It’s the 4th week of CP’s strike. I had seen significant delay (not meeting delivery standard) on my Andymark and REV order from Fedex due to the extra volume CP’s strike created on private courrier’s network. For teams in Canada, how much your teams’ parcel had been impacted? Especally during this pre kickoff period.
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Not strictly team related, but a t-shirt trade I started right before the strike has been stuck being “processed” by USPS for the whole time with no end in sight
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This is the route our new radio we got through FIRST Choice is taking from Kokomo Indiana to London ON via FedEx…
Our order from Powerwerx via USPS (effectively Canada Post once it reaches the border) is now stuck at the border seemingly indefinitely until the strike ends.
And the McMaster order I placed 2 weeks ago (shipped from Toronto) has been sitting in a Purolator depot here in London for the past 12 days waiting to be sent out for last mile delivery…
I’m genuinely starting to contemplate ordering as much as we can in a single order, and coordinating multiple orders to deliver at the same time to a PO box in Port Huron that I can drive across the border and collect.
Should save us on shipping, and even if I’m dinged with duties coming back, it’ll still be cheaper than what the major courier’s brokerage fees are. Just means taking more time off work to do it…
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Hi Brian!
Just wanted to let you know about the new Border Policy on importing materials which may impact your plan - all “commercial importers” now have to enroll in a program called CARM which involves paperwork prior to import declaring items as they come across. This may or may not impact you in your border crossing process.
This policy came into effect in November and I got in a bit of trouble for it when I was bringing our FLL Trophies over because I didn’t know about it. Last year, 4476 did a lot of orders to a box in the US and I was very familiar with the 10k Islands border crossing staff - I’d go in, show my receipts, pay my GST and be on my way. This new program looks like a lot of extra work and comes with some bonus concerns on my end:
- make an account with the government tracking system
- make a document for everything we plan on bringing in (including country of origin for all the parts of those things)
- submit those documents
- wait for government approval to bring them in (unknown timeline)
- actually bring them in, involving a trip into the border office
- then pay taxes
- try not to mess up and commit tax fraud
- try not to mess up and commit customs act fraud
If you choose to go through with this let me know because I’d love your help getting it set up for us as well, it’s just incredibly daunting.
P.S.: Don’t know if this applies to you, but if you’re bringing stuff over this way (commercially importing) you also cannot use a NEXUS lane to do so, and they can revoke your card if you do so.
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I needed to send a bag of assorted VEX parts (1 lb 11 oz) to Canada. FedEx cheapest rate was $122, with a 4 day delivery (it’s going to Hamilton, ON from Delaware). Opted to send via USPS @ $12.10 with a 2 day delivery to Niagara Falls NY, then a pick up from there. Total value of the parts was under $20.
I can’t imagine the cost for Canadian teams for shipping this season.
It will be interesting to see how long it takes to clear the package backlog after the strike ends.
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Updates:
My logistic agent’s rate for shipping custom fabricated part from China quadruple since the strike. A 10 kg package used to cost less than $80 (multiple China Post epacket) to ship via the postal system now cost almost $300+ (DHL or UPS) on private couriers. Had to held back a lot of project because shipping cost is so inflated.
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