Service, Regulatory Updates and Important Notifications
Service, Regulatory Updates and Important Notifications
Service News
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) is rolling out an automated capability to enforce the de minimis threshold, which allows the duty and tax-free entry of shipments with an aggregate value of USD800 or less per person, per day. FedEx customers are reminded that if a recipient’s aggregated imported shipments across all transportation modes or carriers exceed the USD800 de minimis daily threshold, then informal or formal entries may be required—including payment of all applicable duties, taxes, and fees—and may be subject to delays as a result.
While the “per person, per day” de minimis provision is already actively enforced by CBP, we anticipate that automated enforcement of this provision will lead to more consistent and comprehensive treatment by CBP.
To avoid potential clearance delays, FedEx encourages customers to follow these best practices to remain in compliance with CBP guidelines:
Provide precise cargo descriptions when creating shipments with FedEx.
These guidelines include a precise product description, specific monetary value and currency, shipper and recipient details, as well as an HS code (where required). Vague merchandise descriptions violate CBP guidelines and may delay clearance.
To learn more about writing a clear commodity description and HS code, watch our video here.
Ensure you are using FedEx Ship ManagerTM at fedex.com or the most updated version of FedEx shipping software.
If inbound shipments are heading to fulfillment centers:
Follow CBP’s guidance during shipment creation, including listing the consignee name as “[Merchandise Owner Name] c/o [fulfillment center name]”, for example, “Company ABC c/o Amazon Fulfillment Center”.
For further information and support regarding this enforcement, please contact your sales representative or FedEx customer service team.
The following changes will take effect on January 13, 2025, for FedEx international shipments:
All international packages that meet the criteria of Additional Handling Surcharge – Dimension will be subject to an 18kg (40lb) minimum billable weight. Other Additional Handling Surcharge assessment criteria currently used to determine the applicability of these surcharges remain unchanged. Visit our Surcharge and other information webpage for details.
NOTE: If a FedEx package is subject to an Oversize Charge or Additional Handling Surcharge – Packaging, and also meets the criteria for Additional Handling Surcharge – Dimension, the minimum billable weight of 18kg (40lb) will still apply. This means that this condition is applied even if Additional Handling Surcharge – Dimension itself is not charged.
A U.S. Inbound Processing Fee will be assessed on all international shipments imported into the U.S. in connection with the processing of those shipments for customs clearance. Visit our Surcharge and other information webpage for details.
Additional surcharges will be included in the list of fuel-applicable surcharge for all international shipments. Visit our Fuel surcharge webpage for details.
A Duty and Tax Forwarding Fee will apply instead of the Disbursement Fee if the shipper selects a third-party billing option for duties and taxes and duties and taxes are to be paid outside of the shipment’s destination country. Visit our Clearance services and related fees webpage for details.
As a countermeasure against weather especially snow, Nagaoka World Service Center (WSC) will move up pickup on-call cut off time loaded on the same day flight thirty (30) minutes earlier than usual from Jan 6 to Feb 28.
Details are showing below:
|
Regular |
Winter snowfall period （Jan 6 to Feb 28） |
Nagaoka-shi, Tsubame-shi, Sanjo-shi, Mitsuke-shi, |
11:30 （Mon to Fri） |
11:00 （Mon to Fri） |
Niigata-shi, Nishikanbara-gun Yahiko-mura, Kamo-shi, Joetsu-shi, Kashiwazaki-shi, Ojiya-shi, Part of Shibatashi, Part of Seiro-machi |
11:00 （Mon to Fri） |
10:30 （Mon to Fri） |
* There will be no change in Package drop off time and the pickup on-call cut off time for next-day uplift.
Your kind understanding and cooperation would be highly appreciated.
If you have any inquiries, please contact customer service.
Japan Customs offices in Tokyo and Osaka awarded FedEx with certificates of recognition for our understanding of customs administration and continuous cooperation.
FedEx operates and serves customers in more than 220 countries and territories, with absolute commitment to ethics, integrity, and reliability. Every international package requires customs clearance and customers look to us for superior and differentiated clearance services to help expedite their shipments. Our governance structure is the bedrock of FedEx’s continued success. FedEx operations are aligned with Japan Customs’ mission which includes intercepting high-risk goods at the border and enhancing vigilance.
