DHL

DHL offers a comprehensive range of delivery services in Sweden and internationally, from small parcels to full pallets and freight.

Credentials

Global API keys (managed by MPH WMS) are used for authentication.

Capabilities

DHL is the only carrier that can return a live price before you book. It needs the e-ID username and password in addition to your customer number, and DHL has to enable the quoting API for your account separately. Without it, pricing falls back to the rate card.

Active Tracing

MPH WMS checks every open shipment for tracking updates on a schedule, and moves it to In transit and Delivered as DHL reports progress.

Without an Active Tracing login, each DHL shipment is looked up on its own through DHL's Unified Tracking API. That API has a daily call limit, so with many shipments in flight the updates can lag.

With your Active Tracing (myACT) login saved on the DHL carrier configuration, MPH WMS asks DHL Freight once per run for every shipment on your account that has changed. The number of shipments no longer matters, and the Refresh tracking button on a shipment uses Active Tracing too.

To get a login:

1. Contact your DHL Freight Sweden customer service or sales contact.
2. Ask for an Active Tracing (myACT) login with web service access, set up with your DHL customer number(s).
3. Enter the username and password on your DHL configuration under Settings → Carriers.

DHL only returns shipments booked on the account numbers set up on that login. A shipment the feed has never returned is still checked on its own once a day, from the day after booking, until the feed returns it. That lookup uses the Unified Tracking API when Active Tracing does not know the shipment and the Unified API is configured. If the login stops working, tracking falls back to one lookup per shipment until it is fixed. Nothing is lost, because the next successful run reads on from where the last one ended.

Shipments booked under an MPH WMS platform agreement are tracked through the Unified Tracking API. Your own myACT login only covers your own DHL account.

Tracking push

When DHL Unified Push is switched on for the installation, DHL tells MPH WMS when a shipment moves instead of waiting to be asked. The shipment page then updates within minutes rather than at the next scheduled check.

• Automatic. Every DHL shipment booked after push is switched on is subscribed when it is booked. There is nothing to configure on your DHL carrier configuration.
• New shipments only. Shipments booked before push was switched on, and test-mode bookings, are not subscribed and stay on the scheduled check.
• The scheduled check stays on. DHL retries a failed push only twice, so a pushed shipment is still checked once a day. A missed push therefore delays an update by a day at most. If a subscription cannot be made, the shipment is tracked exactly as described above.
• Ends on delivery. Once DHL reports a shipment delivered, its subscription is removed.

Push and Active Tracing can both report the same shipment. Each event is stored once, and a shipment's status only moves forward.

For self-hosted installations: push needs DHL's Shipment Tracking - Unified - Push access on the same developer.dhl.com app as the Unified Tracking API key, the Unified Push access granted setting on the DHL carrier record (enter true), and a public https address for the app (BETTER_AUTH_URL or WEBHOOK_BASE_URL, also set on the worker). DHL calls back on /api/carriers/tracking-push/....

Services

Parcels

Home Delivery

Freight & Pallets

Returns

Additional services

DHL offers 29 additional services:

• Delivery - Personal delivery, priority P12, time slot booking
• Notifications - Pre-advice, notification by letter
• Environmental - Green freight option
• Payment - Cash on delivery
• Insurance - Cargo insurance
• Dangerous goods - Limited quantities (LQ) and full dangerous goods handling
• Customs - Standard handling, full service, customer declaration, joint customs
• Freight options - Side loading/unloading, tail lift, pickup/delivery time windows

APIs used

• Transport Instruction API - books shipments
• Print API - fetches shipping labels by shipment ID
• Postal Code API - validates home delivery eligibility for an address
• Service Point Locator - finds nearby DHL pickup points
• Home Delivery Locator - validates freight home delivery availability
• Active Tracing web service (DHL Freight, SOAP) - tracking for accounts with a myACT login
• Unified Shipment Tracking API (DHL Group) - tracking for everything else
• Shipment Tracking - Unified - Push (DHL Group) - pushed status changes, one subscription per shipment