So $800 is the current “de minimis” value meaning anything coming into the country with a commercial invoice value of less than $800 will be duty / tariff free (too small to worry about). This ends May 2nd.
Logistics companies are getting screwed pretty hard right now because tons of people are refusing packages. We even had some USB readers come from a UK company but their documentation stated the country of origin was China so UPS came with the box but said it was COD (cash on delivery) for an additional $1400 and would not release the box to me. We refused the box because we already paid $3200 for the readers inside… so now we need to figure something else out. Well the shipper paid UPS to take that box all the way to my doorstep, but UPS has to take it all the way back to the UK because I refused it… because of unexpected tariffs.
Basically a logistics company has 3 options when tariffs are due;
- Leave the box with US customs and let you sort out how to pay them. This is a problem though because US Customs warehouses only have so much space and each logistics company has a little bonded area designated for packages “in transit” for that logistics company. Boxes cannot pile up here or big fines.
- Move the box through customs, but take on the liability for the recipient, then deliver the box and send an invoice to the customer afterwards to recoup the fees. This is usually what happens for established customers but sometimes first time randos as well. The box is moved through customs and logistics warehouses but there is a chance they won’t recoup the fee if the recipient doesn’t pay (then its sent to collections but good luck there).
- Move the box through customs, take on liability for the recipient, but hold the box until the recipient pays. This is usually what happens for small / first timers, but there is a good chance the recipient won’t pay in time and the box will clog up the delivery route in the meantime… then the box must be sent back to sender, eating the original delivery fee and then some.
Because of the instability with tariffs, logistics companies are facing huge costs and delivery route hiccups. Basically DHL is saying “go. fuck. yourself.” a la Elon Musk and simply is not accepting shipments of any parcels inbound to the USA that have a value of over $800. This might basically change to all parcels for non-account holders after May 2nd… at least until shit calms down.
One thing is for sure though… any additional fees logistics companies levy on shipments to “handle the increased cost of tariff mitigation” will never go away… we are still paying additional fucking bullshit fees on “covid response” for parcels… so I don’t feel too bad for these greedy corpo fucks.
