suppress the opening of all PDF documents via the Post & DHL Business Customer Portal or allow a maximum of one PDF document per transaction.

As a result, before printing, you must disable the pop-up blocker for the domain https://geschaeftskunden.dhl.de in the settings of the Internet browser being used.

Problem: Logo

The following requirements must be met in order to print out your logo:

  • The logo must be no more than 0.95 megabytes in size
  • File formats: .png and .jpg

Only once the sender's address has been saved your logo does appear.

You should also be aware that the Java ("programming language in "Shipping") JPG format can only process RGB colour-coded images; with CMYK, a javax.imageio.IIOException occurs: Unsupported Image Type. Workaround: You must save JPEGs directly in the RGB colour scheme or convert them later, e.g. with http://www.cmyk2rgb.com/

You save your logo in the sender's address. To do this, go via the "Address book" navigation point to the "Sender" section and create a new sender's address or save the logo using the "Edit" function in the case of addresses that already exist. After saving your address details, the logo is then printed automatically on the shipping label when the sender's address is selected in the shipment capture process.

  • Possible file format: png. and jpg
  • File dimensions: The logo must measure no more than 20 x 16 mm. If your dimensions are larger than this, they will be automatically scaled to the maximum possible size.
  • File size: maximum 0.95 megabytes

For printing your shipping labels, you can either use regular printer paper (A4) or A5 materials specially provided for the function Ship, which you can order via the "Order" function of the Post & DHL Business Customer Portal. An overview of the labels:

  • A4 for laser printer

A5-Format:

  • Material nr. 910-300-700 (without additional labels) (105 x 205 mm)
  • Material nr. 910-300-700 (with 4 additional labels) (105 x 205 mm)
  • Material nr. 910-300-710 (with 4 additional labels) (105 x 208 mm)
  • Material nr. 910-300-300 (without additional labels) (105 x 148 mm)
  • Material nr. 910-300-300 (with 2 additional labels) (105 x 148 mm)

Other formats/ materials für laser printers:

  • Material nr. 910-300-610 (105 x 208 mm)
  • Label Warenpost (100x70mm)

Special materials for thermal printers:

  • Material nr.  910-300-600 (103 x 199 mm)
  • Material nr. 910-300-610 (103 x 199mm)
  • Material nr. 910-300-400 (103 x 150 mm)
  • Material nr. 910-300-410 (103 x 150mm)
  • Label Warenpost (100x70mm)

Shipping label are valid without any restraints for max. ten days after the date of their inclusion in the "end of day" procedure (booked shipping date).

After that time limit label are still valid, but a shipment sent with such a label can no longer be connected to the electronic shipment data (PAN data), which is created and send to DHL with the end of day procedure.

This leads to a higher price that will be charged to you, namely the maximum price agreed on with DHL Paket.

Shipments can only be canceled via the Post & DHL Business Customer Portal in the "Ship" function if they have not yet been closed for the day. It is therefore not possible to cancel shipments via the Post & DHL Business Customer Portal that are already in the shipment archive of the "Ship" function.
 
In the "Ship" function, go to the "Shipment overview" menu item and there to the "Printed shipments" tab. The table shows you all eligible shipments which you can still cancel. To cancel a shipment in the table view, click on the trash can symbol at the right end of the table row in which the shipment in question is listed. You will receive the green success message "The shipment has been deleted or canceled." Attention: there is no security query, the cancellation will be carried out immediately.
 
If you want to cancel several shipments at the same time, you can first make a selection using the checkmark in the rows on the left and then click "Cancel" for this selection at the bottom left. If you click "Cancel all" at the bottom right, all shipments in the table will be canceled. To cancel an individual shipment from the shipment information view, please click on the "Cancel" button at the bottom left.
 
Canceled shipments will be displayed on a separate tab in the shipment archive as soon as the end of the day closing has taken place.

