[Nhcoll-l] FedEx shipping to Canada and usage of broker

[Dirk Neumann]

Hi Andy,

usually, when ordering transportation services through postal carrier companies, you do also mandate this company to act as customs broker for the respective shipment. As far as I can recall at least the handwritten FedEx airwaybills have a tick box you actively need to cross to mandate them.

It might be worth checking if recent (?) updates of the browser-based FedEx shipping software now has a similar box you need to activate. At least I know such boxes from DHL software (both, DHL worldpost and DHL Express). But this is just a guess. Unless there were recent changes to the NAFTA agreement (which is designed to reduce customs barriers) it would not be intuitive that these hassles where caused by regulatory amendments to customs and/or Canadian import laws.

It might also be worth checking the FedEx invoice carefully; we had repeatedly cases where overambitious FedEx staff flagged parcels mistakenly and corresponding costs that were charged where rather additional internal FedEx handling fees (which, in some cases FedEx in advance payed mistakenly) instead of costs or fees that were charged by authorities to clear respective shipments. If this was an internal misrouting, FedEx in any case will try to charge these costs from either the shipper or consignee. We have this problem here constantly with imports via Cologne/Bonn airport which is the main air hub for FedEx here in Europe (similar to Memphis in the US).

In such cases my advice is to claim the costs and see what happens. As soon as you claim the costs, FedEx accounting internally reviews fees and charges.

Hope this helps
Dirk

Von: Nhcoll-l <nhcoll-l-bounces at mailman.yale.edu> Im Auftrag von Bentley, Andrew Charles
Gesendet: Montag, 9. Mai 2022 22:43
An: nhcoll-l at mailman.yale.edu
Betreff: [Nhcoll-l] FedEx shipping to Canada and usage of broker

Hi all (especially Canadian colleagues)

We (University of Kansas Biodiversity Institute) have recently had a couple of FedEx specimen packages going to Canada held up in Canadian customs due to us not including broker information on our USFWS 3-177 export declarations.  We have never had to include broker information before for any international packages (not even Canadian) and so I am wondering whether something has changed recently or whether there is something we have been missing all along.  It was my understanding that a broker was not needed and that FedEx acted as our broker during transit.

Could someone clarify the situation in Canada or generally please?  This is not an inexpensive addition to our shipping costs and also causes unwanted delays.

Thanks

Andy
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Andy Bentley
Ichthyology Collection Manager
University of Kansas
Biodiversity Institute
Dyche Hall
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USA<x-apple-data-detectors://9/>

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Email: abentley at ku.edu<mailto:abentley at ku.edu>
ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3093-1258
http://ichthyology.biodiversity.ku.edu<http://ichthyology.biodiversity.ku.edu/>
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