International Shipping

Daniel
Posts: 133
Joined: Tue Nov 13, 2012 2:10 pm

International Shipping

Unread post by Daniel »

The cancellation of many commercial flights have wreaked havoc on international shipping. Shipping to larger countries is slower than usual but not ridiculously slow and final delivery is influenced by the local customs office. If they are under staffed then clearance is slow to very slow with large shipments having priority.

Shipping to smaller countries and islands are really problematic at the moment and six weeks is very typical. It seems that the mail is collected till there's enough to arrange transport. Couriers are not helpful and often decline to quote or accept packages to less popular destinations. I don't know when this will be resolved but this is not something under my control. Courier rates have gone up, sometimes dramatically.

The following countries seem to be the least affected:
Canada
Most of the continental EU and UK and Ireland
Australia
Switzerland
New Zealand
Mexico.

The worst affected areas, in order of increasing delays are
Principalities in Europe
The Middle East
All of South America
All Island Nations
All of Africa

22 MAy 2020
https://about.usps.com/newsroom/service ... elcome.htm
contains a list of places for which shipping is unavailable at the moment. Very few of the orders are destined for these countries so the impact should be minimal. Delivery delays varied widely but has now stabilized somewhat, in particular the packages now leave the country in a more predictable way even though its closer to a week on average than the normal two days. I've had some overseas packages spend almost a month in the USA on a grand tour before leaving the country.

20 June 2021
International shipping via US Post Office is back to air mail for all destinations. Shipping times are still about 30% slower than before the shutdowns. Domestic shipping is back to normal.
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