DHL Express Importer Setup Guide

Most US importers don't think of themselves as having a "carrier relationship" for their inbound international freight. The reality is that you do — it's just managed by your overseas suppliers on your behalf, and you're likely paying for it through product pricing, cost-sharing, or freight allowances baked into your purchase orders.

When your supplier ships a parcel to you on their UPS or FedEx account, you're either absorbing that cost indirectly or paying for it directly. Either way, the pricing is determined by your supplier's carrier account — not yours. That's worth changing.

How importer shipping actually works

There are two ways a supplier ships an international parcel to a US importer:

• Freight collect (on your account): The shipment is billed to your carrier account number. You control the carrier and the pricing.
• Freight prepaid (on their account): The supplier ships on their own carrier account and either absorbs the cost or passes it back to you in the invoice.

If your suppliers are shipping "freight prepaid" on their own UPS or FedEx accounts, you have no visibility into what they're paying — or what you're actually being charged for shipping. Moving to a freight collect arrangement on your own DHL Express account solves this.

Step 1 — Get your DHL Express account set up

As a DHL Express Authorized Agent, Empact Parcel establishes official DHL Express accounts for qualifying US businesses at exclusive enterprise pricing. The process starts with a savings review:

1. You schedule an intro call — we walk through your inbound lanes, volumes, current carrier setup, and what you're paying
2. We model your import lanes against our DHL Express pricing structure and show you what the economics look like
3. If it makes sense for your business, we move forward with account setup
4. Account setup takes 24–48 hours after confirmation

You receive an official DHL Express account number in your company name. This is a real DHL Express account — you have full access to DHL's customer service, tracking systems, and global network.

Step 2 — Tell your suppliers

This is genuinely the whole operational transition for most importers. You send your suppliers an email that says, in effect:

"Going forward, please ship our orders via DHL Express on our account [your account number]. Our DHL Express account number is XXXXXXXXX. Please use this for all shipments to our US address from [date]."

That's most of it. You may want to include your full delivery address and any packaging or documentation preferences specific to your industry. But the core of it is: here is our DHL Express account number, please use it.

What if a supplier pushes back?

Suppliers occasionally push back on switching carriers — usually for one of three reasons:

• "We have a preferred carrier agreement with UPS/FedEx." Their preferred carrier agreement is their business, not yours. You're asking them to ship on your account, not theirs. They're not violating their agreement.
• "We don't have a DHL Express account." They don't need one. They're shipping on your DHL Express account number. They simply select DHL Express at booking and enter your account number as the bill-to party.
• "Our system only supports UPS/FedEx." This is the one genuine friction point. Most modern shipping platforms (SAP, Oracle TMS, Shopify, etc.) support DHL Express natively. If a supplier uses a custom system, there may be a short integration lead time.

Step 3 — Monitor your first shipments

Once your suppliers start shipping via DHL Express on your account, you can track all inbound shipments directly through DHL's tracking system — or through any DHL-compatible TMS you use. Billing comes directly to you on your DHL Express account.

Empact Parcel remains engaged during and after the transition. If there are billing questions, tracking issues, or anything that needs escalation to DHL, you have a direct line to us — not just DHL's general customer service.

What changes and what doesn't

Common questions from importers

What if I have suppliers in multiple countries?

Your DHL Express account works globally. The same account number works for suppliers in Germany, Taiwan, Brazil, or anywhere else in DHL's network. You send the same instruction to all your suppliers — the account number doesn't change by origin country.

Can I switch some suppliers and not others?

Yes. There's no requirement that all your suppliers use your DHL Express account. Some businesses start with their highest-volume suppliers — where the cost impact is largest — and transition others over time.

What if my supplier makes a mistake on the first shipment?

It happens occasionally — a supplier ships on their own account by accident, or enters the account number incorrectly. These are usually resolved within a billing cycle. Empact Parcel can help with any corrections or disputes that come up during the transition.

Do I lose anything by leaving FedEx or UPS for inbound shipments?

For most importers, no. DHL Express's international network covers the same major lanes US businesses source from — Asia, Europe, Latin America. On transit time, DHL Express is typically faster than most UPS and FedEx international service levels; FedEx International Priority is the closest comparison, and DHL Express still often has the edge. The bigger difference is the pricing structure your inbound shipments are tied to.

Ready to see the numbers?

Schedule a free intro call. We'll walk through your inbound lanes, volumes, and current carrier setup together — we collect everything we need on the call. Then we model what your lanes would cost on DHL Express enterprise pricing versus what you're paying now.

No commitment required until you see the analysis.