When talking about DPD, many agents and industry operators immediately think of international shipments, fairly detailed tracking, and the fact that in Italy deliveries often pass through local partners.
In this article, we look at what DPD is, how it fits into the Italian network, which contact channels are most useful for those working in B2B and e-commerce, what to consider before a DPD international shipment, and how to use Hubrise services to manage everything in a multi-courier logic.
What is DPD
The acronym stands for Dynamic Parcel Distribution, an international network specializing in parcel distribution, particularly single-parcel shipments typically weighing up to around 30–31.5 kg, designed to serve the European market extensively.
More than a single national courier, DPD is a network that connects hubs and depots in over 20–30 European countries, with more than 500 depots and millions of parcels handled every day. Through its services, it links the main European destinations with competitive delivery times and a good balance between cost and speed.
From a practical standpoint, how does DPD work for the shipper? The parcel is picked up by the carrier or by the local partner in the country of origin, enters the international DPD network and is routed to the destination country, where a local operator connected to the network often handles the last mile. Throughout the entire journey, the sender and recipient can use tracking services to check the updated status of the shipment and receive notifications.
For those working with e-commerce, marketplaces or international B2B flows, this means having a carrier focused on medium-light volumes, a strong network along the European corridor and tracking that is structured enough to be integrated via API into third-party systems.
DPD Italy contacts: channels and operational tips
The key point for those working in Italy is understanding how the DPD – BRT link works. In our country, road operations are in fact strongly tied to BRT, which is effectively an Italian subsidiary and a member of the DPDgroup network.
For an agent or a logistics manager, when a delivery issue arises, it is necessary to distinguish whether it concerns a problem during international transit, a customs matter or an issue strictly related to distribution within Italy. In many cases, the final recipient will see the courier’s brand on the document, even though the tracking or order number was originally associated with DPD.
In the absence of a central system, this forces customer care to move between the DPD portal and other third-party tracking tools, with the risk of fragmenting information and history. A more mature approach is to funnel all tracking data into a single platform, such as Tracking by Hubrise, which can collect DPD/BRT events and display them in a single timeline, regardless of which node in the network is physically handling the parcel.
In this way, managing the DPD Italy contacts also becomes easier: the back-office operator can immediately see where the shipment stands, which statuses it has gone through, whether there has been an anomaly or a delivery attempt, and can decide which channel to activate (DPD, BRT, logistics intermediary or marketplace) starting from a unified view.
Shipping with DPD: services, delivery times and best practices
For an Italian company that wants to ship with DPD, the main advantage is the combination of a very dense European network and strong local presence through BRT. BRT has a widespread network of branches, hubs and pickup points that allows it to manage both domestic deliveries and the flow of international parcels inbound and outbound with continuity.
On the operational side, those managing many shipments should focus on a few key elements. Shipping data must be complete and consistent across all systems: address, postcode, recipient contacts and order number must travel together with the DPD parcel tracking, so that the information reaches both the courier’s portal and the e-commerce platform or management system communicating with the customer in exactly the same form.
Labeling is another critical point. Parcels with old labels not removed, overlapping barcodes or packaging that is not compliant with the DPD courier guidelines can cause delays, incorrect scans and, as a result, customer-care tickets. Before scaling volumes, it is useful to align warehouse, production and shipping teams on a shared packaging standard. By using Shipping with Hubrise, you can generate consistent labels for all carriers and automatically route the order to the correct rate profile.
When these elements are under control, shipping with DPD becomes a more predictable process. The internal team no longer wastes time trying to understand where the tracking was “lost,” the end customer receives clear updates, and the industry agent can focus on rates, SLAs and carrier-assignment rules instead of manually managing exceptions.
DPD international shipment: what to consider before sending
The DPD international shipment is the true core of the value offered by the network. DPD and its partners provide a high-density European road network, supported by hubs and overnight connections that handle millions of parcels per day to more than 20 countries, as well as solutions for more distant destinations through the global Geopost network.
Before sending an international parcel, however, it is necessary to look beyond the label alone. The first variable is the destination country: not all origin–destination combinations offer the same range of services, the same delivery times or the same delivery options. Some routes are served mainly by road, while others may also rely on faster connections; some markets have a dense network of pickup points, while others rely almost exclusively on home delivery.
C’è poi il tema doganale per le spedizioni extra UE. In questo caso, il mittente deve fornire documenti completi (fattura commerciale, codice HS, valore dichiarato e tutti gli elementi richiesti dalla normativa) e chiarire sin dall’inizio quale Incoterm intende utilizzare, stabilendo chi si farà carico di dazi e oneri: il cliente finale o l’azienda che spedisce. Una scelta poco chiara può trasformarsi in un’ondata di richieste al customer care quando il pacco arriva in dogana o quando il destinatario riceve una notifica di spese da pagare.
International tracking also tends to be more complex. A parcel may pass through multiple hubs, sometimes change its internal reference while still remaining within the DPD network, and move between different operators. Without a central system, the company risks having events scattered between the DPD portal, third-party solutions and internal systems. A Tracking service like the one offered by Hubrise makes it possible to consolidate all events of the DPD international shipment into a single timeline, making it easier to answer customer questions, open documented claims and analyse performance afterwards by route, country or service.
SEND2U for shipping rules and end-to-end visibility
All of this becomes truly sustainable only if, above the individual carriers, an orchestration layer is added. This is where SEND2U comes into play, the Hubrise engine designed to manage shipping rules and end-to-end visibility in a multi-carrier environment.
With the SEND2U multi-courier shipping service, the company can define rules that determine when to use the DPD carrier, when to prefer other couriers and under which conditions. The rules can take into account destination country, weight, volume, goods value, required SLAs, actual costs and historical performance. In practice, instead of manually deciding each time whether to ship with DPD or with another partner, the order is automatically assigned to the most suitable carrier based on the policies defined upstream.