What's new
Van's Air Force

Don't miss anything! Register now for full access to the definitive RV support community.

Again, Don't ship UPS to Canada (HUGE brokerage fee)

rv8eh

Well Known Member
I ordered an alodine pen from Steinair a couple days ago.
Holy smoke, it arrived today, in Saskatoon.

$67.50 USD for the alodine pen.

$29.55 brokerage fee to UPS.

PLEASE GUYS DON'T SHIP UPS TO CANADA

I'll take up the order process and shipping with SteinAir, perhaps I missed something in the process. This particular instance could be my fault that UPS got used.

However, USPS Parcel Post would take about a week, and cost me $5 clearance.

I should have phoned it in, I guess.
 
FEDEX too

I got a $200 order from vans in a small box. $25 to ship $120 in duty and tax....total $350. Crazy. I dont mind taxes and I dont mind shipping. The $50-$75 broker fee grab is insane. I now ship all to a US address and go get it myself and declare it at the border. Much cheaper or USPS is fair.
 
a semi related question

How do you pay bills from the Canadian aviation authorities, they are billing me in Canadian dollars, and don't seem to have a CC option, I have been scratching my head on how to write a US check for canadian dollars...

Hans
 
USPS beats UPS every day of the week for anything i've had to ship across the border.

Lately i've had extremely good service (or maybe it's luck?) shipping Purolator across the border. 1/2 the time they don't even charge the duty (this is for non-aircraft things).
 
I agree, my UPS experience is bad for Canadian shipments. Fedex is the way to go... any duties and taxes owing and they will send you a bill later on. No extra brokerage costs.

Unfortunately, most US providers are not aware of how to ship internationally. I've even had this conversation with Van's and it was disappointing. Aircraft Spruce, however, has worked this out. They now can ship FOB Canada through their Ontario warehouse... their extra costs are buried in the price and are reasonable.

For the Vx Aviation products that I sell, I ship worldwide post paid. I've figured out the logistics to make this happen, and it is a competitive advantage. Yes, my customers need to pay any duties or VAT, but at least they don't have to pay outrageous shipping or brokerage costs.

Vern
 
Hans

How do you pay bills from the Canadian aviation authorities, they are billing me in Canadian dollars, and don't seem to have a CC option, I have been scratching my head on how to write a US check for canadian dollars...

Hans

Check with your Canadian bank if they charge a fee for this but...if, when you write your cheque to a US company, Write in "U.S. Dollars (funds)" after the
dollar amount...and you're good to go!
Regards,
 
Ahem, working for a company ships millions internationally...its not the shippers, its Canada. No other country in the world is a much of a pain to ship to. No other customers give us more grief than Canadians about trying to get us to falsify invoices and shipping docs so they can avoid the taxes/tarrifs, etc. I agree, shipping UPS to Canada is expensive, but thats not the shippers problem if the customer does not specify a shipping carrier. The UPS truck is at my shop twice a day and the default shipper, it takes a special call to get the Fed-X truck there.
SNIP

Unfortunately, most US providers are not aware of how to ship internationally.

Snip
 
I heard from SteinAir

Ha, I got an invoice for the shipping this morning too :)
I thought they'd missed that.

They had to ship the alodine pen via courier, as USPS wouldn't take it.
Their normal method to Canada is USPS (which I'm very happy with, as it's reasonably fast, and minimum cost).

In 1988, my team bought a bunch of electronics from Jameco in California - shipped UPS. At the 4 week mark, we had schedule pressure, and ordered again from the same vendor, US Air Parcel Post. We got it in about a week.

The original order (via) arrived at about the 6 week mark.

Fedex isn't free, but I don't want free, I want reasonable.
I don't think that $6 of discrete electronic parts warrants a $30 brokerage fee.

Anyhow, I'm done with it, and learned a lesson again.
 
