Possible Fines and Prison Time Penalties Effective 02/01/2009

POSSIBLE FINES AND PRISON TIME EFFECTIVE
FEBRUARY 1, 2009 FOR NON-COMPLIANCE WITH INTERNATIONAL SHIPPING REQUIREMENTS - In June and September, we told you about the Census Bureau change, effective July 2, 2008, requiring mandatory filing of export information through the Automated Export System (AES) or AESDirect [http://www.aesdirect.gov/]. This is for all shipments where a Shipper’s Export Declaration (SED) is required. The "adjustment period", delayed from October 1, 2008 to February 1, 2009, ends tomorrow. Starting February 1, 2009, enforcement of the new requirements, including the potential fines and prison time for non-compliance, will start. The fines and prison time are significant - up to $10,000 and 5 years per shipment.

Some history-

If Electronic Export Information (EEI) is required for a U.S. export, the EEI must be electronically filed to the Automated Export System (AES) by the U.S. Principal Party in Interest (USPPI) (normally this is the exporter) or their designated agent.

There are more rules about when EEI is required than can be covered well here. UPS, FedEx and USPS want different information about EEI, some of the exemption numbers have changed, and there are many other requirements. Contact your carrier(s) so they can advise you about how to comply with this new requirement. The USPPI can file for themselves directly with AESDirect at http://www.aesdirect.gov/. Carriers may offer other filing method options. You will find additional information about this at [http://www.census.gov/foreign-trade/www/].

Green Packaging Can Save You Some Green!

Happy New Year!

For our first post this year we want to point out an on-line slide show about Green shipping we saw during the holidays at http://www.treehugger.com/. It was a neat slide show that you can see by clicking here.

There are many more reasons to look at your packaging. In addition to all discussed in the slide show, cutting down the weight and size of your packages can save a bundle in oversize and regular shipping costs. Having the right size packaging can also make the difference in which carrier you choose to get the best price.

More Turn to Internet Retailers for Holiday Shopping

Retail sales figures may be down this year for many retailers. We are told customers are buying less. But, there is one strong trend that we are seeing that is very positive. There are definitely more buyers purchasing on the web this year!

How can that be when overall retail sales are down? We are seeing a 2-5% increase in unique people tracking packages daily as compared to last year’s volumes. This means that even though volumes shipped are down as a whole, more people are turning to the web for their holiday shopping than ever before. We feel this is a very strong indicator for the future of the Internet retailer.

We also continue to receive reports from some of our clients that they not only have more customers buying this year, they also report increased sales. In fact, clients who used our CPS flat rate calculator to employ our flat rate and free shipping strategies were among the majority of those reporting increased sales. We find this very positive, too.

Yet Another Reason to Consider Flat Rate Shipping

As stated in a recent article at InternetRetailer.com, the U.S. Postal Service web site is still having problems with its web shipping tools. This release also states malfunctioning USPS web tools failed to report the USPS price causing more expensive rates of other carriers to be displayed for those that rate shop on their sites. This caused a measurable increase in shopping cart abandonment. This is yet another example why flat rate or even free shipping is better than trying to use real time rating at the time of order processing. Not to mention the fact that these shipping methods can even help you close more sales and increase the amount purchased!

Now that we are getting to the end of the holiday shipping season, we are getting reports from several retailers that have used our suggestions on how they handled shipping this year at their web sites. Those businesses that decided to try flat rate or free shipping had very positive things to say. They are using the techniques outlined in our free whitepaper found at BusinessShipper.com. The same retailers that have had good results are telling us that even though they see the negative effects of the economy on how much people are spending, they are also seeing more customers buying on-line! Just think how these businesses would have done in a more positive year…

Important Holiday Dates for Shippers

As we end up 2008 and begin 2009 there are some important dates that all shippers should be aware of. The following are the last days domestic holiday packages can be shipped for on time Christmas deliveries with USPS:

