International Shipping - Another Question

ujeans

I need to have shipments sent from Hong Kong and India to me on a regular basis.  Aside from the usual suspects (FedEx, UPS, TNT, DHL) can any members recommend a good door-to-door courier service to Canada?Thanks

SunnyDays

If you are talking about small shipments only I would go with one of the companies you have listed (ask for a discounted rate seeing that you will become a regular client !). If we are talking about heavier shipments I would contact some of the bigger Airfreight companies who normally offer the same service but for a lot less and I would definitely shop around.

bert

1) What is the size and volume of your shipping?  
2) How often do you do this? 
3) How quickly do you need to get the items from the time they are shipped? 
4) Finally, how do you cover customs clearance? 
 
Shopping around definitely pays off but can take some effort on your part.  Not all carriers price things the same way and you can save a lot of money from shopping around.  This is true of all shipping domestic and international regardless of origin and destination countries.

SunnyDays

I definitely would discuss with FedEx a discount on the weekly shipment and as for the bigger shipment I definitely would shop around - the price difference for a consignment that size can be amazingly high .
Edited to add:  In my experience most exporters - especially in in far east do have shipping agents they work with to export their material - Have you ever thought about requesting a quote from your supplier for the material including freight ?SunnyDays2007-1-28 15:29:1

ujeans

I`ve started to call the usual suspects to see what discounts I can get and researching other courier companies.  I`ll let you know what happens.Thanks!

TSomm

One way to save money is perhaps instead of weekly shipments, consolidate into larger, monthly shipments.  I ship from China to the US by ocean on pallets.  It takes 3-6 weeks, but is the most affordable.  But you do want to consolidate as everywhere your cargo goes, there is a fee.  Customs entry fee, pier loading charge, document handling fee, etc. etc.

SunnyDays

"I must disagree with SunnyDays on comingling freight costs and product
costs.  This will force your freight costs to be subject to any
GST/Duty/Tax rates on your commodity.  Freight ALWAYS needs to be a
seperate line item on the commercial invoice"Freight Guy, and most exporters, especially in Asia ,are aware of that fact and provide just that

bert

We have supplied software for Asian shippers and our experience so far is one of a lot of ever changing issues.  I guess you would call them growing pains.  FreightGuy is right and you need to do your homework.  As the Asian economy continues to grow, labor costs continue to increase, government issues there change and energy cost continue to go higher there is going to be a lot of creativity going on by Asian companies to continue to sell products at current low prices.  It is my opinion that this will not last forever so you need to be ready to change.  Good preplanning and knowing the facts will keep you from dealing with major losses as things change.  Do not leave any charges to be flexible or unknown when you make your deal.  Lock in all the costs and know all the players involved before agreeing to anything.  If you are responsible for freight and your volumes are not too huge, I would highly suggest trying to make things work with a