Ahem, working for a company ships millions internationally...its not the shippers, its Canada. No other country in the world is a much of a pain to ship to. No other customers give us more grief than Canadians about trying to get us to falsify invoices and shipping docs so they can avoid the taxes/tarrifs, etc. I agree, shipping UPS to Canada is expensive, but thats not the shippers problem if the customer does not specify a shipping carrier. The UPS truck is at my shop twice a day and the default shipper, it takes a special call to get the Fed-X truck there.

I've read a fair amount of complaining about outrageous fees from the guys in GB as well. Seems they have a similar situation where the shipping companies can charge very high "brokerage" fees and even an add on that most customers just take, but the guys on the gb vaf list say they didn't have to pay, and showed it to the shipper.
 
UPS without brokerage fee

My experience has been sometimes large brokerage fee, sometimes not!
The way I understand it is if it goes UPS Ground there is a large brokerage fee, however if it goes UPS Air, there is no brokerage fee! Go figure...
 
Ahem, working for a company ships millions internationally...its not the shippers, its Canada. No other country in the world is a much of a pain to ship to. No other customers give us more grief than Canadians about trying to get us to falsify invoices and shipping docs so they can avoid the taxes/tarrifs, etc. I agree, shipping UPS to Canada is expensive, but thats not the shippers problem if the customer does not specify a shipping carrier. The UPS truck is at my shop twice a day and the default shipper, it takes a special call to get the Fed-X truck there.


Well, thats a polite statement. :mad:

Fact of the matter is in my case and most other canadian builders..it isnt the duty, it isnt the taxes. Its the money grab from the shippers. They do up the paperwork and show it on duty/brokerage forms and if the tax is $14, if you read the fine print...its plust $75 admin fee. It has nothing at all to do with true duty or taxes, or the shipping costs...its simply a money grab by the shippers. If its so much trouble shipping to us Canadians, do us all a favour and dont trouble yourself. ;)
 
I apologize if that sounded rude, was not my intentions. Just pointing out shipping to Canada is a special case, and sometimes requires different shipping methods than other countrys. I've always been told by our customers it the taxes/dutys that kills them, hence they often want us to put "replacement" or "warranty repair" on the shipping docs. If its a straight up money grab from UPS, then I really understand your frustration.
Well, thats a polite statement. :mad:

Fact of the matter is in my case and most other canadian builders..it isnt the duty, it isnt the taxes. Its the money grab from the shippers. They do up the paperwork and show it on duty/brokerage forms and if the tax is $14, if you read the fine print...its plust $75 admin fee. It has nothing at all to do with true duty or taxes, or the shipping costs...its simply a money grab by the shippers. If its so much trouble shipping to us Canadians, do us all a favour and dont trouble yourself. ;)
 
Not duty or taxes

Just to add a little clarity:

There is no duty for items made in the USA thanks to the free trade agreement.

Taxes on goods brought into Canada from any other country are the same as if they were purchased inside Canada. For items under ~$50 sent by Post, or brought across personally, even these taxes are often waived as not being work the hassle to collect.

The exhorbitant fees are charged by the shipping companies for doing the paperwork.

As has been mentioned, Aircraft Spruce has this figured out in Canada, I always call direct to their Ontario location.

We have as many people in this country who try to cheat the system as any other country, but we try to do it politely, eh? :)
 
business to business, UPS not so bad for fees.

Business to business, the brokerage fee is whatever % of value you've worked out with your broker.

But the basic fees are:

GST 5%
PST 5% (Saskatchewan)
$5 per item to cover the gov't paperwork and labour.
DUTY = 0 due to NAFTA

Point to point inside the USA, we often use UPS.
Point to point inside Canada, we use UPS occasionally.
Crossing the border, no UPS.
 