Representatives from FedEx attended the award ceremonies and received certificates of recognition from Japan Customs directors at each office.
Effective November 4, 2024, Air Freight Premier Care is available in Japan, Hong Kong, Korea and Taiwan.
Air Freight Premier Care supports our customers for a one-stop shop shipping experience with below offering provided:
Create air waybill on behalf of customers
Proactive monitoring & intervention – working hours
Proactive monitoring & intervention – 24/7
Customized reporting
Customized post-sales support
More ancillary services will be available through Air Freight Premier Care in the upcoming months, and we are planning to expand our service to more Asia Pacific markets in 2025. Please stay tuned for updates at fedex.com.
For more information, please click here for support.
Effective October 30, 2024, FedEx Surround® monitoring and intervention (M&I) suite will be available in Japan.
FedEx Surround® M&I suite leverages advanced shipment technologies to monitor shipments in near real-time, and intervene when necessary with 24x7 expert support. With three levels of service - Select, Preferred and Premium, the dashboard tools would provide additional customized visibility and special handling for critical shipments.
Contact your Sales Representative to subscribe to FedEx Surround® M&I suite to unlock next generation of predictive logistic solutions.
Please click here to learn more about FedEx Surround® M&I suite.
With regard to export shipment, an increase in the number of requests from customers to return the packages and replace related documents after pickup may hinder our ability to provide prompt transportation services.
We appreciate your cooperation in confirming that there are no deficiencies in the packages and related documents before pickup.
If you have any inquiries, please contact customer service.
Please note that in some areas of Japan or depending on the type of shipment, FedEx may use partners for pickup and delivery.
If we are unable to transfer your package by air within Japan, or if there are delays in air or ocean shipping due to weather conditions, it may take longer to transfer your package within Japan. In some cases, packages may not be delivered by the scheduled delivery date shown on our website and shipping tools.
For more details, please contact our customer service.
With the B2C e-commerce market growing steadily and residential deliveries on the rise, consumers are not always home to receive their deliveries.
Starting May 7, 2024, in Japan, shipments to residential addresses may be left at the recipient’s doorstep or other suitable locations without a signature, accompanied by a Picture Proof of Delivery if the recipient is unavailable and has given us permission to do so by telephone. With Picture Proof of Delivery, e-commerce merchants and consumers can feel reassured about the delivery of their shipments.
This enhancement marks another step in our ongoing digital innovation, aimed at enhancing customer experience and reducing our carbon footprint.
The change will apply to International Priority Express (IPE), International Priority (IP), International Economy (IE) and all FedEx International Connect Plus (FICP) services with declared customs value less than USD500 and declared value for carriage less than USD1 delivered to residential addresses.
For residential shipments that need a signature, customers need to select one of the following signature options during shipment creation: Indirect Signature Required (ISR), Direct Signature Required (DSR) or Adult Signature Required (ASR). The DSR and ASR signature options require an additional surcharge.
Effective April 29, 2024, transit times for all export shipments originating from Fukuchiyama city and some parts of Kyoto Prefecture and delivery shipments to some parts of areas*1 will be changed.
Please refer to following table for the exact transit time for your shipments.
Target area |
Target zip code（First 5 digit） |
Fukuchiyama city |
62000・62002・62008・62009 |
Some parts of Sakyo-ku, Ukyo-ku, Kita-ku, Fushimi-ku, Yamashina-ku, Nishikyo-ku |
52004・60101*1・60111・60112・60114*1 60388*1・60600*1・60680*1・60782*1 61011・61600*1・61684 |
Some parts of Uji city |
60113*1 |
Some parts of Yawata city |
61483 |
Note: *1 Transit times for delivery shipments will be changed to the postal codes.
Your kind understanding and cooperation would be highly appreciated.
If you have any inquiries, please contact customer service.
As part of our continual enhancement commitment, we are pleased to inform you that we will be enhance our deliver service for shipment to Mitaka city, Musashino city and Nishitokyo city, effective April, 2024.
Shipments that arrive in Japan on a flight from Monday through Friday, except holidays, will be customs-cleared and delivered to you on the same day, improving the transit time from all over the world by one business day* for FedEx International Priority (IP), FedEx International Priority Freight (IPF), FedEx International Economy (IE) and FedEx International Economy Freight (IEF).
* If NO delay of freight and clearance.
