Shipping car parts to the EU banned with DPD

[Batfink]

Hi Guys.

Long time lurker. Is anyone having as much fun as I am shipping to the EU at the moment?
DPD have provided me a list of commodity codes which are not allowed in the EU and 87 codes for vehicle parts are currently banned.
Their call centre team dont know why, I've been told to contact my account manager but they dont have a clue either.
Mostly the packages have been getting through without getting blocked in Europe but their software seems to be blocking commodity codes as of this week.

Is there a good Brexit reason I need to suck up the extra costs of Fedex/TNT who seem to allow the goods?
They sadly charge the receiver £25 customs clearance which DPD don't. UKMail/DPD Local have gone full stupid and say I have to collect the VAT but my customer orders are over the £130 threshhold so I dont have a way of paying local EU country taxes

[skwdenyer]

Batfink said:

Hi Guys.

Long time lurker. Is anyone having as much fun as I am shipping to the EU at the moment?
DPD have provided me a list of commodity codes which are not allowed in the EU and 87 codes for vehicle parts are currently banned.
Their call centre team dont know why, I've been told to contact my account manager but they dont have a clue either.
Mostly the packages have been getting through without getting blocked in Europe but their software seems to be blocking commodity codes as of this week.

Is there a good Brexit reason I need to suck up the extra costs of Fedex/TNT who seem to allow the goods?
They sadly charge the receiver £25 customs clearance which DPD don't. UKMail/DPD Local have gone full stupid and say I have to collect the VAT but my customer orders are over the £130 threshhold so I dont have a way of paying local EU country taxes

Welcome to the wonderful world of Brexit

Are these retail sales? Are you VAT registered? If so, speak to DPD about their DT1 service (which is their "version" of DDP = Delivery Duty Paid). In that scenario, you collect the "inc VAT" price from your customer, ship the goods via DPD DT1 declaring the "ex VAT" price on the shipping manifest. DPD pay the duties (if any) and VAT (if any) in the country of clearance (which may not be the country of destination) and recharge those to you. The goods are now in "free circulation" in the EU and your customer doesn't get hit for any further charges.

If you're not VAT registered, this is going to cost you about 20% of your gross sales value. If you are VAT registered, the chances are this will be basically cost neutral to you.

If these are B2B sales, however (where your customer would expect to reclaim the VAT and you hitherto shipped VAT-free) then you're in a world of pain...

Obv none of this deals with the commodity codes problem. DHL are another option there, and they also offer a DDP service. My recent price comparisons suggest DHL and DPD are evenly-matched price-wise overall (they just price slightly differently, but check all the costs including Brexit fees, fuel surcharges, etc.).

[Batfink]

I am VAT registered but I sell a mixture of UK, EU and International parts so certainly with a duties paid account it could get interesting unless DPD flat rate their customs charges beyond the 4% duty charges. I'll have to make enquiries on the DT1 service.

[skwdenyer]

Batfink said:

I am VAT registered but I sell a mixture of UK, EU and International parts so certainly with a duties paid account it could get interesting unless DPD flat rate their customs charges beyond the 4% duty charges. I'll have to make enquiries on the DT1 service.

If you're VAT registered, and if you're selling retail, then your sales to EU customers are now ex-VAT up to €30k per country per year (some countries are actually €100k per year). That's until 1st July when I-OSS comes in, but that's a different issue - see below!

So in broad outline, you can:

- sell to the EU retail customer at "inc VAT" (actually no VAT, just a higher sale price at 0% VAT).
- ship to the EU retail customer DPD DT1 stating the *ex VAT* price on the consignment documents / DPD portal
- DPD will pay the duty and VAT (VAT on price+duty)
- DPD will recharge you the duty, VAT, plus handling fees (£5 ish or less)
- DPD will deliver to the end customer with no money for them to pay.

From your end, the VAT (money) paid to DPD will be similar to the VAT (actual) that you would have declared anyhow. So the actual cost to you is the duty + handling + shipping. If you, ah-hem, re-price the goods by dividing the UK inc-VAT price by 1.248 to decide the declared value, then by adding duty and VAT on top (assuming duty is 4%) then the duty & VAT paid to DPD will be entirely neutral to you.

Don't forget you also need to worry about country of origin - is 4% a flat rate for all car parts? If not then that 1.248 number will change.

