DHL Fuel Surcharge Tracker 2026: Express Weekly Rates, eCommerce Per-Pound Rates, and the May 30 DIM Changes

Last updated September 4, 2026. Originally published May 11, 2026 as a briefing on DHL eCommerce's May 30 fuel surcharge and DIM weight changes; expanded into a maintained tracker of DHL fuel surcharges. Rates below are taken from DHL's published US surcharge pages, linked in the sources at the end.

DHL fuel surcharge at a glance (September 2026)

• DHL Express (US), all services, week of August 31 to September 6, 2026: 32.75% export, 36.50% import. DHL Express has updated this percentage weekly since April 13, 2026.
• DHL eCommerce domestic, September 2026: $0.29 per pound, with packages under one pound charged at the one-pound rate.
• DHL eCommerce international, September 2026: $0.46 per pound, up from $0.40 in August.

Two things happened to DHL fuel surcharges in 2026 that shippers still miss on invoices: DHL Express moved to weekly updates in April, so the percentage on a shipment depends on the ship week, not the month; and DHL eCommerce re-based its domestic table on May 30, nearly doubling the per-pound amount at the same diesel price. The sections below give the current numbers, the history, and how each surcharge is calculated so invoices can be checked rather than trusted.

How DHL calculates its fuel surcharges

DHL Express (international and domestic time-definite)

The Express fuel surcharge is a percentage of transportation charges and of most other surcharges. DHL sets it from the daily average spot price of US Gulf Coast kerosene-type jet fuel published by the US Department of Energy, using a rolling window of roughly 20 working days (DHL's US page describes the window as running from the third-week release of the prior month to the third-week release of the current month). Since April 13, 2026 the percentage has been republished every week; DHL said the change affected only the update frequency, not the calculation method or the table.

Import and export shipments use separate tables. Effective August 3, 2026, DHL Express lowered both the import and export tables by 2 percentage points. At a jet fuel price of $3.51 per gallon, for example, the export rate moved from 33.75% to 31.75% and the import rate from 37.50% to 35.50%. Shippers with negotiated fuel terms should check whether their agreement references the published table or a fixed discount, because a lower published rate does not always flow through to the invoice.

DHL eCommerce (domestic and international parcel)

DHL eCommerce charges a flat amount per pound rather than a percentage, and changes it monthly. The domestic amount is linked to the monthly average US on-highway diesel price published by the Department of Energy, using the average from two months earlier (the September 2026 rate is based on July 2026 diesel). The international amount uses the same two-month lag applied to US Gulf Coast jet fuel. Since May 30, 2026 any package under one pound of chargeable weight is assessed the one-pound fuel surcharge.

That two-month lag matters for budgeting: the diesel run-up of late summer 2026 reaches DHL eCommerce invoices in the autumn, after the price at the pump may already have eased.

DHL Express fuel surcharge history, 2026 (weekly)

Rates apply to all DHL Express services for US export and import shipments, as published by DHL Express US. DHL shows only recent weeks on its page; this table is kept as a running record.

Read this as: a US export shipment picked up on September 2, 2026 carries a 32.75% fuel surcharge on its transportation charge and on most applicable surcharges. The same shipment a month earlier carried 29.00%. On a $10,000 monthly Express bill, that difference is $375 before any negotiated discount.

DHL eCommerce fuel surcharge history, 2026 (monthly)

Amounts are per pound of chargeable weight, as published by DHL eCommerce US. The domestic table was restructured on May 30, 2026; every diesel tier moved up by $0.14 per pound and the table now extends to diesel prices as high as $8.20 per gallon.

Two patterns stand out. Domestic: the May 30 re-basing took the rate from $0.15 to $0.29 at the same diesel price, and the subsequent months have stayed near that level, so this was a structural increase rather than a fuel-price effect. International: the per-pound amount has swung between $0.24 and $0.54 within seven months, driven by jet fuel, and the September step from $0.40 to $0.46 reflects August's price spike arriving on the two-month lag.

The May 30, 2026 changes, explained

DHL eCommerce announced three changes to domestic billing that took effect together on May 30, 2026. They remain in force and are the reason the monthly table above jumps in the middle of May.