Products / Services

  • DHL Paket product with the services Additional Insurance, Bulky Goods, Cash on Delivery, GoGreen, Ident-Check, Individual Collection Order, Named person only, No neighbour delivery, Preferred Time, Retail (Parcel) Outlet Routing, Signed for by Recipient and Visual Check of Age
  • DHL Returns (enclosed) product with the services Bulky Goods, GoGreen and Individual Collection Order
  • DHL Paket International product with the services Additional Insurance International, Bulky Goods International, Cash on Delivery (depending on destination), Closest Droppoint (depending on destination), Endorsement, GoGreen and Premium (Doorstep delivery depending on destination)
  • DHL Paket Connect with the services Additional Insurance International, Bulky Goods International (depending on type of delivery), GoGreen and Individual Collection Order
  • DHL Europaket product with the services Additional Insurance International and GoGreen
  • Warenpost International(Merchandise Shipment Internationa) with Premium

In shipment capture, all products and services are available for you to choose from that you have agreed under contract with DHL Paket. All products / services that are not contractually agreed will also not be displayed to you.

In the shipment registration screen, you will only ever see the products that you can actually book for the receiving country. If you cannot see the product you are expecting for a particular country, please contact your DHL sales representative.

If you have agreed the GoGreen service as standard as part of your contract, this will be selected automatically when you select your services. If several billing numbers are available to you, however, this only applies to the billing numbers with the GoGreen billing variant, otherwise you cannot select GoGreen.

As soon as your dimensions have been entered in the bulky goods section in shipment capture, the check mark is automatically set next to the "Bulky goods" service.

Please note that it is no longer possible to cancel the label after the end of the day run. A cancellation can therefore only be made before the end of the day run, since the PAN data have already been sent to DHL after that. All shipments with transmitted PAN data will be invoiced.

Shipment capture

In the shipment registration screen, you will only ever see the billing numbers to which you can post the desired combination of receiving country, product, and service. 

If you still cannot see the expected billing number, please check which user group you are currently using and whether this user group is released for this billing number. The user group "STANDARD_GRUPPENPROFIL" is always released for all billing numbers of your company.

Another reason why an expected billing number is not displayed to you is that you are using a billing number with the billing variant GoGreen or a billing number without the billing variant GoGreen. You can only see these billing numbers if you have selected or deselected GoGreen.

Currently, some foreign address formats are available (e.g. USA, Austria). Other countries will follow at a later point. 

Addresses are automatically checked for routing code compatibility. If the address you have entered cannot be routing coded, the address is highlighted in the address summary with a yellow frame and an exclamation mark. A warning text notifies you that the address cannot be routing coded and that a recoding fee will be charged. You can still print the shipping label out.

The comparison is currently carried out using Datafactory Cargo data.

In the field for the shipment weight the actual weight of the shipment must be specified, even if you have agreed a flat-rate price in your contract.

The actual weight for each parcel with an accuracy of 100 g has to be transferred to DHL.

In "Shipping", you have the option of using diacritical marks.

It is possible to duplicate a shipment from the shipment archive. To do this, go to the "Shipment processing" menu item and select "Shipment archive". From the summary, you can recreate a shipment that has already been completed using the same data via the "Duplicate shipment" function (white package icon with "+").

Unfortunately, it is currently not possible to send consignments to Niger and Somalia (i.e. letters, parcels, Warenpost and parcel consignments) due to the situation in the destination country.

When attempting to enter a shipment for these countries in "Ship", the system displays the following error messages:

  • When uploading via CSV or polling software, the system responds: "File could not be imported after three attempts."
  • The web services return the message "request processing failure"/ "incomplete shipment".
  • In the Post & DHL Business Customer Portal (GUI), "Ship" jumps back to "Germany" from the country "Niger" or "Somalia" in the shipment registration mask.

Goods management and shop systems

DHL enables online retailers quick and convenient shipment processing. With a wide range of established providers of shop systems, marketplaces and e-Commerce tools, it takes just a few clicks to print shipping documents, track shipments, search for Packstations and create return slips.

Click here for a complete list of our partners.

