DPD Austria: local support, global reach

DPD is one of Austria's largest private parcel carriers, open to both consumers and business shippers. Behind DPD Austria sits DPDgroup, the international network owned by La Poste in France. For its Austrian operation, DPD works with three well-known local logistics companies: Schachinger, Lagermax, and Gebrüder Weiss.

DPD delivers not only to addresses inside Austria but also to parcel shops and front doors in more than 230 countries. This guide walks through the carrier, its services and prices, answers a few common questions, and shows how to ship with DPD through Sendcloud.

DPD Austria: the numbers

DPD Austria moved around 57 million parcels in a single recent year, close to 10% more than the year before. Digital services such as myDPD.at added more than 100,000 new users in the same period. DPD launched its own Austrian delivery operation back in 1988, as the country's first private parcel company. Today it treats parcels as "guests in its system" and backs that up with ISO 9001 quality standards.

One company, more than 1,800 pickup points

DPD runs 15 parcel centers (depots) across eight of Austria's nine federal states, with Burgenland served from Lower Austria. On top of that there are three central city hubs, in Vienna, Linz, and Salzburg. Each location is handled by one of the three Austrian logistics partners: Gebrüder Weiss, Lagermax, or Schachinger.

Your customers also have around 1,800 DPD pickup points across Austria. These can be depots, but just as often they are the supermarket around the corner or the kiosk in a shopping center. To find the nearest one, you or your customer enters a postcode on the DPD website and sees the closest pickup points and their opening hours.

Good to know: as a DPD business customer you always arrange a collection when you ship. You can book it through the online portal or set up a recurring pickup with your local depot. If you sometimes also ship with DHL, the Austrian Post, or other carriers, a single platform like Sendcloud makes life easier: connect your existing contracts or use the rates we have pre-negotiated for you.

Parcel sizes, prices, surcharges, and delivery times

Standard DPD prices in Austria run from about €4.30 to €12.30 depending on the parcel class, unless you have your own contract or ship through Sendcloud at our pre-negotiated rates. DPD sorts parcels into four classes (S, M, L, XL). To find the class, measure the longest and shortest sides of your parcel and add them together:

• Up to 50 cm: class S, €4.30 domestic

• Up to 70 cm: class M, €6.30 domestic

• Up to 90 cm: class L, €8.30 domestic

• Over 90 cm: class XL, €12.30 domestic

These are guide prices; the real price depends on your contract and volume. Want to notify recipients? For €0.50 per parcel, DPD's Predict service tells them the time window in which their parcel will arrive. Shipping straight to a DPD pickup point instead of the front door saves €0.15 per parcel.

Watch out for surcharges. They can apply when a parcel is heavier or larger than allowed, needs to clear customs, goes to an island address, does not fit the conveyor belt, or carries an unreadable label. Always check the current surcharge list so there are no surprises.

Standard or express: when does express delivery pay off?

DPD reports standard delivery inside Austria in most cases within 24 hours. Across Europe it quotes 1 to 4 days, and worldwide 3 to 10 days. For time-critical parcels, express delivery adds a guaranteed delivery time, with options ranging from before 10:00 a.m. to before 5:00 p.m. on the next working day. DPD can even arrange a fixed appointment window of plus or minus 30 minutes. Through its partner Primetime, DPD also offers Saturday delivery.

Is my parcel insured with DPD Austria?

Yes. DPD covers parcels up to €520, including on Saturday delivery. Business customers can raise that cover for an extra fee. It is even easier to protect your parcels on the Sendcloud platform, which is worth it when you ship expensive or fragile goods. Additional protection starts at €0.38 and covers loss, theft, or damage up to €5,000, and our team handles the claim for you.

Home or not, your parcel arrives

Not all of your recipients are home during the day. Point them to the three options DPD offers for those cases: a drop-off authorization (for one delivery or in general), a redirect to a neighbor or friend inside Austria, or delivery to any DPD pickup point in Austria. The quickest way to set these up is the myDPD.at website or app.

Where is my parcel? DPD Austria tracking

As with any good carrier, you and your recipients can track every parcel. All it takes is the 14-digit parcel number, which you get automatically for every shipment. You will find it on the receipt from the pickup point, on DPD's notifications, or in the order archive if you ship through the myDPD app or online portal.

One drawback: DPD's tracking emails go out in DPD's own look. If you want your brand front and center after the sale, the simplest route is Sendcloud, even on the free plan. You can ship with DPD and still send tracking emails in your own branding, add promotions or event news, and give customers a branded tracking page and return portal. That way the whole post-purchase experience belongs to you.

You can also automate the repetitive steps with shipping rules. Every rule follows the same shape: condition plus action. For example, "if the destination country is Germany, then ship with DPD Classic." Set the rule once and the platform picks the carrier for you on every matching order.

Reaching DPD Austria customer service

DPD Austria does not publish a general customer-service phone number. Business customers can find their depot's number on the contact page at dpd.com/at, and the fastest route for most questions is the chat on that site. With Sendcloud, as a customer you can chat and email us and also get a phone number to reach us directly.

DPD Austria and more: flexible shipping with Sendcloud

You can ship your DPD parcels through the Sendcloud platform. Already have a DPD contract? Connect it, enter your contract details, and you are ready to go. No contract? Use the rates we have pre-negotiated for Sendcloud customers. In Austria you get two DPD options by default: DPD AT Classic (the standard option) and DPD AT Home (for private addresses).

Shipping itself is straightforward: log in, enter the shipment details, choose your carrier and service (or let a shipping rule do it), and print your label. The best part is that you can also ship with carriers such as the Austrian Post or DHL Express from the same place.

Your advantages with Sendcloud at a glance:

• All your shipping processes, history, and analytics on one platform

• The most popular carriers in Austria in one place, with more delivery choices for your customers

• Faster, more efficient internal processes

• Tracking emails and a tracking and return portal in your own branding

• Integrations across your systems, from your inventory tool to your online store and marketplaces

Not convinced yet? Try Sendcloud for free, or book a demo to see the parts that matter most to your business.