Surcharges

Surcharges related to road freight transports

DHL Freight regularly evaluates the level of surcharges related to road freight transports. From this page you will find latest information over valid surcharges.

• The fuel surcharge for road transport is 10,05% for May 2025

For Road Freight products fuel surcharge table below applies the following products:

• Euroconnect
• Euroline/Euronet

Oil Bulletin issued by  the Directorate-General for Energy and Transport of the European Commission

To allow for a foreign currency to float freely against the Euro, DHL Freight applies a currency adjustment factor for certain countries.

This involves import and export shipments to 2,500 kg (payable weight). As an average approximately 50% of our exposure is in local currency, with the remainder of our exposure is in Euros.

On the 15th of each month, we will use the exchange rate published by European Central Bank to determine the CAF for the following month.

As you may have heard, on April 1st of 2016, Belgium will be imposing a kilometer levy for freight vehicles over 3.5 tons.

This measure will be applied on highways and certain regional and local roads. The kilometer levy will have an immediate impact on our national and international import and export rates. Based on a simulation provided by the Institute of Transport and Logistics Belgium (ITLB), DHL Freight was able to calculate the impact of this toll, charged at our expense. These surcharges have already taken into account the disappearance of the Euro vignette in Belgium alone and a decrease in road tax.

Rates for domestic, import and export Belgium

• Domestic +8,8%
• France +3,86 %
• Germany +3,83%
• Italy +2,73%
• Spain 2,05 %
• Netherlands +4,45%
• General international transport other countries +2,85%

Given the fact that this involves a government levy, we will indicate this surcharge separately on the invoice.

From January 1st 2015, the new EU Sulphur Emission Directive 2012/33/EU has become law. This directive requires all applicable vessels which enter the SECA (sulphur emission control area) to reduce the content of sulphur in fuels from the current 1.0% to 0.1%.

To meet this demand the shipping lines must switch either to MGO (Marine Gas Oil), change to LNG (Liquefied Natural Gas) or invest in scrubbers that remove sulphur from the exhaust gasses.

No matter what option is chosen the Shipping Lines informed that these changes would have a significant impact on the cost of providing their services and that they would have no alternative but to pass on the increase to the customers.

Shipping Lines informs they will adapt the surcharge on a regular basis as the expect prices to be volatile, especially in respect of the BAF.

It is our intention to review the surcharge on a quarterly basis, unless exceptional circumstances would affect the prices substantially.

A constant development within the transport sector are costs imposed by governments. Since 1 July 2018, the truck toll has applied to all federal trunk roads in Germany. The extension of the toll of 53,000 kilometers of motorways and main roads should help the German government to improve the financing of a modern, safe and efficient traffic infrastructure in Germany. At January 1, 2019 the maut rates for vehicles with a gross weight of 7.5 tons or more has seen his first significant increase. As of December 1, 2023 the German goverment decided to include the CO2 tax into their maut rates, which results in a second substantial increase.

This affects the rates that DHL Freight charges you as a customer. We are forced to charge the German Maut as a surcharge. The calculation is based on the sum of the increase of 1 January 2019 and the increase of 1 December 2023. 

Transport volumes fluctuate throughout the year. We are constantly confronted with decreasing productivity due to congestion, as well as capacity issues because of population ageing. Carriers charge DHL Freight extra during peak periods in order to guarantee their offer. Naturally, DHL Freight does its utmost to keep costs to a minimum, but depending on the developments, DHL Freight reserves the right to charge a Peak Season Surcharge.