To set up the connection, the following information needs to be stored for all systems:

  • Access data to the Post & DHL Business Customer Portal or to DHL Intraship (often, the software is still called DHL Intraship, however access data to the Post & DHL Business Customer Portal can still be stored).
  • DHL billing number: This is shown in Appendix 1 of the agreement with DHL Paket.
  • DHL products and services used

With some systems, in addition to the storage of the sender's address, the bank details for sending cash on delivery shipments and the shipping costs are also required.

eBay

First, an eBay profile needs to be created. This can be done by the customer administrator under the "Administration" navigation point in the eBay profiles sector.

Once the eBay profile has been created, every user can go to the "Shipment processing" navigation point and then "Import eBay orders" to import all current orders into the shipping system and create shipping labels for them. 

The maximum quantity of an order import is around 200 data records, since otherwise there is a risk of the connection to eBay timing out. An increase of this limit is currently being tested.

You should first check whether you have created an "available eBay profile" under the "Shipment processing" navigation point in the "Import eBay orders" section.

  • If so, select an eBay profile from the drop-down menu and click "Update". If you are still unable to import any data, you should check in eBay whether the configured status of the auctions ("Paid" or "Sold") is available for the eBay profile in eBay. If these statuses are included, you should check in-house whether the auctions have already been imported and either processed as a shipment and not yet completed or have been deleted from the auction summary. Either of these two scenarios will mean that you cannot carry out any further import.
  • If not, then you should ask your administrator to create a profile for use by all users under the "Administration" navigation point in the "eBay profile" section.

When importing eBay data, the recipient's e-mail address is transferred. Telephone numbers are defined by eBay as data subject to data protection legislation. As a result, an import is essentially not possible.

An eBay account can only be configured once. As a result, you should ensure that this eBay profile has not been created already. Your administrator can update this by carrying out an update of the eBay profile under the "Administration" navigation point in the "eBay profile" section or by deleting it and creating it anew.

In the "Administration" section, you can create multiple eBay profiles.

After creating the profiles, you can select them under the "Shipment processing" navigation point in the "eBay orders" section and import the associated orders.

This processing is made easier by creating shipping templates for the respective eBay profiles and associated billing numbers defined for them (under the "Templates" navigation point under "Shipment capture"). You can then use these when importing orders and save yourself from having to enter data multiple times.

Shipment data import

The shipment data import via a csv-file with 1000 lines is possible. Please be aware that the number of data records will be reduced to 999 records if the import file contains a heading in the top line.

Depending on your settings under "Settings - General", your recipient addresses will be stored in the address book or will not.

If bank details are determined through a CSV import or a web service request for a national or international cash on delivery service, this is deleted if the shipment is viewed at a later date in the shipment summary.

Web service

To use the shipping function, the access data to the Post & DHL Business Customer Portal must be entered. The user is then forwarded to "Shipping" in the background of the connection.

The URL becomes invalid as soon as the end of day process has been carried out. These can be carried out manually or automatically every day at 5:45 p.m.

Recommendation: Call up the documents first before carrying out the end of day process manually via the web service.

  • Have you changed the password in the Post & DHL Business Customer Portal? If so, please change it in the web service.
  • If not, have you renewed your password in the last 360 days? If not, have your password for the Post & DHL Business Customer Portal renewed by customer services. Since the password needs to be changed every 360 days for security reasons, you should set yourself a reminder for the next update.

DHL Polling Software

You can install the DHL Polling Software on your personal computer or on a Windows server. The Windows installation wizard is guiding you through the installation process.

After the successful installation you can create configurations with your specific user settings for data import and your local printer in the Polling Software.

Warning: For using the Polling Software you need an EKP (unique customer number of DHL) and a Post & DHL Business Customer Portal user. If your EKP has more users you have to install your own Polling Software for every user. Don't use the configuration for another EKP.

The DHL Polling Software is searching for CSV-/TXT- files in the defined folder on your file system.

Automatic polling mode: Label will be printed automatically on your local printer if the Polling Software finds new files in the predefined folder.

Semi-automatic polling mode: The Polling Software is importing the data from the defined folder to the function "Ship" in the Post & DHL Business Customer Portal. After that you can find those shipments in the shipment overview/summary.

