DHL gets record number of complaints last year

Germany's postal service has received more complaints about lost, delayed or damaged items than ever before, reported dpa.

Deutsche Post received around 420,000 complaints last year, its parent company DHL announced on Saturday.

Germany's Federal Network Agency had received around 39,500 complaints related to Deutsche Post in 2024, but under a new law, the group was required for the first time to provide information on complaints that it had received directly.

While the number of complaints is high, it represents 0.003% of the approximately 14 billion letters and parcels the group delivered in 2024.

The difference between this figure and the figure given by the network agency may also be due to the fact that not every consumer contacted the agency directly, but first expressed their displeasure to the post office.

The proportion of complaints from other German parcel delivery companies was higher: DPD, for example, reported 0.11% and GLS 0.1% – that means that one in every 1,000 parcels led to a complaint.

However, the figures are not directly comparable because Deutsche Post's complaint rate of 0.003% of the total also includes letters, which traditionally result in fewer complaints than parcels.

Deutsche Post said that while the proportion of complaints was very low, it regretted every single case, but added that "it can never be completely ruled out that a company with 187,000 employees and around 50 million items of mail processed every day will not make mistakes."

A company spokesman said that the company wanted to improve.