Board logo

subject: Canada; Cross Border Shipping Fees [print this page]


When dealing with shipping items across the boarder to Canada, a company or individual must realize there is going to be cross border shipping fees they must pay along the way. These are somewhere around a seven percent goods and services tax or G. S. T. No matter what is being shipped into Canada.

In addition to shipping fees for across the boarder, there could be a small freight handling fee that the shipping or transportation broker will charge. This fee will be the same amount for those who are shipping a large amount of items or transporting a small amount of items across the boarder. Therefore, it is in a company that is doing the shipping's best interest to combine shipments going to the same location whenever possible to save funds.

Most of the shipping or transportation companies are straightforward with their fees and there should be no hidden fees when it comes to transporting something across the boarders. There is so much merchandise and cargo that goes between the Untied States and Canada that there is really no need for hidden fees.

A reputable shipping company will be able to explain their goods and services tax (G. S. T.) in addition to all their fees for shipping or if there are any overnight storage fees or container fees. A business that is shipping something over the boarder needs to be sure they are asking the right questions of the shipping company in order to receive the best possible price to ship something to their customer and make sure their prices are competitive.

Furthermore, some of the larger hubs may charge a bigger fee for shipping or storage than some of the smaller hubs. Someone from the company doing the shipping of the freight may want to investigate the charges by looking at their website or call to verify the freight forwarding fees before signing up with a company.

Another frustration with border shipping is duties which a company or individual can not figure out in advance. These could range from no charge at all to around 20 percent of the cost of the item. These figures are gathered from the Canadian Border Services Agency which is the federal organization responsible for charging the duties.

There is a website which lists the imported duties but many of the items are hundreds of pages long, while others are simple pages and pages long. For example, one of the most popular items shipped to Canada is shoes and the duties list governing shoes is nearly 20 pages long. The website is Industry Canada.

There are a couple of options to shipping to Canada and those are private shippers who will charge anywhere between $25 and $75 to rush shipments for an individual or company. Or people could go though the Postal Service for a flat fee of around $7 but it will take a lot longer to arrive at the destination.

If a company or an individual could come up with the nearest or exact weight of what they are shipping, they will have a better chance of knowing what the cross border shipping fees will be and therefore how much their total bill will be. One can always look up the duty amount which changes with the rate of the American dollar verses Canadian money. There are several websites that will help a company or individual calculate this amount based on the current status of the Canadian currency and the American dollar and the shipping weight, where the item is going and how long it should take.

by: Adriana Noton




welcome to Insurances.net (https://www.insurances.net) Powered by Discuz! 5.5.0   (php7, mysql8 recode on 2018)