Anyone know about DHL accounts, etc..?

[salemzaid1]

Hi,

DHL has noticed that I'm making a lot of shipments from my supplier who is in Hong Kong, and they contacted me to start a business account with them so I can save some money on shipping costs.

I want to know if there are some things I should know on how to save money when shipping directly to me (Canada) and to customers. How can I save money, can I change invoice fees so I or my customers don't pay too much custom duties?
Anything above $30 I believe is taxed in Canada, it's like $800 or something in the US.

Anyone have experience with DHL accounts and saving costs?

[phaz0rz]

We get in at least 10 DHL shipments weekly and they've never reached out to me about opening an account with them. All of our shipments are sent using our supplier's account. They ship hundreds of packages per week with DHL and I ship 0 with DHL, so they are able to get much better rates than I would be able to.

You're correct about the $800 tax threshold in USA, but I thought it was much higher than $30 in Canada. I have one Canadian customer who always has me declare a value of $1500 or less on his shipments. He owns a business in Canada though so maybe the rules are different for businesses, or perhaps he's simply not trying to avoid taxes.

Our supplier always under-declares shipments so we don't pay import taxes. You've got to be careful with that though because customs regulations vary from country to country. It's easy to get under-declared shipments into USA but I've heard it's nearly impossible in UK, because UK customs is prone to open shipments and verify value.

I guess it wouldn't hurt anything for you to open a DHL account and see what kind of rates you can get. Unless you're shipping more with DHL than your supplier, I seriously doubt you'll be able to get better rates than them.

[salemzaid1]

Originally Posted by phaz0rz

We get in at least 10 DHL shipments weekly and they've never reached out to me about opening an account with them. All of our shipments are sent using our supplier's account. They ship hundreds of packages per week with DHL and I ship 0 with DHL, so they are able to get much better rates than I would be able to.

You're correct about the $800 tax threshold in USA, but I thought it was much higher than $30 in Canada. I have one Canadian customer who always has me declare a value of $1500 or less on his shipments. He owns a business in Canada though so maybe the rules are different for businesses, or perhaps he's simply not trying to avoid taxes.

Our supplier always under-declares shipments so we don't pay import taxes. You've got to be careful with that though because customs regulations vary from country to country. It's easy to get under-declared shipments into USA but I've heard it's nearly impossible in UK, because UK customs is prone to open shipments and verify value.

I guess it wouldn't hurt anything for you to open a DHL account and see what kind of rates you can get. Unless you're shipping more with DHL than your supplier, I seriously doubt you'll be able to get better rates than them.

You know I think it's because Canada's trying to encourage businesses here, that's why they might have got excited about offering the account to me.

Thanks for your reponse