Urgent Shipping Advice

SurgicalA wrote: »

Sorry if this is the wrong place but I can’t find a better suitable place

Seriously? Your only posts on the MoneySavingExpert forums so far have been on the credit card board, but now you have a question about shipping mince pies internationally and you think the best place for it is the MoneySavingExpert discussion board for savings and investments? It doesn't seem much like you are planning on making investments or depositing money in a savings account here, so you may not find the experts you need.

I’m looking to ship a package this week containing a few items of clothing, box of chocolates, and some mince pies & mr Kipling cakes, all in original packaging to my friend in the states.

Now, do I need FDA Prior Notice approval? Apparently I do

You say you apparently need prior notice approval but then you go on to say that the carriers Parcelforce and DHL (two of the biggest in the UK and US respectively) have said you don't need prior notice approval for food items sent person to person between private individuals.

Also, the parcelhero website has an explicit link titled "FDA guidelines on sending food to the United States" which points to the FDA site https://www.fda.gov/food/importing-food-products-united-states/prior-notice-policy-sending-gifts-your-friends-and-family

The FDA compliance guide says (in line with what you have been told by Parcelforce and DHL) that that they will generally not take enforcement action against people who don't provide prior notice approval for food shipped for non-business purposes when the shipper is an individual. So, technically you need it but when it's non-commercial, sent as a gift from an individual to another for personal consumption, and you are the shipper, then practically you don't need it.

Perhaps the problem you have faced with Parcel Hero is that if you give "the job of sending a package to your friend" to Parcel Hero, to use their 'buying power' with the courier companies to get a great rate, then they might take over as the 'shipper' when engaging a real carrier service like DHL or Fedex or Parcelforce to send it for you.

If they are taking the role of the 'shipper', as a commercial organisation, it's not being shipped by an individual to another indvidual as far as the FDA are concerned. The FDA are only going to turn a blind eye to the lack of prior approval notice if there are no commercial organisations listed on the documentation and it is going from your personal address to your friend's personal address, not via a business.

So if that's the case, a middleman or agency service might save costs compared with going direct to the courier / carrier service, but could require a costly special form to go with it. It depends on the nature of their relationship with you and the carrier. If they are acting as the carrier's agent, it is effectively the same as you dealing with the carrier and paying off the agent to pay the DHL or Fedex invoice. If instead you are outsourcing your delivery job and giving a commercial organisation the task of engaging a courier of their choice to send something from them to your friend, it might not be person-to-person according to the paperwork. You can probably get this clarified by speaking to the company concerned.

Need an urgent response, thanks!

Ask the question in a suitable place if you want better or faster responses.

Also, if you don't want to fill out an pay for a special form, and you know your local DHL service point doesn't need one, you already have that solution (of using a local DHL service point) available to you. Especially as the information you quoted from DHL does say, same as the FDA site, that your person-to-person non-commercial shipments will be subject to FDA discretion - i.e. your lack of paperwork will be overlooked / ignored rather than cause the shipment to be automatically blocked.