Important Information

Given the significant impacts of COVID-19 on the global aviation industry and in order to help us maintain reliable and high quality delivery services for you and your customers, DHL Express introduced a temporary Emergency Situation Surcharge in 2020.

Since the onset of this global pandemic, DHL teams have been working around the clock, adapting and adjusting the operations of our global network to align with new developments, regulatory requirements and constant changes in capacity and demand.

As market conditions continue to evolve with the ongoing COVID-19 situation in combination with the cost associated with capacity constraints in the global air network during the peak period, the Emergency Situation Surcharge (ESS) will be adjusted effective November 7th, 2021 until February 13th, 2022.

We will update customers before February 13th 2022 about the development of market conditions and the subsequent evolution of the Emergency Situation Surcharge.

Although the ESS surcharge for most lanes will not change, we are making adjustments for specific origin/destination combinations. This adjustment reflects changes in market dynamics and air capacity availability during the peak period, and operational restrictions imposed related to COVID-19 measures from local governments.

The adjustments are summarized below:

• Origins China and Hong Kong to destinations in the Americas region:
  1.00 CHF p/kg to 2.15 CHF p/kg

• Origins China and Hong Kong to destinations in the Europe region:
  1.00 CHF p/kg to 1.35 CHF p/kg

• Origins Europe, Americas and Rest of World to destination Australia and New Zealand:
  0.20 CHF p/kg to 2.15 CHF p/kg

Below, you will find the details for the adjusted ESS per origin and destination combination.

Charge in CHF per KG

DHL Express Emergency Situation Surcharge as of July 1st, 2020

* Hong Kong = Hong Kong and Macau

** Rest of Asia (Asia excluding China and Hong Kong) = Bangladesh, Brunei, Bhutan, Cook Islands, Fiji, Indonesia, India, Japan, Cambodia, Kiribati, South Korea, Laos, Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Maldives, Malaysia, Mongolia, New Caledonia, Nepal, Nauru, Niue, North Korea, Tahiti, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Pakistan, Solomon Islands, Singapore, Thailand, Timor Leste, Tonga, Tuvalu, Taiwan, Vietnam, Vanuatu, Samoa. Australia, and New Zealand as origin only.

***All shipments from Australia/New Zealand/Papua New Guinea to Australia/New Zealand/Papua New Guinea will be charged 0.20 CHF/kg regardless of billing location.

Please note that the ESS is a temporary charge, which allows us to cover part of the operating cost increases and the necessary air network adjustments. We will continue to evaluate and adjust the ESS as market conditions evolve for the duration of this emergency situation.

If you have any questions, please reach out to your local DHL representative.

DHL has been alerted of the unauthorized use of its business name in SMS messages asking receivers to download an application with the extension ‘.apk’. If you receive such SMS, we encourage you to let us know at your earliest convenience by sending a screenshot of the suspicious SMS to CHReportSpam@dhl.com, include the suspicious phone number in the message. After reporting the fraudulent message, please delete it and under no circumstance should you download the application.

View more information on fraud awareness

The Federal Council declared a “state of emergency” due to the Covid-19 pandemic for all of Switzerland. DHL Express services – both Domestic and International – will not be affected by the preventive actions and restrictions in that context as we will continue operating our services.

However, we recommend to please consider in your planning that DHL Express will not be able to perform deliveries to business addresses which are closed during the “state of emergency”. In case of shipments sent to a closed business address, DHL will store International shipments for 30 days and Domestic shipments for 10 days and return them to the sender afterwards.