Shipping Tips and Essential Advice for Sending Parcels to Canada and North America
When you’re shipping parcels abroad, there’s many factors you need to consider. All countries have their own specific restrictions and prohibited items you’re not allowed to export. Failing to understand these different regulations could end up costing you a small fortune in fines and fees.
If you’re looking to start shipping to Canada and North America, here you’ll discover everything you need to know.
Why planning is essential
Before you ship anything to Canada or North America, it’s vital you do your research. It also helps to plan ahead as much as possible, taking into account the following:
- Potential customs delays
- Packaging guidelines
- Insurance
- Regulations
- Costs
Few businesses account for potential delays in customs, which can mean disappointing customers. When giving expected delivery times, always add on a few days just in case there are any unexpected delays.
Understanding the packaging guidelines will also help, along with making sure your parcels are covered by insurance. Many delivery companies do provide their own insurance, but it’s worth looking into it just in case. The right insurance will cover you against theft, damage and lost parcels.
One of the most important things you need to plan ahead for is the restricted items list. You’re going to need to check what items can and cannot be sent to Canada and North America if you want to avoid substantially high fines. Just a few examples of prohibited goods include firearms, human ashes and animals. Then there’s restricted items such as jewellery, tobacco, watches and medical samples.
Finally, the costs of shipping are also worth looking into. There’s a lot of different courier services around these days, so it can be useful to use a comparison service like My Parcel Delivery to ensure you’re getting the best prices.
The importance of finding a good courier
As well as comparing the costs of different couriers, it’s really important to make sure you’re using a company you can trust.
When sending parcels abroad, there’s a lot that can go wrong. So, you need to make sure you’re using the most reliable and trustworthy courier. Your customers expect a lot from your shipping service, so don’t disappoint them purely to save a few pounds.
Overall, shipping to Canada and North America does take some planning and preparation. Provided you do your research however and compare different courier costs, you should find it fairly straightforward.
