How to make Shipping to Puerto Rico Easy
Difficulties with Shipping to Puerto Rico
Shipping to a region like Puerto Rico can seem like an easy enough thing to do. Even though Puerto Rico is part of the United States, shipping to or from this location can often be tricky. The reason being, the customs forms could be complicated and cumbersome. Figuring out what is allowed to be shipped can be confusing and overall shipping delays can be irritating. Here are ways people can make shipping to Puerto Rico easy
Dealing with Customs
Like the rest of the US, Puerto Rico is subjected to the same U.S. customs territory. This means U.S, customs laws apply and imported goods must be reported to the customs agency. Contents are inspected and ensured they are compliant with U.S. law.
Goods must also be classified and evaluated accurately according to the American customs agency, this process referred as declarations.
The declarations part of shipping and getting through customs is often the trickiest. Most of the time this is handled by the shipping courier that is used. This still requires people to be very clear and accurate for the declaration section on the courier service used. The information that is provided to the carriers is directly being used by the courier service.
It is then provided to the customs agent for review/inspection. Filling these forms our correctly can make shipping to Puerto Rico easy for everyone from the customs agents to the courier service.
Prohibited Items
Much like the rest of the US, Puerto Rico has a strict list of prohibited or banned items for shipping. The prohibited list is extensive and can in the case where you do ship one of these items, the package will be confiscated. Depending on what was shipped, it may incur legal action against you, such as prosecution.
Customs takes it time to comb through every package, purely for safety purposes. This is why a lot of what is shipped is held for an underestimate amount of time which makes express shipping a difficult thing to achieve. Even something as harmless as a spray can be deemed a hazardous good. Its best to stay clear of confusion and read up on what is allowed vs what is not.
The best strategy is to allow for a large lead time that takes into account the potential delay from Customs.
How to make Shipping to Puerto Rico Easy
Considering the hurdles to ship to Puerto Rico the best way to make shipping more of a breeze is understanding what you are shipping. If the item is a non prohibited good, the best thing a person can do is fill in the contents for the customs form to the best of their ability. Another tip is to allow for a healthy margin of time to take into account the delay caused from inspection.
This is difficult to do for urgent packages, the best way to deal with this is to use credited, bonded carriers or companies that deal with carriers to use its relationship and experience to help packages arrive on time.
Using a service like Reship.com is an easy way to do all of that. With experience and certifications to ship almost any good, Reship can take care of the heavily lifting involved with shipping to and from Puerto Rico.