Book DHL consignments, print DHL Express labels, fetch real-time DHL shipping rates and follow tracking events without leaving the system where the order was placed.
DHL covers express and economy services as well as DHL International, and the integration exposes that same range through your own system. Rates come back for the service level you choose, labels print on thermal or plain paper, and reverse shipments, multi-piece consignments and NDR handling follow the same booking flow. Nothing has to be re-entered in the DHL portal, which is where most shipping errors start.
The pieces below sit between an order entering your system and the DHL consignment closing out at delivery.
An order confirmed in your system is sent straight to DHL as a booking, carrying the shipper, consignee, service and reference details across with it. The DHL waybill number comes back against the order, so packing, printing and manifesting happen without a second data entry.
Cancellations work in both directions. A booking that has not been picked up can be cancelled from the same screen, and a DHL reverse shipment, where DHL collects a return from the customer and brings it back to you, is booked through the same integration as an outbound order.
DHL scan events stream into Softpal, so support staff can answer where a parcel is without calling the carrier. Low-volume shippers who do not want another system to install can give their customers the Softpal Web Tracker, which runs in the browser and accepts either the DHL waybill number or your own reference number.
Vendor polling means periodically asking the DHL API for updates when the carrier does not push them. It is straightforward to set up and easy to get wrong, because a tight interval multiplied across every open consignment can put unnecessary load on both ends. We set the interval against the volume you actually run.
Each DHL contract gets its own rates, service codes and account credentials, so a negotiated domestic tariff never leaks into an international booking. DHL-compliant labels, thermal and normal paper formats, automatic pickups and manifest generation are configured to match the way your warehouse operates.
Multi-piece shipments, NDR reporting and the daily manifest all live in the same place as the order. Where something genuinely cannot be done through the API, the booking can still be placed by hand, which matters when a consignment has an unusual shape, a declared value or a special instruction.
The fetch rate is how often your system calls the DHL API. Every five minutes keeps a busy dispatch board current; hourly suits a lower volume operation. Rates can also be pulled on a trigger, such as a new order or a status change, rather than on a fixed interval.
The DHL API accepts pickup requests directly, so a batch of parcels ready at a given address can be flagged for collection from your system instead of by phone. The pickup is what starts the movement, and it is the point from which DHL begins committing to a delivery date.
The delivery estimate is returned after pickup rather than at booking. DHL weighs distance, the service level, the routing through its network and the time taken to process the order, all of which are still moving at the point a label is printed.
DHL handles international shipping with its own customs brokerage, which covers the export documentation and clearance requirements for the destination country. Express and freight options sit under the same account, and tracking follows the shipment through clearance rather than ending when it leaves the origin country.
In accounts payable, the DHL invoices on file are matched line by line against DHL's statements. Bringing the charges in through the API rather than re-keying them from a PDF is what makes fuel surcharges and weight discrepancies visible early enough to dispute.
Several DHL accounts can be active at the same time, each selected by a rule rather than picked by hand. Weight slabs are the usual approach, with one account for consignments under 5 kg and another for anything heavier, and accounts can also be split by region with a default account for everything that matches no rule.
