# DHL Freight integration

> Book DHL Freight road freight for pallets and part loads across Europe, with labels and waybill on the consignment and DHL tracking back in Transportial.

**Category:** Parcel & express carriers

## What is DHL Freight?

DHL Freight is DHL’s European road freight business, moving groupage, pallets, part loads and full loads through its own network. Its products include DHL Road Freight Standard (EuroConnect), Road Freight Priority (Eurapid), Road Freight Direct (Euroline) and dedicated pallet services. Transportial books them through DHL Freight’s shipment booking API on developer.dhl.com.

## What syncs between DHL Freight and Transportial

- **Consignments → DHL Freight transport instructions** (To DHL Freight): When a trip forwarded under a capacity contract that uses DHL Freight is confirmed, each consignment is sent as a transport instruction with shipper, consignee, pickup and delivery windows and its pieces. Pallets go with the pallet type set on the integration, and the delivery term (DAP, DDP, EXW or CIP) decides who pays.
- **Product per consignment** (To DHL Freight): Set the default product on the integration — Road Freight Standard, Priority or Direct, Standard or Premium Pallet, Home Delivery or Temperature Controlled, domestic or international — or pick one per consignment when booking by hand.
- **Shipment id, license plates, labels and waybill** (Into Transportial): DHL Freight assigns the shipment id and a GS1 license plate per piece. Transportial keeps both as tracking numbers and stores the labels (PDF or ZPL) and the waybill on the consignment.
- **Tracking and stop completion** (Into Transportial): Status, events and the expected delivery come back on the consignment through the DHL Shipment Tracking – Unified API. The pickup event completes the loading stop and delivery completes the unloading stop, at DHL’s event time.
- **Shipments booked elsewhere** (Into Transportial): Add a DHL Freight shipment number to a consignment to follow a shipment that was booked another way.

## How to connect DHL Freight

1. Parcel carriers are switched on per platform: ask us to enable them for your Transportial account.
2. Create an app on developer.dhl.com with access to the DHL Freight shipment booking and print APIs, and note its API key and secret.
3. To follow shipments, also get a key for the DHL Shipment Tracking – Unified API.
4. Add the DHL Freight integration in Transportial with the key and secret, your DHL Freight customer number, the default product, delivery term and pallet type, and set a capacity contract’s communication method to it.

## Sync frequency and limits

- Shipments are booked when the trip is confirmed; consignments added later are booked on the next trip update, never twice with the same integration.
- Open shipments are tracked every 60 minutes by default — configurable per integration — until they are delivered, returned or cancelled.
- The Unified tracking API takes one number per call. Its default plan allows 250 calls a day; numbers left over are checked on the next run.
- DHL Freight accepts cancellations only through its Customer Service, not through the API. Cancelling the trip leaves the booking in place and notes this in the integration log.
- If printing fails after booking, the shipment is kept — the labels can be printed again from DHL Freight.

## Typical use case

A Dutch producer ships mixed pallets to customers across Germany, Poland and France. Full loads go with its own fleet; smaller orders are planned on a trip under a DHL Freight capacity contract. Confirming the trip books each consignment as Road Freight Standard, and the warehouse prints the pallet labels and waybill straight from the consignment. When DHL reports delivery, the stop closes on its own.


## Frequently asked questions

### Can I cancel a DHL Freight booking from Transportial?

No. DHL Freight accepts cancellations only through its Customer Service. When the trip is cancelled, Transportial keeps the booking, notes in the integration log that it could not be cancelled, and you contact DHL Freight.

### Which DHL Freight products can I book?

Road Freight Standard (EuroConnect), Road Freight Priority (Eurapid) and Road Freight Direct (Euroline part and full loads), Standard and Premium Pallet, Home Delivery and Temperature Controlled — each domestic or international, as far as your DHL Freight agreement covers them.

### Do I need a separate key for tracking?

Yes. DHL Freight status comes from the DHL Shipment Tracking – Unified API, which uses its own key from developer.dhl.com. Without it, shipments are booked and labelled but not tracked.

### Can I use DHL Freight for parcels outside Europe?

No. DHL Freight is DHL’s European road freight network. For documents and parcels worldwide, use the DHL Express integration.


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Canonical page: https://transportial.com/en/integration/dhl-freight