Lesson learned

[Tom Kitta]

If your going to have a 3rd party broker handle your shipment the package has to be very clearly marked as such by the US shipper or UPS/FedEx will broker anyways(Canadian Gov't allows them to) In ten years I had never saw a self-broker item come through the UPS system successfully, and boy did I see a lot of brokerage disputes!! One thing about brokerage is it has a base and a sliding scale tacked on to it, even though the paperwork doesn't really change, this is why CP's flat rate is so nice. UPS used to include brokerage on their Express shipments which was handy, you would get the COD tag but the amount owing was"0"....they changed it about 8 years ago and tagged on a $10 fee. Another thing, if you put what looks like a business name for a receiver, UPS would call you and ask if you wish to pay over the phone....now you can clear over their website.

Also if you do have a shipment come through that you get double charged brokerage, you can dispute it through the driver and they will tag it as a dispute and send it to the resolution dept, then you get a hold of the US shipper and explain the issue, they then will need to contact UPS etc. for resolve....pay up front to get the package and fight afterwards and I will almost guarantee you will never get repayment!

I had dozens of packages cleared by Border Bee - no special marking at all needed - I never asked. A lot of commercial places do it all the time. Its all handled by computer systems now and automatic. Been that for years. 3rd party brokerage simply uses API of UPS / FedEx etc. and enters your address as handled by said 3rd party. Its a transaction. Once its in the system it goes smoothly. I.e. no one reads what is on the package anymore - its all 100% electronic. Even processing is electronic. Documents are all scanned in. Receipt is electronic and billing is electronic. Payment is... same way - automatic CC charge.

Many years ago when I got Border Bee for the first time I got a dispute with brokerage - Border Bee handled it - it did not make it to the system. UPS had no issues they simply refunded it. And I paid BB. Only occurred once at the very beginning.

I fail to see why anyone would still pay UPS brokerage rates - its super easy and quick to just pay $10. There are multiple companies that do it not just Border Bee.

Ebay for example in their global shipping business uses a large company Pitney Bowes to do their brokerage. Grizzly industrial has their own brokerage - they do it on the sender's side.