From 1st July 2021, the per-country thresholds are replaced by a pan-EU €10k per yer threshold - above that number, you will need to register in an EU country with a pan-EU "I-OSS = Import One Stop Shop" VAT registration, and then start collecting VAT. At that stage, DPD DT1 isn't going to do what you want it to do, so you'll need a different solution. But you've got a few months to get to that

[Batfink]

From a customer point of view I'm best charging the duties and VAT at the point of sale so I'm going to look into adapting my website to allow it.
I've asked DPD if moving to the DT1 setup has different rules for commodity codes too.
Someone will make money from this Brexit malarky I'm sure...

[Evoluzione]

I'm having trouble with this too, it's an absolute nightmare atm sending anything anywhere.

As a private individual I sent some stuff to Sweden, it was gone for two weeks before coming back. They'd opened the box and thrown the stuff back in so it's damaged.
They said it came back as I didn't have an EORI number and that as a private individual non business I should have one, 'The internet' seems to back this up, but I thought it was for businesses.
DPD left the box outside my house on the pavement, I found it when I got home.

As you say DPD aren't taking car parts, they don't know why and it's not on their list of prohibited items, but they say it is.
Yet they let you book them in and pay for it! Sometimes they take them and return them, other times they won't let you print the labels off.
You have to queue on 'Live chat' for up to 2 hrs, they read your problems in the chat box and cut you off!

That's one instance in a few.

[anonymous-user]

What sort of parts are you sending? Things like crankshafts for example can (as far as I can tell.. don't quote me etc etc) sit in an 8407 tariff code...

[Ean218]

Evoluzione said:

They said it came back as I didn't have an EORI number and that as a private individual non business I should have one, 'The internet' seems to back this up, but I thought it was for businesses.

A private individual importing or exporting for their own use does not need an EORI. That doesn't of course stop bolshy europeans trying to stuff you up though.

[Evoluzione]

Ean218 said:

Evoluzione said:

They said it came back as I didn't have an EORI number and that as a private individual non business I should have one, 'The internet' seems to back this up, but I thought it was for businesses.

A private individual importing or exporting for their own use does not need an EORI. That doesn't of course stop bolshy europeans trying to stuff you up though.

I know I told DPD that, they just kept repeating I need an EORI number as I've sold something and sent the package back.
They've told me quite a few times recently that 'car engine parts' are on their prohibited list and they aren't. No matter what you tell them they lie, or make excuses.
They just make the rules up as they go along and there is nothing you can do about it.

The OPs observations are right, if DPDs price is £20 then Fedex is £45 for the same parcel.

I've just rebooked and called it all 'Machine parts' and will see what happens.

[Batfink]

Car parts are currently on their prohibited list but I've continued to ship out regardless. However so far the majority of packages get through ok with only Spain, Italy and Sweden Finland so far I've found as having an absolute ban. They've updated their software to not allow the 87 commodity codes to work for these countries.
Spain just seems like a black hole for parcels at the moment so I'm using TNT for there now as SEUR seem like a company full of morons.

[Skyway]

This is a very interesting topic as a large part of our business is sending car parts to the EU and DPD have been making such a mess of things we are now looking to us Fed-Ex and TNT.

Doe anyone happen to know if any of the other big couriers offer the same DT1 type pre paid system as DPD as this could make a huge difference to our EU orders?

[skwdenyer]

Skyway said:

This is a very interesting topic as a large part of our business is sending car parts to the EU and DPD have been making such a mess of things we are now looking to us Fed-Ex and TNT.

Doe anyone happen to know if any of the other big couriers offer the same DT1 type pre paid system as DPD as this could make a huge difference to our EU orders?

FedEx offers DDP. Be careful to get their full costs however - handling fees, fuel surcharges, Brexit fees, pandemic surcharges, etc. I'm seeing some *big* bills.

As above, remember to knock off the VAT and duty from the price you declare, so you're only paying duty and VAT on the underlying price.

Note also this sort of service is not suitable for B2B transactions where the customer might want to reclaim VAT.

If you're selling more then €10k pa into the EU as a whole, start thinking now about the changes coming in July (EU I-OSS).

HTH

[Skyway]

Very help full indeed. Thank you.