Help with the drop-off location

The drop-off location (or preferred or filing location) is a free service from DHL Paket. It allows you to have your home-addressed shipments delivered to a location of your choice, even when you’re not at home.

How it works:

Simply specify a drop-off location in your DHL customer account under My Data and Services.

Once you’ve provided a drop-off location, we will leave your parcel there during delivery.

You can also choose to have parcels delivered to the drop-off location only when you’re not at home.

Your drop-off location must be dry, easily accessible, and not visible to third parties. If these criteria are not met, the delivery driver will try to leave your shipment with a neighbor or at the nearest DHL location.

By the way: If you’ve scheduled a pickup, we can also collect your shipment from the drop-off location.

Once you have provided us with a drop-off location, we will leave your shipments there directly during delivery without ringing. You will be notified in the app and by email.

However, if you only want your shipments to be delivered to the drop-off location when you are not at home, you can let us know by checking the box in your DHL customer account that says: "The delivery driver should ring before delivery."

Drop-off location

A drop-off location is a place on your property that you have chosen. This can be, for example, a tool shed, a garage or an unlocked room.

It should always be

• dry,

• freely accessible and

• not be visible to third parties.

If your selected preferred location does not meet these criteria, we unfortunately cannot deliver parcels to this location and your filing location will be deactivated.

In this case you can simply specify a new filing location that meets the criteria in your DHL customer account under My Data & Services. 

As soon as a shipment is dropped off at your drop-off location, the deliverer will leave a notification card in your mailbox.

If the sender provided us with your e-mail address, you will only receive an e-mail notification.

If you have activated the Digital Delivery Notification service under My Data & Services in your DHL customer account, you will only receive an e-mail notification for each of your shipments.

Possible reasons for this are:

• The criteria for a drop-off location were not met.
• The shipment is still on its way - please check the tracking information.

That doesn’t apply? Then please contact us.

Your shipment can only be delivered to a drop-off location if it is located on your property and is freely and safely accessible for our delivery staff.

If these criteria are not met, the shipment will be delivered to a neighbor or taken to a branch or Packstation.

To prevent future shipments from being left at this unsuitable location, your drop-off location will unfortunately need to be deactivated.

If there is a location on your property that meets the criteria, you can simply add a new filing location to your DHL customer account.

If you moved to another place and your home address has changed, simply update the address in your DHL customer account under My Data and Services.

In the course of this, you can also update your drop-off location.

As soon as you have selected the services in My Data & Services and the drop-off location was proven suitable by the delivery agent, this location will be activated in our systems. This usually takes place within 24 hours.

Permanent preferred location:
As a registered DHL customer, you can define a permanent preferred location in your DHL customer account under My Data and Services.

If we do not find you at home for upcoming shipments, we will place your parcel in your drop-off location.

Single preferred location:
If you only want to store your parcel in a filing location once, simply select a single filing location in your parcel announcement, in the DHL shipment tracking or in the Post & DHL app.

The shipment will then be placed in the specified location when you are absent. However, this filing location does not apply to your forthcoming shipments.

Please update your filing location under My Data & Services and consider the necessary criteria:

A filing location is a place on your property that you have chosen. This can be a tool shed, a garage or an unlocked room - it should always be dry, freely accessible and not visible to third parties.

Almost all shipments from DHL parcel can be delivered to your drop-off location.

Exceptions are: parcels with the Age Verification or Identity Check service as well as shipments sent by DHL Express or DHL Courier cannot be delivered to a filing location.

You can also use the preferred location defined in your DHL customer account for up to four other people living in your household. Simply enter the first and last names of the respective people in the designated input field in your DHL customer account.

Please obtain the consent of these persons in advance.

Of course, adult family members can also register separately for the DHL customer account to benefit from all services and advantages.

As soon as you have been added to a customer account as a co-user, you will receive a written confirmation from us. As usual, you can object to this registration by contacting our customer service, via contact form or by phone.

If one of your co-users has been deactivated, this can have several reasons.

• Your co-user no longer lives in your household

• Your co-user has his own DHL customer account

• Your co-user has objected to the shared usage.

Please update the list of your co-users and remove the respective person from your customer account.

If you have been added as a co-user for a preferred location and neighbour, you will receive a written confirmation to your home address.

Yes, minors who live in your household can also be registered as co-users.

Your DHL customer account and the listed services, except for the filing location and neighbours, are personalized and therefore not valid for all family members. In order to enjoy all benefits of the DHL account, your family members must register individually for the DHL customer account and select their preferred services under My Data & Services.