DHL Express will increase their shipping price in 2021

[roadstar_na6]

My birthday gift from RG-R (2 full Kato book cases) came with DHL and cost as much as ePacket 😮

[Kiha66]

Hobby search has increased too much for me to justify ordering most things from them.  While shipping with RG Rokko is fairly high, its the same price up till about 2 kg so as long as I can combine a few orders I found the price fairly reasonable, but still too much for a single set.

[disturbman]

I normally only use airmail and ePacket, but recently I had to move SAL surface for some packages. Which is great, the only annoying part is that I’ve started to wonder if I did indeed order what I ordered or not.

Edited February 2, 2021 by disturbman

[Tony Galiani]

Forgot to mention that I also placed an order with Model Trains Plus and the shipping (ePacket IIRC) was more reasonable.

Normally, when I travel I only do carry-on bags but may need to bring an extra suitcase on my next trip to stock up on modeling supplies!

Ciao,

Tony Galiani

[Tony Galiani]

Received my package from Hobby Search yesterday via DHL - four days from Japan to my door.  So, at least this time, the shipping service was quick and makes me feel a bit better about the cost.  Oddly enough, the delivery van that showed up at my house had an ad on the side promoting their service for Japan.  Fun coincidence.

Ciao,

Tony Galiani

[lukewang01]

DHL has slowed down a bit for me in 21. I used to be able to get stuff delivered one day before estimated date. Now it's half the time on time and halt the time one day late. They rescheduled some flights and packages from Tokyo is taking a detour before reaching US. 

[lukewang01]

I really jinxed myself on this one. I've been waiting on a package from HS that was supposed to get delivered on Tuesday and it's sitting in Cincinnati hub from Wednesday without any updates. I've sent an email to DHL to see what's going on.

[Kiha66]

2 hours ago, lukewang01 said:

I really jinxed myself on this one. I've been waiting on a package from HS that was supposed to get delivered on Tuesday and it's sitting in Cincinnati hub from Wednesday without any updates. I've sent an email to DHL to see what's going on.

 

My last two DHL packages to the US were like that, they sat at the hub for a day or two before moving on again.  Both arrived safely just a few days late.

[lukewang01]

Interesting. They seems to take a indirect way to US from Tokyo now, packages first go to Hong Kong SAR, then somewhere in the US. But from RG-Rokko, they still go from OSAKA directly to Cincinnati which I found really interesting.

[bill937ca]

4 hours ago, lukewang01 said:

I really jinxed myself on this one. I've been waiting on a package from HS that was supposed to get delivered on Tuesday and it's sitting in Cincinnati hub from Wednesday without any updates. I've sent an email to DHL to see what's going on.

An UPS hub was shutdown this week for up to 24 hours because of snow.  DHL Cincinnati was probably the same. 

[lukewang01]

Yeah, their email also confirmed that. It's just bad timing I guess. 

[cteno4]

I was amazed I had a DHL come thru from japan fine thru Cincinnati to national and delivered on time thru the ice in dc on thurs! I expected to get a delayed email.

 

jeff

[chadbag]

I had a couple items from Amazon JP for the wife at Christmas and it took and extra day.  I noticed it stopped somewhere before hitting Cinci.   I guess they have reduced flights and double stuff up from other locations if necessary.

 

[Tony Galiani]

Reading the NY Times this morning about the global shipping crisis.  Interesting reading and never realized how complex and fragile the global transportation system can be.  I had mentioned the increases I noticed in shipping fees but this is nothing compared to what some people are experiencing.  The NYT quotes one imported who paid US$2,500 to bring in a container six months ago and US$67.000 for their most recent shipment.  That has got to hurt!

Ciao,

Tony Galiani

[cteno4]

Yeah I read that. The increase in a 40’ container shippment from China to california by the article went from$2500 to $6000-7000, think you lost the dash here. I did wonder how much of the article was drama perhaps from folks not having loved thur other shipping upheavals in the past. Oil shipments have gone thru these swings in the past as well. It will be crazy for a while here, but I suspect it’s not all going to fall apart at the seams.

 

jeff

[katoftw]

Supply and demand. More demand for surface shipping as air shipping is down 90%.

[Kiha66]

Being involved in the shipping industry, there's been a crisis in ocean shipping ever since covid began.  Currently the US west coast ports have ships anchored to the horizon as the longshoremen have been hit especially hard by covid cases.  Crewing ships has also become a concern and some sailors are being held to work far past their employment contracts.  You can look on the AIS data and see all the ships waiting at anchorage for berth space.  

On the plus side Buyee has started offering fedex for US shipments, which gives a much lower cost option compared to DHL but months faster than sea mail.

https://www.marinetraffic.com/en/ais/home/centerx:-121.2/centery:34.5/zoom:6

[cteno4]

Air is a tiny fraction of worldwide sea shipping. Biggest hit to air cargo with covid is that over of air gargoyle goes in bellies of passenger planes. Sea shipping has been more of economic demand for product during covid (exercise equipment, home office, appliances and other home improvement, entertainment electronics, etc) from folks being at home and most of that stuff comes by container. Shippers were expecting covid to keep things moving slow during covid but the increased buying along with China industry rebounding faster than expected to the increased demand and shippers caught flat footed. They went to supply that demand and that ended up screwing up the usual container cycle so thus tightens supply and price goes up. Shippers are making great profits,

 

jeff

[bill937ca]

Courier giant DHL padded own pockets with 'hidden fees,' class action alleges

 

https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/dhl-class-action-hidden-fees-1.5987195

 

A few years a similar law suit against UPS went to settlement (without UPS admitting guilt) and I was twice paid compensation.  

Edited April 15, 2021 by bill937ca

[justpages]

And this is a normal phenomenon, given what is happening in the world now. DHL Express delivers correspondence and cargo both within the countries in which it has a presence, and between different countries. It should be borne in mind that DHL Express is not a postal operator, so the procedures for the delivery of international goods will differ significantly from the procedures of postal operators. I am also attracted by the fact that you can track shipments using https://www.postsendungsverfolgung.com/de/. This is a great opportunity!

Edited May 31, 2022 by justpages