I had a reasonably good experience with UPS this week. I was getting a Hartzell prop from Ohio. Apparently they normally use UPS and I didn't want to throw them any curves. I did, however, tell them that I would be self-clearing the shipment. The first time I went to Customs at Pearson they told me that I couldn't pay the HST until the shipment was in Canada and that I needed a Cargo Control Document (CCD) and a commercial invoice. I returned to Customs when the shipment was in Windsor with my CCD and invoice. Then I was told I needed to either go to Windsor or have the shipment come in bond to Toronto. Instead I went on-line to Clearit Canada and had them clear the shipment. Everything with them is done online and the total cost is $49.95 plus the HST plus 5% of the HST (to cover their cost of being paid by credit card, I believe). It was handled within a few hours. They gave me a pdf file to forward to UPS and the shipment was delivered to me in Oshawa by UPS the next day. The $50+$74 cost seemed pretty reasonable for a $12K item. I think I'll go that route again.
 
Last edited:
Part of the problem with UPS is many vendors ship UPS Standard. This level of service has onerous customs clearance fees across the border. Other levels of service have the customs clearance fees included in the shipping price. Check carefully and advise your vendors which level of service you want.
 
What are the brokerage fees one can expect on a standard empennage kit delivered to the Edmonton area?

What are the experiences builders have had shipping to Canada? Any advice when shipping the large parts lists from VANS?
 
Talk to Vans shipping dept for their recommendations.
Generally FedEx Express (included brokerage) would be cheaper than UPS Standard by a far shot. Arrange to self clear if at all possible.
For the big shipments, definitely self clear.

Oh, & be prepared for the 10% aluminum tariff...
 
a few notes

It's worth noting that US Postal Service has been very hit-or-miss with their international deliveries since COVID started to disrupt everything. Things are much better US to Canada but I think it's still a bit of a roll of the dice.

For context, we had some customers wait 3+ months for items to be delivered to international destinations beginning in March of this year. Fortunately Canada was a better situation and no one Canadians had to wait quite that long.

If you've got a vendor that insists on shipping via UPS for some reason, it's worth asking them to ship it UPS Air (the official name of the service is UPS Worldwide Expedited) and not to use UPS Ground. For reasons I don't quite understand, the Ground service is less expensive but subject to a random and usually onerous brokerage fee. The Air service just... doesn't I guess.
 
I remember using UPS back in the 80's and at that time they were very economical, fast and superior.

Through the years they have now become un affordable and they are the last company that I will use. Sometimes we don't have a choice but if you have a choice, any of the other Courier company's are vastly cheaper and certainly the US mail service is a good choice. At least until it gets tied up in the Canadian Postal system but its still better than UPS.

Tim
 
We concur with Blake----We've had several seemingly simple shipments held up for no real apparent reasons. I can only think that USPS has been overloaded by the amount of volume from home shoppers due to the Covid thing. Whats frustrating for us is that we built or business on fast shipping for an economical price. USPS my still have the economical price, but the shipping times have gotten crazy. What used to be 3 days to California from our production shop in WI is now 10-15 days.
International is even more ridiculous. (Dont even get me started on the package that took 40 days to get to Hong Kong. Made 2 different ROUND TRIPS from the US to HK.)

I'm hoping that things will begin to settle out and shipping becomes more 'normal'. I can live with a given time frame, but tell us ahead of time that its going to be 20 days to Calif. When we tell a client 4-5 days after placing an order they should have it, we look pretty stupid when it doesnt show up. AND USPS tracking shows----'its moving within our sytem on its way to the destination". Thats BS for no, we didnt scan it after it left--what ever centralized collection point.

YES Fed Ex and UPS are doing better---BUT the drawback is the big expense of shipping. Wish we had a better alternative.

Tom
 
I have been having everything sent to Canada since the border is closed.

USPS works fine without any charges for brokerage however can be slow.
Fedex is excellent. Super fast and reasonable brokerage fee. Will deliver package and bill you later.
UPS - crazy pricing for brokerage. I avoid them if at all possible.

ABF or Old Dominion for trucking Kits or larger packages.
 
Yep, it has been quite the education on just how messed up all logistics can get. We're pretty much only shipping DHL international (for over seas) at this point unless customers expressly ask for something specific. And it isn't just shipping logistics either, but entire supply chains have gone completely bananas. Luckily, product IS still moving.

