How fast is CanadaPost Small Packet International Air ?

[dipmicro]

When advertising on Ebay, one has to choose from small selection of services offered in drop-down, so I normally choose CanadaPost Small Packet International Air, which is closest to 3rd party service I currently use for small international shipments.

CanadaPost claims it takes 6 to 10 business days to Japan and Ebay happily uses that info. Few yrs ago when I used CP Small Packet International, it was my experience Asian destinations could take 4 or even 6 weeks and 2wks would be very successful above average delivery. Did this imrpove and CanadaPost is today really this fast ?

[pjcdn2005]

Delivery to Japan has always been fairly quick when I've used small packet air -- about 8 - 14 days.  China does seem to take quite a bit longer as do some of the eastern European countries.  I don't think the longer time has anything to do with Canada Post but more to do with the other countries postal services and customs.

I've heard that small packet ground takes over a month to go anywhere so perhaps you're thinking of that?

[prarie_nerd]

Small packet air is about 2 weeks. Surface can take up to 6 months. NEVER send by surface.
And whenever possible you should cover yourself by using tracked packet international to have tracking incase there's a problem

[recped]

I haven't used Small Packet for at least 8 years but at that time 6 - 10 business days was pretty normal for most of the "frontline" countries (UK, Japan, Germany, France etc.)

Delivery times to Japan have always been faster than most other Asian destinations. Mostly I would guess because they have very efficient customs processing.

[ricarmic]

Since "time began" (ie they created options) I've always just used flat rate shipping and:

(remember I'm a stamp guy and I only list on .COM)

for Domestic (which is the USA)

Standard Shipping

for international (which includes Canada)

Standard Int'l Shipping

Actually I'd never checked to see what it said for international shipments (remember I'm a management by exception kinda guy) so I looked today at one of my lots pretending I was from Belarus (I am shipping something to Belarus today anyway!) and for delivery it says:  "Varies for items shipped from an international location" 

So far it hasn't cause any problems.......touching wood of course!!! 🙂 

[pierrelebel]

ricarmic - another few days and you will have earned your first "shooting star".

[ricarmic]

Hi Pierre, yep only took 15 years!!!!

[e_knny · Accepted solution]

95% of my shipments go small packet international air so I can definitely shed some light on this for you

The delivery time varies by country, as you can imagine. DO NOT rely on Canadapost's or ebay's estimates

to

UK - 1 to 1.5 weeks (surprisingly fast every time)

france/scandinavia - 2 to 2.5 weeks

spain/austria/portugal - 2-3 weeks

germany - 2-4 weeks (i find german customs can be really slow sometimes)

romania/eastern europe - SLOW, up to 7 weeks (yes..this is for airmail...cant imagine how long surface mail will take)

australia - 2-3 weeks

China - 3-5 weeks

Japan/thailand/taiwan/korea/israel - 2-3 weeks

never shipped to central/south america 

[dipmicro]

Thanks to all.

The impatient Japan customer got his mail today 15 days after shipping, which is not half bad considering I paid $1.70 for  service similar to what CanadaPost charges $10.33

[latte403]

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@dipmicro wrote:

Thanks to all.

The impatient Japan customer got his mail today 15 days after shipping, which is not half bad considering I paid $1.70 for  service similar to what CanadaPost charges $10.33

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You must be using USPS then since you live so close to the border.

I am also using USPS here in Alberta!!