DHL Parcel UK, otherwise known as UK Mail which is it’s trading name, is a medium sized UK based courier that specialises in domestic shipping. It is not the largest courier operating in the country, but it is certainly well established, delivering to around 30 million homes every day and employing over 4000 people. The company has shifted and changed a lot since over the years, switching names and enterprises multiple times. UK Mail started as a London taxi firm in the early 1970s and slowly morphed into a much larger company known as Business Post. UK Mail was acquired by DHL in 2016 and became the company we know it as today.
One particularly interesting feature of this courier is their unique “Hybrid Mail” service. This describes a process where DHL Parcel UK take on the responsibility of printing, packing and shipping your bulk letters instead of you dispatching them yourself, thus saving you time and money. All you have to do is upload the documents you want to be posted. Whilst this service cannot be accessed or managed through Shipster, it is an interesting feature of the courier that is rare to find elsewhere.
DHL Parcel UK also offer a variety of digital services which work in tandem with their physical delivery services. For example, they provide a road map on how to make aspects of your company’s operations paperless by involving e-billing, electronic customer information. On their website, they outline one of their main aims as to be constantly adapting to suit the modern consumer.
Enable or disable the days you’d like shipments to be registered as ‘dispatched’ on. This allows orders to be processed up to a week in advance, and means you can pack orders on days when a courier pick up is not scheduled without confusing your customers.
Temporary rules can be written to better suit your shipping needs during busy or quiet periods. Many Shipster users have found this especially useful whilst they are running a sale or promotion.
A post-Brexit feature of Shipster. For international shipments, choose how the cost of import taxes/duties are billed. By default, this cost is usually passed into the receiver, but many of our clients have decide to change this to delivery duties paid (DDP). This is only available for certain couriers who support this feature.
Generate automatic return labels for a variety of couriers. Return labels can be printed as standard 4x6” labels or embedded into an A4 invoice/returns document using your design. These can be printed manually from Shipster or generated based on certain order conditions.
Split heavy or bulky orders into multiple parcels. This can be triggered automatically, or selected by the packer from a pop up window. Multiple labels are printed under one shipment. This is a popular weight management tactic to reduce overspending on shipping.
If one item or total package size is over a certain dimension limit, add rules that send the order on the quickest or most cost-effective service. Alongside this Shipster can also be set up to print the necessary safety and care documentation for handling/ receiving bulky packages.
Shipster can indeed send customs documents such as commercial invoices and CN22s to courier electronically. As well as saving you money on printing costs, many couriers now require it. Whether this feature is available is dependant on if the courier and destination country support it.
You can make changes to your rules whenever you want and as many times as you want. Shipster is designed to be fully customisable and flexible around your various shipping needs. Don’t hesitate to get in touch if you’d like to make any changes to your current DHL Parcel UK/UK Mail integration.
Shipster pulls your order information from your warehouse management system and uses this to create and print shipping labels for your chosen couriers. For example, when an order is processed Shipster would send all the relevant information to DHL Parcel UK and books in a shipment directly with them. The tracking numbers are then pulled from the courier into your warehouse management software. There is also the option to print other shipping documentation through Shipster such as return labels, CN22s and commercial invoices.
Most of our clients use PeopleVox, but we also currently integrate with Linnworks, inventory planner and Shopify to name a few. If your business uses a different system or eCommerce platform, we might be able to cater to your needs as well, so don’t be shy to get in touch.
Yes! Whilst they specialize in delivery within the UK, they are able to offer comprehensive international shipping by using their parent company’s infrastructure, the global courier giant DHL.
One advantage of integrating with DHL Parcel UK is they provide an extensive range of domestic services. Many Shipster users find them great for offering varied and nuanced shipping options to their UK customers. In addition, they have a reliable reputation which they have worked hard to build. For example, they vow to ensure that your parcels are never delayed, even if that means deploying last-minute alternative pick up and shipping if things go wrong.
- Most Shipster clients use multiple couriers including DHL Parcel UK. Almost 60% of our DHL parcel users are fashion businesses.
- One reason for DHL's popularity with the fashion sector is the DHL multiple express services and paperless customer tracking/notifications, as this makes receiving and returning orders easier.
- The combination of other business sectors, health, electronics and misc. demonstrates how DHL courier services are suitable for a broad range of product types.
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