DHL, Fedex and UPS International Shipping Guide Comparison

We have reviewed the international shipping guides from DHL, Fedex and UPS for use by a novice shipper. We have evaluated these guides on the following points:

- Content Layout

- Ease of understanding for a novice shipper

- "How To" instructions provided

- Links to Shipping resources openly available without registration.

For the novice shipper international shipping guides can be a geat way to start to learn about the international shipping process. However writing a useful shipping guide for this audience can be a little tricky because it can become very confusing very quickly. In our estimation DHL provides the best How To Ship International Guide in the form of their "DHL Guide to Exporting" from all four standpoints. This is primarily because their document answers the following questions in a manner that is easy to understand and complete:

- What do you need to start?

- How do I distinguish between Document and Non Document item?

- What forms are the basic forms that I need?

- What kind of shipping resources are available to me?

- What services do you provide?

The "Fedex International Shipping Reference Guide" comes in a close second and the "UPS Navigate International Shipping With Confidence Guide" comes in at a distant third.

The "DHL guide to exporting" differentiation between Document and Non-document item is one of the aspects that push it over the top to first place. Fedex uses a flow chart to differentiate between Document and Non-Document packages that we believe would be confusing to a novice shipper. It is important for the novice international shipper that knowing whether a shipment is a document or not can ofen be the difference betwen a dutiable and non-dutiable shipment. In addtion, it is not always obviuos what is or is not considered a document. The definitions for this category vary from country to country.

Finally DHL won first place because of its inclusion of free shipping resource links that are avialable to the public without first registering. These include their "Trade Document Library" which is a treasure trove of additional country specific documents that may be needed to export to your country besides the basic general documents and "Interactive Classier" for finding Harmonized B and Schedule B numbers. The Fedex guide does not refer to their own classifier they point you to an external government site. UPS make referenced to a TradeAbility tools to find harmonized tariff codes but they do not provide a link to it.