[nottorp]

> Paying ~$30 for express shipping through DHL (plus whatever the new tariffs end up being) will still get you those parts in 3-5 days to most major shipping hubs in the US, your suppliers will just need to start filing the export paperwork correctly.

In my european experience, DHL is anything but fast when customs are involved. And I doubt they have the manpower to handle it for the new US rules.

> These changes will likely have bigger impacts on cheap off the shelf parts from e-commerce places like Temu or AliExpress, who were previously taking advantage of both the de minimis rule and inequal international rates through USPS.

Again in my european experience, the likes of Temu have solved the problem. You just order and a courier shows up with the taxes already handled. You paid Temu for them when you ordered and they paid the taxes for you at the point of entry to the EU.

Unfortunately they probably don't have a similar setup in the US, but they're likely to solve it much faster than DHL.

And of course prices will increase. Will that make them less competitive? Time will tell.

[catherd]

DHL B2C shipments to the EU are generally held in customs until the duty is paid, which makes it slow but ensures DHL isn't left holding the bag when people decide they don't want to pay unexpected import duties.

That's (historically) not the case for US B2B shipments. For those, DHL pays the duty as the shipment goes through customs and then sends an invoice after the parcel is delivered.

[account42]

> DHL B2C shipments to the EU are generally held in customs until the duty is paid

That used to be the case here in Germany until recently when they started paying the duty for you and then demand it at pickup along with a "small" markup (up to 1000% when the duty was low) for a service you never asked for.

[yladiz]

I agree, if the information is available electronically they should just automatically process it with no fee (I assume this is how it’s handled most of the time anyway). At least you can opt out of the process, but then you’re responsible for filling out all the forms, which suck since ATLAS is not a nice system to work with. Maybe in the future they’ll get rid of this admin fee.

[throwaway290]

DHL doesn't accept packages anymore (or temporarily, hopefully) either https://www.thestandard.com.hk/breaking-news/section/4/22675...

[nottorp]

Understandable, they have to reevaluate the effort and probably adjust pricing. Upwards.

> DHL B2C shipments to the EU are generally held in customs until the duty is paid, which makes it slow but ensures DHL isn't left holding the bag when people decide they don't want to pay unexpected import duties.

Nothing is unexpected with DHL considering the amount of paperwork they want you to fill each time :) Even if you check "retain my data for next time and don't send me this form again".

They indeed send me a payment link and i pay for customs online before the package starts moving.

I don't do Asia->EU shipments but I get prototypes maybe 2-3 times per year from the US. We gave up on DHL and are using UPS now... they want 800% less forms, cost much less and take about the same time to deliver.

[m4rtink]

Yeah, DHL has been usually a pain with customs paperwork - needed far too much hand-holding compared to other options (eq. a regular local European carrier doing the same thing).

Unfortunately, with DHL this can even end up costing a lot of extra as they might even start to accumulate a storage fee as they hold the package while they make sense of the documents you sent them. :P

[rjsw]

It isn't just the EU that does this, AliExpress collects the taxes for shipments to the UK as well.

[_heimdall]

I had the same experience with DHL while I was in the Netherlands. Here in the US its been fine, my best guess is that it has to do with how customs and duties are handled.

[jagermo]

> In my european experience, DHL is anything but fast when customs are involved. And I doubt they have the manpower to handle it for the new US rules.

yeah, but like with t-mobile, I think the US branch might be working better than what we are used from them in europe/germany.