December 16, 2008 Parcel Post
December 20, 2008 First-Class Mail/Priority Mail
December 23, 2008 Express Mail

USPS International delivery schedule can be found at the link below:

http://www.usps.com/holiday/shippingcalendar.htm?from=home_ftpromo&page=holidayintlmaildates

UPS and FedEx pickup and delivery information can be found at the links below:

http://www.compass.ups.com/article/article.aspx?id=2289

http://www.fedex.com/us/holiday/shipping/lastdaystoship.html

In addition to holiday delivery schedules there some other dates that are rapidly coming up. In January many carrier rates and services will be changing. The following are the dates these changes take place.

FedEx

January 5, 2009 Rates, Fuel Surcharges and Services change. For more on these changes visit:

http://www.fedex.com/us/rates2009/index.html

UPS

January 5, 2009 Rates, Fuel Surcharges and Services change. For more on these changes visit:

http://www.ups.com/rates/

USPS

January 18, 2009 Rates and Services change. For more on these changes visit:

http://www.usps.com/prices/pricechanges.htm?from=home_ftpromo&page=newshippingprices


All Harvey Software CPS shippers will receive the rates and service changes by download and will automatically reflect the new carrier changes.

Make sure to mark calendars with all these very important dates!

We here at Harvey Software all wish everyone a happy holiday season and a prosperous New Year!

More Profits for Companies that Ship in December

Would you like to save over 10% on your air shipping and almost 1½% on you ground shipping? It doesn't look like there has been much notice about this yet, but on December 1st, the fuel surcharge for the two largest package carriers will drop significantly for both ground and air service. If any of your shipping can wait until that December 1st pickup date, you will be charged a lower shipping rate due to the lower fuel surcharge. So, if you absolutely, positively have to ship a package before Thanksgiving, then it's got to go. But if you can wait for that Monday pickup, the savings are significant. This could mean the difference between a good and great holiday sales profit!

Looking at International Packages Damaged in Customs

Recently we had a shipper neatly roll up and send photographs from the US to Canada using a large Mail Tube. When the photographs arrived at their destination it was discovered that the tube had been opened and the photographs had been folded into thirds and placed back in the tube. Naturally this destroyed the photographs. With some investigation we discovered that the tube had been opened in Customs and that was where the pictures had been folded and placed back in the tube. But that was not the end of the problems for the shipper and recipient.

Unfortunately the recipient did not save the tube. When they made the claim for the damaged contents, they were unable to collect for damages in Canada. This left the shipper to deal with our carrier of choice, and they eventually received an amount that covered only some of their costs.

Hearing all this made us think, “Is there a difference between shipping internationally with all the different carriers when it comes to dealing with customs damages?” The following is what one of the commercial carriers told us during our investigation:

“Any Customs officer can open any package they choose regardless if it is an export or import. The only exceptions are diplomatic bags/pouches. The difference between shipping with us is the fact that one of our employees opens the package and reseals it, where with other carriers, the Customs officers works alone. In the case of our package, should the contents be damaged by a Customs officer, our employee will notate it and the customer (be that consignee or shipper) will have recourse with the government to file a claim.”

The good news is we were also told by this carrier that this does not happen very often. At least for them, in all cases where it did happen they noted that the Customs officer included a claim procedure inside the package. (Something our shipper in the above example did not have happen.) The alternate carrier did say that the Customs officers generally are very respectful of the contents and do take care not to damage goods.

After our investigation we have found that there is a difference. We must package our international shipments so they can be easily inspected by Customs regardless of carrier. We must be aware that there is a difference in how your products could be handled and you should check with your carrier representative to know for sure. We have been told by several industry people that the inspection rate is about 6 percent for Canadian shipments although the government has mandated 10 percent. More on this subject can be found at the links below or at your carrier’s web site:

United States Customs: http://www.cbp.gov/xp/cgov/trade/
Canada Border Services Agency: http://www.cbsa-asfc.gc.ca/