Hi. Hopefully some Canadians can help me out here. I normally receive my shipments from the US by USPS. I hear that UPS places a large brokerage/customs fee of some sort on their shipments to Canada. Is this true ? If so, much appreciated if you can tell me what the amount normally is. I can see this being a real financial back breaker. If this is a fixed fee regardless of value, it would really be bad news. This would potentially keep me away from any ebay or LHS's using UPS vs USPS. Thanks in advance. Keith.
According to the USPS site on shipping parcels to Canada: http://pe.usps.gov/text/imm/immicl/immiclcd_003.html "8. Goods valued under 20 Canadian dollars are duty and excise tax exempt. Goods over 20 Canadian dollars will be subject to the applicable duties and excise taxes. Gift shipments received by mail that are valued under 60 Canadian dollars are duty and excise tax exempt. " I can't find what the applicable duties and excise taxes are, but I also don't see anything about brokerage fees either. You can go to www.usps.gov and figure the shipping rates for yourself. Hope this helps.
Keith, On a non-model RR forum I have heard over and again that shipments into Canada from the US via UPS result in onerous extra fees, often the cost of the goods themselves. I don't have any idea why this is so but the persons who have posted basically have decided not to buy anything that can't come USPS into Canada.
The brokerage fee's are all depending on the value of the item as well as a surcharge for the service. So if you can get away without using UPS and stick with USPS do it. As well if you can have items shipped with USPS via Airmail a lot of times I've had things slip through the cracks and not be charged any kind of duty or custom fees. Your best bet to get the whole answer is to go down to the UPS store and ask them or check UPS website.
I always ask for USPS delivery (regular air mail)- not UPS or any courier - they are downright scary with their brokerage fees.
Model Railroad equipment is not subject to customs duty, however it is subject to PST (Provincial Sales Tax (8% in Ontario) and GST (Goods & Services Tax - a Federal VAT of 6%). If your goods come in by UPS (Brown) you will be charged a $35 brokerage fee in addition to the PST/GST on the declared value (or CCRA (Canuck Customs and Revenue AgencY) estimated value. If your goods come in via USPS and CanPost you may be charged a flat $5 service fee + GST/PST or you may not. If its obviously a shipment from a store usually it will attract the charge+tax, if it appears to be a shipment from a private individual usually not (exceptions exist though so its kind of like Casinorama). Some vendors are aware of this and ship from thier home address in an effort to tip the scales in favour of thier client.
I ship USPS Letter Post to Canada. For N Scale the cost is about the same as domestic US shipments. It takes 4-7 days to Canada. The only downside is there is no insurance option. I've never had a shipment lost or damaged.
