DHL and Post: shipment tracking affected by major change

Created: 01/25/2022, 11:18 am

By: Lena Zschirpe

Not only parcels, but also letters will soon be announced in advance by the post office and DHL.

But not everyone gets a message.

Dortmund – Despite e-mails, important documents, for example, are usually still sent by post.

And this despite the fact that the prices at the post office have been increased again.

Anyone who is waiting for an urgent letter should in future be informed in advance by Swiss Post and DHL about its arrival.

However, the innovation only affects certain customers, as reported by RUHR24*.

Post and DHL: Letters will soon be announced in advance - like parcels

Knowing in the morning what will later be in the mailbox: That's what Post and DHL promise for users of the company's own app.

Customers who activate this new additional function are not only informed of the current shipping status for parcels, but also for letters.

It should therefore even be possible to display photos of the envelopes in the app.

“The photos of the letters are created automatically in compliance with German data protection and security standards in Deutsche Post’s sorting centers.

The letter announcement service is free of charge,” says the company’s website.

It will soon be possible to track letters at Post and DHL via app

The changes are included in version 8.0 of the "Post & DHL" app.

After the update has been installed, customers should be notified on their smartphone that the new function is available immediately.

If you want to use the service, you have to activate it additionally.

If the activation has been confirmed, a confirmation letter from Deutsche Post should arrive in the next few days – including the address provided.

This is to ensure that the address is correct.

However, customers who have already had their address verified in the app in the past six months should not receive this letter.

Mail tracking is not entirely new to Post and DHL

The electronic letter announcement is not completely new. This service has been available for users of the mail providers Gmx or Web.de since summer 2020. According to Deutsche Post, more than a million customers have been using letter tracking in advance since then. On request, users can also receive a digital copy of the letters directly in their e-mail inbox.

According to DHL, the app should now be a "further channel" on which letter tracking should be possible in advance.

But these are not the only functions of the smartphone application.

It is also possible to buy digital stamps and parcel stamps in the app.

This should also be easier for users of eBay classifieds.

The app now integrates shipping options and options for specifying package prices directly from DHL and Hermes.

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