The Polling Software works in the background. That means it doesn't need any input from the user during the process.

Warning: Don't close the application by "task manager" or similar tools. Otherwise the Polling Software isn't working anymore.

Shipment archive

You can view the data for the last six months. If you want to archive your data for longer, you can export the data into a CSV file. To do this, select all of the shipments you are interested in from the summary and click the CSV icon below the list.

Cancelled shipments are only visible in the archive after the end of day process.

End of day process

You can carry out a manual end of day process at any time. To do this, go to the "Shipment overview" navigation point. All of the shipments shown in the "Printed shipments" tab can be completed manually.

If you do not perform a manual end of day process, this will be carried out automatically every day at 5:45 pm.

Provided that you (or a colleague) have the authorization for the navigation item "Settings / End of day times", you can 

  1. individually specify a different time for automatic end of day closing
  2. define or deactivate up to three additional end of day closing times for international shipments.

The time for your end-of-day closing is set to 5:45 pm by default. However, you can specify a different time individually. To do this, select the desired time using the two drop-down menus under "My shipping day ends". Please note that this regular end-of-day closing includes all completed shipments - both your domestic and your international shipments.

In addition, you have the option to define up to three more end-of-day closings specifically for your international shipments. This can be helpful, for example, if electronic customs data needs to be sent on time. By default, the three optional times for your international shipments are preset to 11 am, 2 pm and 10:45 pm. You can also adjust these times to suit your individual needs. To do this, simply select the desired times in the corresponding drop-down menus under the heading " Additional end-of-day closing times (international shipments only)".

If you do not need additional end-of-day closings for your international shipments, you can delete either single or all entries by clicking on the trash can icon to the right of the selected times. However, we recommend that you make use of these additional end-of-day closings. Especially for shipments subject to customs duties, it is essential that the electronic customs data arrive at the customs authorities in the destination country BEFORE the actual shipment.

The end of day process cannot be undone.

Every user can carry out an end of day process in the shipment summary.

Roles and rights

If you cannot see the "Administration" section in the navigation, you should contact the administrator in your company. Alternatively, your DHL contact can assign the role to you in the Post & DHL Business Customer Portal.

You should check whether the billing number has been saved and enabled for the user group you are dealing with:

  • If you cannot see the "Settings/User groups" navigation point, you should contact your administrator. Alternatively, your DHL contact can assign the role to you in the Post & DHL Business Customer Portal.
  • If the billing number is not listed, the request must be made by your DHL sales contact.
  • If the billing number is listed in your user group but not enabled, you can enable it yourself.
  • Another reason why an expected billing number may not be available to you is that you are using a billing number with the GoGreen billing variant or a billing number without the GoGreen billing variant. You can only see these billing numbers if you have selected or deselected GoGreen.

The colleague with administration rights for the GKP in your company can restrict the rights of users to create shipments in "Ship" by setting up "user groups" in the first step and then assigning users to these user groups.

This can make work processes easier if certain company employees are only supposed to create shipments for certain billing numbers.

To create a user group, your GKP admin will see all of your billing numbers. He can choose from:

  • Has all billing numbers of the EKP
  • Only has selected billing numbers

If the second option is chosen, he can then select the billing numbers individually and assign them to the user group.

He then selects which predefined billing numbers the available users should have access to in order to create, edit and complete shipments.

This means that selected users can only create and complete shipments for certain accounting numbers. The user of the respective user group cannot see or complete shipments that run on different billing numbers in the shipment overview.

PLEASE NOTE: User groups are only a working aid when creating shipments and are NOT an authorization concept. The restrictions on group profiles do not apply in the shipment archive and in the address books; all users of your company's EKP can always view all data.

Miscellaneous

There is currently no limit defined for the storage of senders.

For security reasons, access is disabled after 30 minutes of inactivity. If you are active the whole time, a forced logout is effected after 24 hours of activity.

The use of scales and scanners is currently not supported.

For more information, contact our technical support via phone at +49 (0)228 76 36 76 79 (Mon-Fri from 8 am to 6 pm).