FedEx international ancillary fees

When shipping internationally, FedEx as well as other carriers offer standard customs clearance on express air shipments, and do not charge brokerage fees; however, they will still charge different fees by country for other services associated with customs clearance.

Examples of FedEx ancillary fees include additional line items, storage, freight clearance, returned goods, other government agency processing, temporary import, customized service, direct payment processing, post clearance entry adjustment, and an advancement fee.

FedEx international advancement fee

The advancement fee is the most commonly charged fee of all the ancillary fees. The reason for this is because FedEx will pay for all the duties and taxes/VAT on behalf of the receiver, and then collect the charges from the receiver. For example, a shipment to the UK will have a minimum charge of ￡10.50 or 2.5% of the advanced duties and taxes, whichever is greater. UPS has similar fees; to Canada, UPS had a bond fee, and outside of Canada, it is a UPS disbursement fee.

Landed cost and ancillary/advancement fees

The FedEx GTM (Global Trade Manager) calculates and estimates duties and taxes that will be levied on your export shipments. Most customers do not realize that even if they use the Global Trade Manager, it only calculates duties and taxes/VAT and does not calculate any international FedEx advancement fees or other ancillary fees. This could mean a very large cost difference between the duty/tax estimator (GTM) and the actual total landed cost to the consumer. For example, a shipment is valued at $50 USD to the UK charged at a total of 20% VAT with duties estimated at $10.00, but is charged another ￡10.50 or close to $17.00 USD (Google Currency Converter). These additional charges could leave your customer paying a lot more than expected, or leave you with the extra cost if the order was sent DDP.

Zonos™ software allows for the calculations of ancillary fees and other charges to better estimate a total landed cost.