Tom, we've got your 40 days and "only" two round trips beat by a few thousand miles :).
 
Last edited:
The 10% tariff was on Canadian aluminium being "dumped" in the US, not US Aluminium being shipped north.

Unsure if this round of tariffs are as you noted. The ones from last year sure did. We were bringing a few cases of donated Vans Sheetmetal Practice Kits into Canada (used in our Sportair Workshops) and Canada Customs insisted on charging us the 10% tariff on the declared retail value of them...

So - consumers on BOTH sides pay the price...
 
Unsure if this round of tariffs are as you noted. The ones from last year sure did. We were bringing a few cases of donated Vans Sheetmetal Practice Kits into Canada (used in our Sportair Workshops) and Canada Customs insisted on charging us the 10% tariff on the declared retail value of them...
Oh! I wasn't aware there was previously a tariff in place. I thought the tariff comment was in response to Drumpf's recent proclamation that he'd be adding a tariff to Aluminium going to the US from Canada.
 
Anyone order a kit since latest tariffs?

Curious if anyone can confirm whether the Vans kits are subject to the 10% countervailing tariff when importing to Canada.
 
What are the brokerage fees one can expect on a standard empennage kit delivered to the Edmonton area?

What are the experiences builders have had shipping to Canada? Any advice when shipping the large parts lists from VANS?

Darcy I’ve used Near North Customs brokers for all of my shipment and they have been awesome. Since you work at the airport you could also self clear by going to the customs office but I found it easier just to pay the $100 to Near North and make the process painless.
 
Is there a saving to see about combine shipping? I'm looking to jump into with an RV-10 empennage shortly.

I haven't reach pout to vans yet to see what their experience is with shipping costs. Possibly some folks here can shed some light this for me
 
My fight with UPS is gearing up. So I had a palm drill shipped from Florida to Vernon BC. 57.00 US for shipping. Ok I can deal with that.
Then about 5 days before delivery they send a notice wanting 19.00 in tax plus 38.00 for brokerage on a 120.00 drill that weighed 4 lbs packaged up.

I call ups 3 times and state I’m self declaring or as CBSA calls it self accounting. The agent says no problem CBSA will contact you for payment then they will release the package. Unbeknownst to me by this time UPS has already cleared customs and paid the taxes.

Guess what UPS delivers the package without me paying the bill. So know I’m thinking they are going to send the bill to a collection agency and work me over that way. I begged the seller to use anyone other than UPS and they wouldn’t.

Sadly I have 2 more shipments coming next week with, you guessed it UPS. This time I will refuse the delivery and get them to send me the paperwork.
Be aware their agents on the phone will flat out lie to you and say whatever to make you think you can self declare.

I’ll post more details after next weeks fiasco.

Stay tuned!
 
I have a package enroute from Flyboy Accessories via UPS. As I have been burned before on UPS brokerage fees Blake at Flyboy checked with UPS who indicated that there are no brokerage fees on UPS Worldwide Expedited.(Apparently UPS Ground does charge brokerage)

Anyway, I got an invoice from UPS that had a line item for brokerage. When I contacted UPS about this they said that it was not really brokerage but a "bond" fee they add on when they pay Canadian sales tax on behalf of the buyer and it could be avoided if I had a UPS account.

Since I don't use UPS that often an account with them doesn't make sense. So, burned again and vowing again to avoid using them if at all possible.

PS: I've often had shipments sent to a Detroit address, picked them up and cleared them myself coming back to Canada. If the value is not that high and not worth the effort CBSA sometimes don't even ask for payment of taxes. This is when the border is open!
And, Blake's/Flyboy's service was outstanding.
 
UPS update....so after getting the run around I finally had to ask for and speak to a manager. Within 2 hours I had the documents to go to CBSA and pay the taxes. CBSA took about :10 minutes and I was on my way. Sent required documents back to UPS and brokerage holding warehouse now just awaiting delivery.
It’s really a no brainer if you are close to a location where you can go to a CBSA office.

