border.bot
Esc
  • Loading…
↑ ↓ to move↵ to openEsc to close
Docs menu
DevelopersGuides

HS codes

Origin and trade agreements

How to choose an international shipping carrier

Postal, express and consolidator networks compared for ecommerce: who clears customs, DDP billing, duty and clearance fees from carriers' own pages, tracking.

Updated · 9 official sources

Choose an international carrier by who will clear your parcels through customs and who ends up paying the duty and the fees around it, not only by the postage rate. Express carriers clear customs themselves and can bill the duty to you, while postal networks hand each parcel to the destination's post and customs, and the costs reach your customer differently in each case.

Rules as of 30 October 2026.

What kinds of international carriers are there?#

International carriers fall into three groups for ecommerce sellers: postal networks, express carriers and consolidators. They differ less in how fast they fly than in who declares the parcel at the destination, who pays customs first and how the cost gets to your customer, which is what decides whether a parcel arrives as a sale or comes back.

Type Who clears customs at the destination How duty and tax get paid Customs data
Postal networks The destination post presents items to customs; Royal Mail, for example, is required by law to present every item from outside the UK to Border Force The post pays and bills the recipient with a handling fee, or the seller collects at checkout (IOSS in the EU, UK VAT on goods up to £135) CN 22 or CN 23 declaration with electronic advance data; small packets containing goods need a UPU S10 barcode
Express carriers The carrier clears the parcel as customs broker; you can usually name your own broker for a fee The carrier advances duty and tax and bills the receiver, or the shipper under DDP The carrier's own waybill, with an electronic or paper commercial invoice
Consolidators Parcels travel together and clear at the destination through a partner, for example on an express consignment operator's consolidated manifest in the US Depends on the partner that clears them The consolidator's manifest under a master air waybill, with a house record per shipment

In the US, express consignment operators can clear qualifying low-value goods on a consolidated manifest under 19 CFR part 128, as DHL Express describes on its US customs services page. How master and house waybills work is in air waybill vs bill of lading.

Who clears customs, and who pays the duty?#

The carrier that delivers in the destination country usually declares the parcel, but who pays depends on your delivery terms. Ship DDP and the duty bill comes to you; ship DAP and it goes to your customer, often with a carrier fee and a wait while they pay. Each kind of carrier handles this differently.

  • With an express carrier, DDP is a billing choice. DHL Express's Duty Tax Paid billing makes the payer responsible for the duties, taxes and listed customs service charges, and UPS bills duties back to the exporter or the importer depending on the transport mode and the Incoterms.
  • For EU consumers, a seller registered for IOSS charges VAT at checkout, and the IOSS holder comes first in line as the declarant for goods sold at a distance (European Commission guidance of 5 October 2026).
  • For US mail, since 24 July 2026 every parcel worth $2,500 or less needs a postal informal entry by a party with the right to make entry and a bond, with the data and duty due by the 7th of the following month (19 CFR 145.12(b)). Ask your post, or its US partner, who files it before you ship by mail.
  • For the UK, Royal Mail pays import VAT and duty to HMRC for the recipient and then asks the recipient to pay them with a handling fee. On goods up to £135 sold to consumers, the seller charges UK VAT at checkout instead.

The full trade-off between the two sets of terms is in the DDP guide.

What fees do carriers charge on top of duty and tax?#

Express carriers and posts charge for advancing duty and processing the clearance, and on a low-value order those fees can cost more than the duty does. The table lists fees each carrier publishes on its own pages, with the date of the page or the date we checked it; your account contract may set different amounts.

Carrier and lane Fee Amount Page date
DHL Express, imports into the US Duty Tax Processing, for account holders and for receivers without an account $17.50 or 2.5% of the duty and tax, whichever is higher, per shipment Updated 1 December 2025, effective 1 January 2026
DHL Express, imports into the US Broker Notification, when you use your own broker $55.00 per shipment Same page
DHL Express, imports into the US Customs Physical Intervention, for a non-routine physical inspection $20.00 per shipment Same page
DHL Express, imports into the US Bonded storage when customs can't release the shipment, after 3 working days $30.00 plus $0.08 per kg per day, at least $50.00 Same page
UPS, imports into the US International COD fee when duty isn't paid before delivery $12 Checked 30 October 2026
Royal Mail, imports into the UK Customs handling fee £8 on Royal Mail products, £12 on Parcelforce; £25 on goods over £900, which need a full declaration Checked 30 October 2026

UPS also lists a disbursement fee for advancing duty and tax, entry line charges after the third line on the commercial invoice and warehouse storage after two free days, without amounts on that page. Government fees come on top of all of these: a US automated informal entry pays a $2.77 merchandise processing fee from 1 October 2026 (91 FR 48398).

Worked example: what a $150 order costs the customer#

A customer in Chicago orders goods worth $150, shipped DAP by DHL Express to a receiver without a DHL account. Say the duty and tax come to $22.50 (an example figure). The carrier fee is worked out on that amount, and the customer pays both before delivery.

Line Working Amount
Duty and tax Example figure $22.50
Duty Tax Processing 2.5% of $22.50 is $0.56, below the $17.50 minimum $17.50
Paid by the customer before delivery $40.00

That's about 27% of the order value, and the clearance fee is most of it. Billing duty and tax to yourself under DHL's Duty Tax Paid moves those charges to you, so the customer pays nothing at the door and you can build the cost into your checkout price. The landed cost calculator works out the duty and tax for a product before you choose.

What should you compare between carriers?#

Compare carriers on the full cost of a delivered, cleared parcel and on how much of the customs work they take off you. Postage is the visible number; the duty, the clearance fees, the customer's wait at the border and the way returns are handled decide what the parcel really costs.

Which type of carrier suits which shipments?#

The right carrier depends on the parcel's value, how fast the customer expects it and how much customs work you want to own. A light, low-value parcel and a high-value parcel bound for a strict market rarely belong with the same carrier, so it often pays to use two: one for cheap, slower delivery and one for express with DDP.

  • Postal networks fit light, low-value parcels where the customer accepts slower delivery, especially into the EU with IOSS and into the UK on goods up to £135. Into the US, check first who will file the postal informal entry.
  • Express carriers fit higher values, DDP checkouts, time-sensitive orders and goods that need a formal entry or agency filings, because the carrier brokers the clearance.
  • Consolidators fit steady volumes to one country, where one shipment of many parcels clears through a single partner.

What happens at the border after you choose is in customs clearance for ecommerce parcels.

Common questions#

Do express carriers clear customs for you?#

Yes. UPS describes its brokerage fees as covering the work of a licensed customs broker, and DHL Express clears shipments itself unless you ask it to pass the paperwork to your own broker, for which it charges $55 per US shipment.

Can I ship DDP with the post?#

Partly. EU sellers registered for IOSS collect VAT at checkout, and UK sellers charge VAT at checkout on goods up to £135, but duty collection by post depends on the destination. Into the US, each mail parcel needs a postal informal entry and someone to file it.

What is a disbursement fee?#

A carrier's charge for paying duty and tax to customs on your or your customer's behalf before billing it back. UPS calls it a disbursement fee, and DHL Express calls it Duty Tax Processing.

Sources#