If you ship to third countries with DHL Express, you must submit certain customs-related information. This information is also necessary if you want to use DHL Paperless Trade (PLT).

Transmitting dutiable data

Setting up carrier configurations

Enabling extra fields

Go to Master data – Carrier configurations and open the corresponding “DHL Express” carrier. On the Extra fields sheet, click New to add the following entries:

• Invoice date
• Invoice total
• Invoice amount currency
• Export reason type

Enabling the transmission of data required by customs

To enable the transfer of customs/invoice data, go to Master data – Carrier configurations and open the corresponding “DHL Express” carrier. In the Accounts sheet, open the account in question. In the Carrier data generation field group, check the Transfer customs data option.

• For shipping orders subject to customs duty, the fields expected by DHL Express automatically become required fields when the option is enabled and the values are transmitted to DHL Express. Therefore, before enabling the option, make sure that you can completely fill in all the required customs data in the shipping order.

Ensuring availability of data required by customs

For smooth customs processing and package delivery, DHL Express expects certain customs or invoice data (CIN fields) in the electronic shipment data (EDI). The following table shows you where to find the fields in the shipping order and how to transmit them from your host system via the interface:

• Your company is responsible for the correct population of the fields, and this must also be ensured when transmitting data from your host systems.

Using “DHL Paperless Trade” (PLT)

With “DHL Paperless Trade” (PLT), you simply transmit your customs accompanying documents online and therefore no longer need to print them out and attach them to the shipment. You can find out more details directly from DHL Express

For shipments to certain third countries (shipments subject to customs duty), the use of “DHL Paperless Trade” (PLT) and therefore the transmission of certain customs data is mandatory.

• If “DHL Paperless Trade” (PLT) is not available for a certain third country on the part of DHL, Carrier Connect will inform you with a corresponding notice. In this case, disable the value-added service and attach the printed customs documents to your shipment as before.

• Make sure that you have completed all the steps under "Transmitting dutiable data".

Setting up carrier configurations

Enabling the “Paperless Trade PLT” value-added service

Go to Master data – Carrier configurations and open the corresponding “DHL Express” carrier. On the Value-added services sheet, enable the "Paperless Trade PLT" entry.

Configuring an additional “DOCUPLOAD” SFTP connection

For the upload of customs documents, enable another SFTP connection to transmit the uploaded documents to a separate subdirectory at DHL Express.

Go to Master data – Carrier configurations and open the corresponding “DHL Express” carrier. Switch to the Accounts sheet, open the relevant account and select the “DOCUPLOAD” value under Carrier data generation – PLT doc. connection.

• You can use the pencil icon to change the parameters preset by AEB via the service provider definition if necessary.

Uploading documents in the shipping order

Learn how to upload customs documents via the Carrier Connect user interface.

• To learn how to transmit the fields via API, click here: API documentation.

Selecting the “Paperless Trade PLT” value-added service in the shipping order

To use “Paperless Trade PLT” for a shipping order, select the value-added service in the shipping order.

To set this value-added service via the API, submit the DHLEXPINTPLTUPL value in the valueAddedServices - identCode field.

Filling in data required by customs in the shipping order

Complete the fields required by customs in the shipping order in the same way as chapter "Ensuring availability of data required by customs": “Place of field in shipping order” and “Name of field in shipping order” columns.

Uploading customs document(s) in the shipping order

On the Documents sheet of the shipping order, click Add attachment or Drag & Drop and select your document(s).

• File size per file max. 1 MB in PDF, PNG, JPG, or TIFF format

It is mandatory that you add one of the following texts in exactly this notation in the Comment field:

• COMMERCIAL_INVOICE
• EXPORT_ACCOMPANYING_DOCUMENT
• PRO_FORMA_INVOICE
• CERTIFICATE_OF_ORIGIN
• NAFTA_CERTIFICATE_OF_ORIGIN
• PACKING_LIST
• OTHER

Tips for filling in the Comment field:

• Use “EXPORT_ACCOMPANYING_DOCUMENT” for your EAD/export accompanying document (the upload is mandatory)
• Use “COMMERCIAL_INVOICE” for your commercial invoice (the upload is mandatory)
• Use “PRO_FORMA_INVOICE” for your pro forma invoice (alternative to commercial invoice)

• Upload the documents at the latest before completion of the consignment.
  Deleting or adding documents is possible after label printing until the consignment is completed.