1. Domestic fuel surcharge nearly doubled

The domestic fuel surcharge rose from $0.15 per pound to $0.29 per pound at the then-current diesel tier, a 93% increase, because DHL added $0.14 per pound to every tier in the table. A shipper moving 10,000 packages a day at an average of 3 pounds sees roughly $4,200 per day in additional fuel surcharge, more than $1.5 million a year, with no change in fuel prices.

2. Packages under 1 lb now pay the 1 lb surcharge

All domestic packages under one pound of chargeable weight are now assessed the one-pound fuel surcharge. For e-commerce, supplements, cosmetics, and small-parts shippers whose volume is mostly sub-pound, every package became more expensive on the same day.

3. DIM weight billing applies to packages over 1 cubic foot regardless of actual weight

Packages over one cubic foot are billed on the greater of actual weight or dimensional weight even when actual weight is under one pound. A 0.5 lb item in a 14 x 12 x 10 inch box has a dimensional weight of about 12.1 lb at the domestic divisor of 139, so it is now billed at 12.1 lb rather than 0.5 lb, a 24-fold increase in billable weight for that shipment.

DHL surcharge news, 2026

• March 31: DHL Express announces weekly fuel surcharge updates starting April 13, citing fuel market volatility.
• April 13: Weekly Express fuel surcharge updates begin.
• May 30: DHL eCommerce restructures its domestic fuel surcharge table (+$0.14 per pound at every tier), applies a one-pound minimum to sub-pound packages, and extends DIM billing to all packages over one cubic foot.
• August 3: DHL Express lowers its import and export fuel surcharge tables by 2 percentage points.
• September 1: DHL eCommerce international fuel surcharge rises from $0.40 to $0.46 per pound.
• October 1, 2026 to February 5, 2027: DHL Express demand surcharges are scheduled for the peak season in several markets, including the United Kingdom and Spain; amounts and lanes vary by country, so check the DHL Express surcharges page for the origin country before quoting peak-season landed cost.

Archive: earlier DHL fuel surcharge tables

DHL publishes only the three most recent months of eCommerce fuel surcharges and a few weeks of Express rates, which is why searches for dated rates such as the January 2023 DHL fuel surcharge lead to dead ends. For reference: DHL eCommerce's domestic fuel surcharge table in effect through January 31, 2023 started at $0.01 per pound at the lowest diesel tier and stepped up by a cent or two per tier, an order of magnitude below the $0.29 per pound charged in September 2026. The 2023 table is linked in the sources below. Orca will extend the 2026 tables above each month and add earlier years as DHL's published documents allow.

What shippers should do now

• Audit the fuel line on every DHL invoice. With weekly Express updates, the correct percentage depends on the ship date. With eCommerce's two-month lag, the correct per-pound amount depends on the invoice month. Both are checkable against the published tables; neither should be assumed.
• Check contract caps and discounts against the new tables. A fuel cap negotiated against the pre-May 30 eCommerce table or the pre-August 3 Express table may no longer mean what it did.
• Profile sub-pound and over-one-cubic-foot volume. These are the segments the May 30 changes hit hardest, and they are where packaging changes pay back fastest.
• Model the lag. Fuel price moves reach DHL eCommerce invoices two months later; budget the autumn on summer diesel, not on today's pump price.
• Compare landed cost across carriers. UPS and FedEx also revised fuel tables and international surcharges through 2026; the right carrier for a lane depends on total cost including fuel treatment, not the base rate.

How Orca audits DHL fuel surcharges

Orca maintains every carrier's fuel surcharge tables and effective dates, including weekly Express updates and the eCommerce monthly schedule, and validates the fuel line on every package against the table in force on the ship date and any cap in the contract. Exceptions become disputes with the evidence attached, and the cost impact of each carrier table change is reported against the prior baseline. That is part of Orca's parcel audit and freight audit services, and the same audited data feeds contract benchmarking when fuel terms come up for renegotiation. If you are evaluating providers, our guide to freight audit and payment services explains what a complete program includes.

Want to know what DHL's 2026 surcharge changes have cost your network? Talk to Orca about a freight spend assessment. We will show the fuel, DIM, and surcharge exposure by carrier and by product, and what can be recovered or renegotiated.