We are commonly asked for shipping quotations to international destinations. Here are some important things to know before requesting a quote from us.
1. We have distributors in Canada, England and Europe, and Australia. If you live in one of these locations, please click the contact us link at the top of the main web site. They can sell you any item we sell, even if it's not listed on their web site.
2. ORM-D items and Hazardous Goods items (shown on the web site with a yellow diamond, or no-air icon) can probably be delivered to you, but you should be prepared to pay very high shipping amounts for these items. We use FedEx and FedEx Freight for these items outside the USA. FedEx does not offer door to door dangerous goods delivery to very many countries. In most cases, we will have to ship using FedEx Freight's IXF service. This is a door-to-airport shipment, meaning that you will have to go to your airport, clear the items through customs and pick them up when they arrive. In some cases, FedEx does not directly serve a certain location (such as most Caribean Islands). In this case, FedEx provides an interline service, meaning that items are transported by FedEx to a certain airport, where they are transferred to another carrier to the final destination. In rare cases, FedEx cannot find an interline carrier willing to take the goods. In this case, we will contact a freight forwarder to try to arrange shipment.
In all these cases, FedEx will charge a Dangerous Goods fee, in addition to the basic rate for the shipment. In the case of Interline shipments, the Dangerous Goods fee is double or more, as the interline carrier also charges a DG fee. There is also a security fee of $5-$25 on interline shipments based on the carrier. Shipments that require the assistance of our freight forwarder will be the most expensive, as the forwarder will charge a fee for their services.
To give you some idea of the cost, here is a recent example:
Customer required 1 x 8oz can of Silvaspray to Okinawa, Japan. Total weight was less than 1 lb.
This was an interline shipment, going FedEx to Tokyo, then Japan Air to Okinawa.
Rate to Tokyo was $55.00
Rate to Okinawa was $45.00
FedEx Dangerous Goods Fee was $20.00
Japan Air DG Fee was $50.00
Security Fee was $5.00
Pickup Fee was $5.00
Total Freight - $180
Delivery Time is 7-10 business days
We are often asked to ship these shipments to a customer's freight forwarder in the USA. We are certainly willing to do this, but strongly discorage it. We must ship these items to the freight forwarder by ground shipment, and as such, must label them for ground shipment. When the forwarder prepares to ship these items by air or sea to the customer, they must repackage, reclassify and redocument the dangerous goods shipment. Some forwarders can do this...many cannot, and those that can charge exorbitant amounts of money for the service, because they are assuming liability for the shipment's documentation and packaging. We are unable to assist the forwarder with this process, because we are unable to verify the condition of the items, the packaging etc after it leaves our warehouse. This usually leads to long delays and a much higher delivery charge than we quoted the customer shipped direct from us.
Please, before requesting a quote on ORM-D or Hazardous items, make sure you are willing to spend $200-$300 to have even a very small item shipped to you. Preparing these quotes takes our staff several hours, as we have to pack the order as if it were ready for shipment, then make several calls to FedEx for rate info. At the moment, we are happy to quote rates for free, but in the future, we may require a nonrefundable deposit.
3. Non hazardous items can usually be shipped Express Mail (EMS) or UPS. Express Mail is usually cheaper, but doesn't offer the same level of tracking as UPS, and packages do tend to get lost or damaged more frequently. If the package is lost or damaged, it usually takes the postal service up to a month to settle the insurance claim. UPS settles immediately, meaning we can ship a replacement straight away if the package was shippped UPS.
4. Very large orders and custom systems can take us several weeks to quote for freight. Please be patient. Your order has to be assembled as if it was being shipped, and our staff our usually very busy packing and shipping confirmed orders.