Shipping/brokerage costs to Vancouver
 

As we know if we buy say a skimmer and some other stuff from the US the shipping costs really add to our landed cost here plus $25.00 brokerage fees.

I contacted a CTB (Certified Transportation Broker) this morning.To ship a truckload (45,000 lbs) from anywhere in the US to Vancouver as opposed to Seattle only adds $500.00 to the cost.

Wayne Ryan

how many hundreds on duty?

US made goods are duty free.

what about live rock from us waters. big dirrerence in canadian vs us prices

also how many aquarium products are actually made in the us.

It is illegal to harvest live rock in the US. Most of it is shipped directly from Indonesia and other Asian countries to the US for the US market and to Canada for the Canadian market.

I have no idea but I believe fish food is exempt from duty no matter where is was made. Chinese made aquariums are imported directly to Canada. No idea what the duty rate is on that kind of stuff.

full truck?
 

Dude, give your head a shake. Look at the size of the Canadian stores. How many of them are bringing in full truckloads (~40 to 48 skids) of goods from a single supplier. None. This argument and information is worthless. I'm sure the CTB appreciated you wasting their time.....

Jim

Jim, with the greatest respect you are wrong.

Seattle LFS or wholesalers face the same issue regarding bringing in less than full truckloads as those in Vancouver.

Therefore, the only difference is freight to Vancouver which is five hundred bucks a truckload.

Wrong....the US vendors likely have way more pre paid shipping deals than a Canadian vendor.
I'm not in the aquarium industry, but in one that is logistically very similar. I work for a distributor who imports many many products from the US and trust me...shipping is not cheap. Often there are pre-paid shipping deals, but you generally need to buy 5-10K plus to meet free freight. So if it's a product line where only a few SKU's sell well, you aften need to buy 6months to a year+ supply to get the freight pre-paid. Now all of the sudden, you are stuck with product you bought at a higher dollar.....Seriously man, it does cost canadian importers more than you think to buy US goods.

:lol:

Why pay a brokerage fee?

Get the seller to ship your goods USPS and avoid this all together.

USPS is their own customs broker and doesn't charge you a brokerage fee. :biggrin:

I get shippments from the US on a weekly basis and avoid UPS like the plague.

Good to know.
I mentioned brokerage fees because I wanted to do a fair comparison between a hobbyist buying from the US and a Canadian based wholesaler that sells to Canadian LFS.
Before I checked with the CTB I assumed there were fairly large fees involved when a truck crosses the border.

I was told the trucking companies absorb these fees and the truckers understand that there is extra time involved in crossing the border. Both the trucking companies and the truckers want to keep the trucks running as that is how they make their money.
Thanks
Wayne

Interesting thread. In a free society it is possible and perfectly moral to sell at " what the market will bear " . Competition usually controls excessive profits ( we could do with a bit more in the banking sector ! )
What is unusual, in this situation is the HUGE difference in prices accross the border.
Most of us would understand and accept a difference say of 10% - 15% due to varying market conditions ,but when a camera that retails for c$ 585:00 can be purchased over the line for U.S.$330:00( C$ 320:00? )something is seriously out of whack. A RETAILER in Canada could buy RETAIL from the U.S. ,pay all duties ,brokerage etc.and still have room to sell here cheaper and realise a healthy mark-up...........................
We can only ,as suggested by the consumer advocate in Ottawa ,vote with our feet and buy where the price right. I am perfectly happy to pay a few more dollars but suck the lemon on nearly double the price !
The above being said ,we out west are served very well ,particularly in Vancouver and the Island by our local stores with variety, and friendly, freely given advice which is impossible to put a price on.

...........................Dave

Initially I thought a 10% to 15% higher cost to us was justified based on shipping and brokerage but was surprised to see that even that was way out of line. With the dollar now at 4% more than the US dollar that is more than adequate to cover any additional costs they have including freight.