DHL Is Resuming Service to U.S. Consumers After 'Panic and Confusion' Over Stoppage

After stopping deliveries over $800 to U.S. consumers last week, DHL is reversing course and will resume regular shipments, the company said in a statement on Monday.

An April 5 change to the U.S. Customs entry process made all shipments to the U.S. with a declared value over $800 require formal entry processing (the previous amount was $2,500). This led to "panic and confusion," Louis Kurlander, director of a U.K.-based courier firm, told The Times.

However, now DHL says it has had "constructive dialogue" with U.S. officials, and the figure will go back to $2,500 using the previous informal entry process. DHL says it will resume accepting B2C shipments with a declared value exceeding $800 into the U.S.

^{Original story (April 21) below:}

New tariffs have changed customs processing, causing significant delays for DHL Express. The company just announced that it is suspending shipments to the U.S. for select packages starting Monday, April 21.

According to a notice on the company's website, business-to-consumer (B2C) shipments to private individuals in the U.S. with a declared customs value of more than $800 have been temporarily suspended "until further notice."

The statement says that the April 5 change for "all shipments to the U.S. with a declared value over USD 800" to "require formal entry processing" has caused a bottleneck at customs, leading the company to experience "multi-day transit delays" when trying to deliver packages to the U.S.

The previous threshold was $2,500.

USA Today notes that though the post announcing the new measures wasn't dated, metadata shows it was written April 19.

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DHL is a global logistics and shipping company and Germany's biggest package delivery and express mail provider.

Louis Kurlander, director of a U.K.-based courier firm, told The Times that clients who ship to the U.S. were left in disarray over the holiday weekend.

"There's panic and confusion because obviously this was dropped on bank holiday weekend," Kurlander said. "A lot of businesses are not working."

Kurlander added that the luxury fashion sector could be hit hardest by the ban.

What Is DHL Still Shipping?

DHL notes that business-to-business (B2B) shipments to U.S. companies with a declarable value above $800 are not affected by the suspension, Still, delays are possible.

The service disruption does not include B2B and B2C shipments with a declarable customs value of less than $800.