There’s a cottage industry of companies in big cities that will truck your US-bound package to the US for $1 each and deposit it into USPS.

Eg: chitchats express.

Sometimes Canadians do this for shipments to Canada because it can be a lot cheaper.

How does that deal with customs and inspections?

Originally they didn’t collect much data and used manifests on the individual packages, but for the past 5-6 years they’ve a computer system to enter package info, it’s basically a Google Sheet, and they show the manifest like any other shipping company. They’ll occasionally get a thorough stop but it’s up to chance as anything when at a trusted, high-volume border crossing. If you’ve a Nexus card and nothing to declare, you don’t actually have to stop at the border between the US and Canada if Nexus lanes are open... and if you do have something to declare you can drop off a form. Also they probably stick to the same land border crossings and the same schedule to make it easier long-term. They can close many borders but there a lot of commerce and cross-border travel between Canada and the US and parts of Canada can be more populated/central than parts of the US and vice versa. Besides, as long as the carrier follows directions from CBP or CBSA, the responsibility of the shipment belongs with the shipper and you have to leave your complete ”from” details and they even check IDs, in order to ship with them. They send the list in advance so anything suspicious can be flagged or recorded, that’s how customs works in this digital era...

Thanks for the extra perspective. At the end of the day, they're no different than Fedex bringing packages across the border.

Yeah the description sounded very ad-hoc and quasi-unofficial but should have known it would be actually pretty normal.

Show the manifest, they go through it. Dunno how much they inspect.

My guess is that the company just hires dual citizens to avoid visa issues.

US lets you do personal imports up to US$800 per import without taxes/duties, so they limit it to that.

> My guess is that the company just hires dual citizens to avoid visa issues.

This isn't related, the company can hire anyone they want to man the trucks. Do it often, and you register with FAST.

> US lets you do personal imports up to US$800 per import without taxes/duties, so they limit it to that.

That only applies to personal good, not things you're bringing for commercial purposes, and there's a minimum away-from-the-country time.

Well, that’s what the transport company requires. I’m guessing they’re brokering each package themselves, not as the entire lot at once.

I doubt US is letting them bring truckloads in if what I said about tariffs/taxes/duties is untrue.

https://support.chitchats.com/en/articles/1733099-what-items...

No minimum away-from-country time. That's for Canadians, not USians.

Sounds like the next thing for big VCs to fund. It used to be that going somewhere with strangers you met online was feared, then came Uber. Couch surfing? AirBnB. Next, getting packages around customs, tariffs, and expensive shipping by crowd sourcing? Bam! VC Unicorn.

Kinda like the Mexico-Canada dual-citizen Mennonite drug-smuggler Mafia: https://www.cbc.ca/fifth/m/episodes/2016-2017/the-mennonite-...