The regulars who answer the phone at UPS haven’t a clue what to do... they will just tell you anything to get you off the phone...ask for a manager.

Cheers

K
 
UPS rip off

I needed a high frequency speed controller for a CNC router and found a quality unit sold out of the US and bonus being free shipping. The $430.00 unit arrived
in a reasonably short period of time and delivered by UPS.
About 3 weeks later, I get a bill in the mail from UPS for $137.00, itemized with 5 different fees. There was even a $5 internet fee... not sure what that was all about.
I gave UPS a call and discussed their billing practices and informed their rep there wasn't a snowballs chance in **** I was paying them the requested amount. The rep promptly said she would reduce the amount by 50% and though I was surprised by the response, announced the concession wasn't good enough. I responded that I purchased the item due to the free shipping advertised by the seller, that I had not engaged the services of UPS nor had I authorized UPS to be my carrier.
The rep didn't know how to respond to my respectful assertion that I had not engaged UPS services and said she would get back to me in a couple of weeks. I never did hear back from UPS.
I believe that a lot of sellers in the US are unaware that the shipping is no longer free to the buyer when the goods cross the border. Also, they aren't aware of the exorbitant amount UPS is billing Canadians. I will no longer purchase from any supplier if their only shipping option is UPS. Rather than dealing with UPS again, I shop elsewhere.
 
Most US vendors don't honor free freight into Canada. You can order from California to eastern Maine free freight but if you go one foot into Canada you pay all shipping fees. I can see paying the extra but we have to pay all. The way I see it the freight for average shipping cost are included in the price so we (Canadians) are paying for some of the freight twice. They always say Canadians are nice people , maybe that's why.
 
I’ve had run ins with both UPS and just recently FedEx. Fed Ex had what they called and advancement fee tacked on. I realized they paid the GST and PST for me to get the package across the border. I phoned Fedex and told them we don’t pay advancement fees and that I would reimburse them for the taxes. Had to up it to a manager but they dropped the fee. If you don’t ask they will just take it from you anyway they can.

Keith
 
What are the brokerage fees one can expect on a standard empennage kit delivered to the Edmonton area?

What are the experiences builders have had shipping to Canada? Any advice when shipping the large parts lists from VANS?
If you figure it out, please share. I'd like to find out too.
Thanks.
 
Van's shipped the kits to me using Dominion transport. They gave me a quote ahead of time. Van's will know their usual trucking companies to use to your part of Canada. The only thing you will need to pay is HST on the Canadian value and a broker fee. You might want to find a broker that charges reasonable rates prior.
 
If you figure it out, please share. I'd like to find out too.
Thanks.
If you want you can clear the customs yourself and skip the broker all together which saves you $.
What will happen is the shipment will be held in bond at a trucking company in Canada Vans will tell you where. You get the shipping company to email you the customs documents. You take said documents to the nearest customs off in your case the International Airport pay the gst. Then send a scanned copy of the stamped documents to the trucking company who will then release the shipment to you. I did this with my empanage kit and self cleared at the Kelowna airport.

PM me if you are still not sure.

Keith
 
I use Near North Customs brokers and they charge $150 for the large items like the panel. I’m happy to pay that price to avoid having to spend an entire morning having to travel to the airport on the other end of the city to have the joy of dealing with Customs people. Stein send my panel UPS and the only thing I had to make sure of is that they marked it for outside brokerage.
 
I used clearit.ca on my c/s prop and it cost a little less than $80 to clear. That was also a UPS shipment. Very simple process.
 
I use Near North Customs brokers and they charge $150 for the large items like the panel. I’m happy to pay that price to avoid having to spend an entire morning having to travel to the airport on the other end of the city to have the joy of dealing with Customs people.
I offset the time by the fact that Customs rarely bothers collecting the taxes when you go see them. Usually it's a quick glance to make sure the paperwork is in order, confirm that it's not a commercial import, and then they stamp it and send you on your way.
 
Back
Top