If you have any inquiries, please contact customer service.
Effective January 22, 2024, we will add an additional page with your invoice. This concise one pager will showcase detailed information about FedEx billing and invoicing information, such as transportation charges, duties and taxes and related charges, fuel, and other surcharges, and so on. You can easily access any billing information you want through this. The one pager is only applicable on the soft copy of FedEx invoice (PDF).
To get the copy of the One Pager, you can click here.
Shipping Regulatory Update
We would like to inform you that we will be conducting a compliance-related business confirmation as follows:
When a physician or a veterinarian imports products into Japan, a condition of the “Import Confirmation Certificate” issued by regional office of the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare (MHLW), and the “Request for Confirmation” issued by the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF) requires that the shipment be delivered directly to the physician, veterinarian, or their hospital. Both regional office of MHLW and MAFF confirmed that no change to the delivery address is allowed. We ask for the cooperation of physicians, veterinarians, agents and representatives to provide the correct final delivery address to the overseas shipper from the onset so as to comply with these government conditions for import the products.
FedEx requires pre-authorization for the safe transport of jewelry and bullion. If any of the following conditions apply to your shipment, please contact your FedEx sales representative to obtain prior approval.
Jewelry: Value $100,000 US dollars
Bullion: All Bullion shipments
Please note that we will not accept individual shipments under the above conditions.
Please follow below shipping regulations regardless of invoice amount.
1. Use FedEx International Priority service only
2. Multiple packages with 1 AWB is not allowed
3. Manual AWB cannot be used
4. FedEx Envelopes and Paks or other soft outer packaging materials are prohibited
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has announced that it will begin rejecting any U.S. import shipment data containing vague descriptions effective November 12, 2024. If CBP rejects a vague cargo description, then FedEx may decline the shipment at origin or may hold the shipment at origin until complete data is submitted.
FedEx customers are reminded of the importance of providing precise cargo descriptions when creating their shipments with FedEx to ensure their shipments comply with CBP’s regulations. After the effective date, any shipments identified by CBP as containing vague descriptions will be rejected by CBP and may incur delays.
Precise descriptions accurately describe what the goods are made of and their intended use. Examples include “children’s toys made of plastic” rather than “toys” and “women’s dresses made of 60% cotton 40% polyester” rather than “clothing”.
To learn more about writing a clear commodity description, watch our video here on fedex.com. Additionally, CBP has provided a list of examples to illustrate how to create a precise commodity description, which you can find here.
With this enforcement in place, manual air waybills destined for the United States will experience a 1-day transit extension. To minimize any impact on your shipments, we encourage customers to utilize FedEx online shipping tools to create shipments.
For further information and support related to this enforcement, please contact your sales representative or FedEx customer service team.
Under the Standard Conditions of Carriage for APAC, the shipper is ultimately liable for, and will be billed for, all charges and fees, including freight and any customs duties or other taxes advanced by FedEx in the event of non-payment by the consignee or any third party, notwithstanding any payment instructions on waybills. Please refer to the Standard Conditions of Carriage for APAC under 'Billing' and 'Duties and Taxes' for further details.
In order to prevent delays in customs clearance due to incomplete documentation, customers are requested to pay attention to the following points when preparing shipping documents.
Commercial invoice
- The currency and declared value of the Air Waybill and commercial invoice must match.
- Even if the contents of the shipment are free of charge, such as samples, "No Commercial Value = zero" cannot be declared to customs. Please be sure to enter the value of the transaction as if it were a paid transaction.
- Please enter the exporter's name (company name except for individuals) in the Exporter column and the consignee's name (company name except for individuals) in the Consignee column on the commercial invoice.
ETD (Electronic Trade Document)
- Please upload all customs clearance documents including the packing list.
- If the file format doc, .docx, .xls, .xlsx, or .txt is used, it may not be uploaded properly. pdf, jpg, and gif are recommended.
For more information on ETD, please click here.
We are writing to inform you that it is prohibited to reuse a waybill number that has already been used for a shipment, whether on the same day or at a later date. We are doing this for the following reasons:
- The scan information may not be accurately reflected at the point of transit, resulting in lost or delayed packages.
- Information required for billing, such as shipping address, destination, weight, size, etc., may not be read correctly, resulting in incorrect charges.
