Restricted And Prohibited Items in International Shipping
As the communication channels and technology is facing rapid development and growth. Ecommerce businesses, physical businesses, social stores, or start-ups, and businesses from home sell and ship their products to domestic customer and international customers.
Through ecommerce stores and social media handles, it has become easy and convenient to sell the products to global customers. Selling products to the customer is easy, but the real challenge and complexities start for the sellers when they have to ship them to international customers with complete safety and documentation.
International shipment of the product is quite a tedious and complex process to deal. As a result, sellers and courier companies face many challenges while processing international shipments.
International shipment needs many procedures, documentation to complete before shipping. All the countries have different rules and regulations while getting products ship from other countries. There is a list of some products which are restricted or prohibited from shipment in a particular country. As an ecommerce seller and courier service provider, you need to have complete knowledge of difference and restricted and prohibited items.
To ensure your parcel arrives with your recipient without any delays, read our helpful guide on understanding the difference between prohibited and restricted items.
Before sending parcels through the post, it is often best practice to check that the sending items are not prohibited or restricted from being sent. Prohibited and Restricted items are referenced across many parcel networks to adhere to national and international regulations – ensuring that items are safe to post.
As the parcel’s sender, you are responsible for checking whether the items you are sending are prohibited or restricted. While prohibited and restricted items may sound the same, there is an actual difference – prohibited items must never be sent in the post. In contrast, restricted items may be sent in the post, but restrictions will apply.
We wanted to explain this further, to help you achieve parcel delivery success!
What Are Restricted Items?
It’s important to be aware of potential restrictions when shipping goods Internationally. There is a surprisingly long list of items that should not be sent in the mail, which also extends to items that may only be sent under certain conditions. These are deemed to be ‘restricted.’
Items can be restricted due to packaging, volume, quantity, labelling, or the product itself.
It’s important to be aware of potential restrictions when shipping goods. There is a surprisingly long list of items that should not be sent, which also extends to items that may only be sent under certain conditions. These are deemed to be ‘restricted.’
In a shipping sense, restricted can mean one of two things;
1. It could be that an item is allowed, but only within a certain quantity
2. A certain item can be sent by post, but only if it meets certain criteria
For example, sending batteries are restricted by type (car batteries are prohibited); the amount must fall under a certain level for quality control. This means that damaged or defective batteries are forbidden. In addition, lithium-ion batteries may only be sent with – but not connected to – an electronic device.
Restrictions like these on courier deliveries are generally in place for safety reasons; to prevent fire, damage to packages, or prevent health and hygiene risks. In addition to those set out by the industry, they may also vary between courier companies – so you must check them before booking your delivery. Restricted items can be sent or delivered to other countries with permission and grants from concerned authorities of another country.
Alcoholic beverages, electronic cigarettes, watches, perfume, food, dangerous goods, seeds, flower or plants, drugs, adult toys and equipment, weapons, and more other to the list of restricted items.
What Are Prohibited Items?
Prohibited items or products are completed banned from shipping to another country; there is a long list of prohibited items in different countries.
The prohibited items also differ from country to country as every individual country have their own rules and regulations related to products. For example, restricted items may be shipped through the other country with grant and permission, but the prohibited items cannot be shipped through courier services as they are banned in that country. In addition, they may be dangerous, illegal, or some other reason to ban or prohibit the item.
The other country can even take legal actions if these items are shipped to the country.
Ammunition, fireworks, bank bill, notes, currency, hazardous waste, precious stones, human remains, animals, animals’ parts, narcotics, illegal objects, pornography, fur, and others come under prohibited items. In addition, they may be more items in the list which are prohibited in different countries.
Final Thoughts
We know the key differences between the restricted and prohibited items while proceeding with the international shipment. Therefore, you need to take the necessary measures before shipping the restricted item and get all the knowledge about the list of restricted and prohibited items of the country you are shipping products in. Your courier service provider may help you with the list.
