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DHL,
FedEx suspend shipments to Russian customers
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[January 24, 2014]
By Maria Kiselyova and Olga Sichkar
MOSCOW (Reuters) — Express delivery
companies DHL and FedEx <FDX.N> said on Thursday they had suspended
foreign shipments to individual customers in Russia because of
stricter customs procedures, making it harder for internet users to
buy goods from abroad.
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 President Vladimir Putin ordered a campaign late last year to "put
into order" a booming e-commerce sector. One of the proposed
measures was lowering a value threshold for purchases in foreign
online stores that are subject to customs duty.
According to DHL Express, part of Deutsche Post <DPWGn.DE>, Russian
authorities from January 2014 expanded the list of documents
required to ship goods to individual customers, which has
significantly slowed customs clearance.
DHL will suspend all shipments of goods for personal use to Russia
from January 27, the company said in emailed comments, after already
suspending most such imports already in 2010.
A Moscow call-centre operator for FedEx said shipments to individual
customers in Russia were "temporarily suspended". The FedEx press
office was not immediately available for comment.
According to a draft letter to clients from Russia's Association of
Express Carriers, seen by Reuters, other providers such as UPS <UPS.N>,
TNT <TNTE.AS>, and DPD also decided to suspend imports.
UPS said it had seen significant delays in delivery of packages to
private individuals in Russia due to the additional customs
procedures. TNT <TNTE.AS> and DPD could not be reached.
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Maxim Andryukhin, head of representation for Russia at Bay.ru, a
company which helps Russians buy products from sites such as eBay <EBAY.O>
and Amazon <AMZN.O>, said the procedures meant it was now asking
customers to provide more documents such as a scanned copy of their
passports.
Alexei Zhukov, head of marketing at express delivery firm SPSR, said
the customs rules had not changed, but there had been a shift in
practice.
"A customs officer could always request (additional) information if
he had any doubts, and there were selection checks. Now, these
requirements apply to all parcels," he said.
(Reporting by Maria Kiselyova and Olga
Sichkar; editing by Tom Pfeiffer)
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