- Failure to read cargo information correctly leads to problems with customs procedures.
The reuse of a once used waybill number causes great inconvenience to our customers. Therefore, we reserve the right to refuse to accept a shipment or return a shipment if we discover that the waybill number has been reused. We ask that you prepare a new waybill for each shipment. We appreciate your understanding in ensuring that your shipments reach to their destinations quickly and reliably.
Online Fraud Alert
We have received reports of fraudulent emails claiming to come from BillingOnline@fedex.com. These messages have a vague subject referencing an invoice (e.g. “Your FedEx invoice is ready to be paid now,” “Please pay your outstanding FedEx invoice,” “New FedEx Invoice,” “Your FedEx invoice is ready,” “Pay your FedEx invoice online”).
If you receive a message matching this description do not open the email or enter any personal information. Delete the email immediately.
FedEx does not send unsolicited emails to customers requesting information regarding packages, invoices, account numbers, passwords or personal information.
Go to our FedEx FedEx Trust Center to learn more about protecting yourself online. By following a few simple tips, you can make your online experience safer and more secure.
For more information on other fraudulent emails, you can visit our U.S. website by clicking here.
It has come to our attention that a fraudulent e-mail with unauthorized use of the FedEx name has been circulating to our customers. The e-mail claims that a FedEx shipment could not be delivered and asks the customers to open an attachment, print it out and take it to a FedEx facility to pick up the package.
Customers need to be aware that this is a fraudulent request and that this e-mail attachment contains a virus. If you have received one of these fraudulent e-mails, do not open the attachment, but delete the email immediately.
FedEx does not request payment or personal information in return for goods in transit or in FedEx custody via unsolicited mail or e-mail.
If you have received a fraudulent e-mail that claims to be from FedEx and have experienced resulting financial loss, contact your banking institution immediately through the appropriate channels.
*FedEx is not responsible for any charges or costs incurred as a result of unauthorized or fraudulent activity that abuses the FedEx name, service marks and logos.
Service Disruption
Effective immediately, FedEx International Economy® and all freight services¹ to Lebanon are temporarily discontinued until further notice. We continue to provide FedEx International Priority® to Lebanon. Services for outbound shipments from Lebanon remain normal.
Should you have further enquiries, please contact your Sales Representatives or our Customer Service team.
¹All freight services include both FedEx International Economy® Freight and FedEx International Priority® Freight
All FedEx and TNT services to American Samoa is temporary suspended until further notice. Please check fedex.com for the latest update.
Effective immediately, FedEx International Economy® services from China to select markets in Middle East and Africa are discontinued until further notice due to multiple factors.
As an alternative, we recommend customers using FedEx International Priority services2 for shipments from China to these destinations.
Providing excellent customer experience is a top priority for us and we apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.
Listed below are the countries included in the suspension until further notice:
Destination Country |
Service |
Angola, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Benin, Algeria, Congo (the), Congo (the Democratic Republic of the), Côte d'Ivoire, Cameroon, Djibouti, Libya, Ethiopia, Gabon, Ghana, Gambia (the), Guinea, Morocco, Tunisia, Liberia, Lesotho, (the)Madagascar, Mali, Mauritania, Mauritius, Mozambique, Niger, Réunion, Rwanda, Seychelles, Senegal, Togo, Tanzania Uganda, Zimbabwe, Chad |
FedEx International Economy® |
Angola, Burundi, Algeria, Libya, Ethiopia, Ghana, Morocco, Tunisia, Mauritius, Mozambique, Tanzania, Uganda, Zimbabwe |
FedEx International Economy® Freight |
Should you have further enquiries, please contact your Sales Representatives or our Customer Service team.
1FedEx International Economy® services include FedEx International Economy®, FedEx International Economy® Freight and FedEx International Economy® DirectDistribution.
2FedEx International Priority® services include FedEx International Priority®, FedEx International Priority® Express, FedEx International Priority® Freight, and FedEx International Priority® DirectDistribution.
FedEx International Priority inbound and outbound service to and from Ukraine has been reinstated covering the majority of Ukrainian postal codes. Pick-up and delivery services will be performed according to local authority instructions, where it is safe and possible.
All Russian and Belarusian FedEx International services continue to be suspended until further notice.
Continue to check this page for updates. For specific shipment status information, please track your shipment at fedex.com.
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