In John Tuttle's recent post on sending parcels out of the US
using UPS, one small but important detail was not mentioned:
customs clearance.

Here is my experience with that:  From time to time I order piano parts
from a supplier in the US.  As I live in Canada, all parcels must clear
customs.  Usually I request the sender to ship with US Mail, however
once I was in a hurry and asked them to ship with UPS.

Interestingly, as I found out, parcels shipped by US Mail can clear
Canadian customs directly, whereas parcels sent by courier must be
cleared by a customs broker.  In my case, this added $30 to the already
higher shipping cost.  To add insult to injury, dealing with a broker
meant a delay of several days, so the parcel arrived as fast (or slow)
as the regular snail mail would have brought it.

In the future, I will reserve courier use for shipping non-replaceable
items.  And I will order parts early to save myself $50.

Jurgen Goering
Vancouver Island
British Columbia, Canada