Cross-Border Shipping Checklist for Smooth Deliveries

There are many significant differences between domestic shipping and cross border shipping that must be carefully and thoroughly followed in order to ensure that packages are able to reach their destination properly. Moto Transportation has been handling cross-border shipping between Canada and the United States for many years and specializes in freight shipping between California and Western Canada as well as freight shipping between Texas and Western Canada. If your business is doing any type of shipping between Canada and the United States, please review the Moto Transportation cross-border shipping checklist of required documents below:

Commercial Invoice

There is good reason for this item being number one on our cross border shipping documents checklist. This is because it is likely the most important document needed when shipping between Canada and the United States. The exporter is responsible for the creation of this document; however, it is important for both parties to have copies. This document will include the most relevant information for all parties involved including border personnel.

Insurance Documents

Although shipping insurance documents aren’t necessarily required when shipping between Canada and the United States, it is always a good idea to have them on hand due to the increased risk involved with shipping across any border. Moto Transportation recommends shipping insurance documents for both cross-border shipping and domestic shipping.

Certificate of Origin

This document isn’t always required for shipping between Canada and the United States. Its requirement is dependent upon the materials being shipped; therefore, it is still important to include on our cross-border shipping documents checklist. This document includes manufacturing information with regards to the country in which the product was produced in.

Toxic Substances Control Act Form

The Toxic Substances Control Act Form is only required when certain hazardous materials or chemicals are being shipped across the border to or from the United States. These documents are unique to the United States and regulated by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Radio-frequency equipment entering the United States

Anything that emits radio frequency — radios, wireless modules, a machine with Bluetooth in it — has to meet the FCC’s rules before it can be imported. There is no longer a form to file. The FCC removed the old Form 740 import declaration in a 2017 rule change, and nothing replaced it as a document that travels with the shipment.

What replaced it is an obligation. Under 47 CFR Part 2, Subpart K, the importer, the ultimate consignee or their customs broker has to determine that the device meets one of the conditions for entry — usually that it holds a valid FCC equipment authorisation — and has to be able to produce the documentation showing how they decided that, if the FCC asks within a year of entry.

So Form 740 is no longer required. What is required is that whoever makes that determination — the importer, the ultimate consignee or the designated customs broker — can explain and document it if asked within a year of entry. A valid equipment authorisation is one of the conditions for entry, not the only one, so which records you need depends on which condition your goods come in under. Settle that with your supplier before shipping rather than after.

Plan the crossing, not just the pickup

Canadian and American holidays do not line up, and a long weekend on one side of the border is an ordinary Tuesday on the other. A shipment booked without checking both calendars can sit at a crossing for days that nobody budgeted. If the delivery is already tight, pick the crossing day first and work backwards.

Ask before you guess at a form

Every document on this page has to be right, and a form filled in hopefully is the most common reason a load gets held. If you are not certain what a field wants, ask somebody who fills them in every day rather than making a sensible guess — the guess costs more. Our customs team is in-house, and asking is free.