At a glance
Volume-weighted average cost per consignment for the period across all Deutsche Post / DHL Paket services. Reads the all-in EUR figure DHL billed per consignment: base service rate, fuel surcharge (Treibstoffzuschlag), oversize / dimensional surcharge (Sperrgut), remote-area surcharge (Inselzuschlag for the North Sea and Baltic islands) and contracted-rate adjustments, net of VAT (MwSt). The dial moves on three levers: product mix (more Paket versus Packchen), monthly Treibstoffzuschlag changes, and weight or dimensional creep.
Calculation
Calculated automatically from your Deutsche Post billing and booking data. The connector sums the all-in cost across every outbound consignment in the window and divides by the consignment count, weighting naturally by volume so high-frequency products dominate the figure. Two cost sources feed the average. For consignments whose DHL invoice has closed (typically 5 to 10 days after booking), the card uses the invoiced amount, which captures post-booking adjustments such as weight re-measure and dimensional re-rate. For the most recent days, where invoices have not yet settled, the card uses the booking-quoted amount. This means the trailing few days can move slightly as invoices close; the bulk of a 30-day window is invoiced and stable. The dial collapses base rate and every surcharge into one number. To separate them, use Cost Per Shipment Trend for the time-series component split or Cost by Zone for the lane split. Persistent surcharge growth with no product-mix change is almost always weight or dimensional creep.Worked example
A Dusseldorf-based DTC homeware merchant, around 6,400 parcels per week, mostly DHL Paket (Inland) with a small premium Sunday-delivery line. Reading taken at 09:00 CET on 12 Mar 26 for the trailing 30 days (10 Feb 26 to 11 Mar 26).
The dial reads EUR 4.86 at +2.4 percent vs the prior 30 days; the warn at
+10% vsP is well clear. Five things to notice:
- Treibstoffzuschlag is the usual reason for small monthly moves. DHL updates the fuel surcharge on the first of each month; recent diesel volatility produces 1 to 3 percentage-point swings. Check the published DHL Treibstoffzuschlag rate before assuming the move is yours.
- Paket Pro Sunday is flat because the contract is annual. Negotiated Vertragskunden rates do not move with the monthly fuel surcharge; they reset at contract renewal. A flat vsP is expected, and any movement here signals the contract terms changed.
- Packchen is structurally cheaper than Paket and the gap matters. EUR 3.45 versus EUR 4.89 is 30 percent cheaper. Every 10 percent of volume that shifts from Paket to Packchen pulls the dial down by roughly EUR 0.10. Defaulting Packchen for letterbox-friendly small items in checkout copy is the single biggest lever here.
- Read it as EUR, not as a peer carrier’s currency. A merchant comparing this to a Nordic carrier quoting in NOK or DKK will misread the relative cost. At roughly 1 EUR to 11.5 NOK in early 2026, EUR 4.86 is about NOK 56 per parcel, so Deutsche Post is materially cheaper than a typical Nordic residential rate.
- The trend is the actionable read, not the level. Whether EUR 4.86 is “good” depends on lane mix; for domestic German Paket it sits at the competitive low end. Compare against the prior period and against the alternative carrier you could be using, not against an absolute target.