In future, DHL customers will be able to choose whether their parcels should be transported by car or train. A great bonus at first glance – but does environmentally friendly shipping only have advantages? What you should know about the new DHL shipping option.
DHL has recently offered its customers the option of bringing parcels from A to B in a way that saves CO2 and is therefore more environmentally friendly. The company relies on rail transport for this purpose. A single train can also handle significantly more shipments than a truck – up to 100,000 packages should fit in one delivery. But who can use the new DHL shipping by train and how does it work?
DHL shipping is to become more climate-friendly
According to its own information, DHL transported around 1.8 billion packages in 2021. That’s an enormous number, especially when you consider that the vast majority of them travel by truck. In view of the threat of climate change, the company has therefore been blowing about the sustainability initiative for some time. “Climate change is the central challenge of our time,” says board member Tobias Meyer.
In the course of this initiative, among other things, a large cooperation with Deutsche Bahn is starting. The goal: to significantly increase the share of parcels transported by train, which was previously only 3 percent, and thus save CO2. In addition, in contrast to transport by truck, shipment on Sunday is also possible, since the driving ban for motor vehicles does not apply to trains on this day.
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“Rail Transport” as a shipping option
In the future, users of the “Post & DHL” app will be able to choose for themselves how they want to send their parcels. To do this, you select the appropriate format under “Product selection” as before, enter the recipient and sender and then have the option of selecting “Rail transport” under “Booking option”.
According to DHL, emissions are thus actively reduced by more than 30 percent and, with a maximum delivery time of one day longer, no surcharge is required for more climate-friendly transport. It all sounds good at first, but there is one (or even more) catch.
New feature for DHL shipping is not available to everyone
Firstly, the shipping option by train is only available online. The selection is not yet possible for shipping in the branches. On the other hand, the offer is only valid if there is also a rail connection between the two addresses provided by DHL and DB Cargo. The place of origin and destination must not be too far away from the corresponding train stations.
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In addition, DHL shipping by train only applies to small packages from size M. This is due to the fact that smaller packages have so far been sent via the letter network. It is certainly also exciting to see how smoothly the cooperation with Deutsche Bahn or indirectly with the rail network in this country runs. Anyone who regularly travels by train is certainly aware of the many problems associated with construction sites, sidings and coordination.