By David, on June 2nd, 2010 If you are considering sending a parcel from England to Brazil I have some advice for you. Don’t expect it to arrive any time soon!
My mother kindly sent me a package of random things you can’t buy in Rio, thanks to Brazil’s crazy high import taxes, (which are around 60% when you add the import duty, import sales tax and maritime transport duty together) on 5th May 2010. The parcel was sent via airmail at a cost of £59. It’s not particularly big, nor does it weigh much, but air mail isn’t cheap.
Today is June 2nd and the package still hasn’t arrived…
But…thanks to the new (or at least new to me) international package tracking service and reference number, which enables us to track the package as it makes its way across the atlantic, we know where it is! Correios (the brazilian postal service) actually has an excellent mail tracking service for brazil using this 13 digit reference number. You can put this into the brazilian post online tracking system here and see exactly where your package is. Excellent tracking system brazil may have, excellent delivery service it does not.
The parcel has been languishing in warehouses or delivery trucks for nearly a month! I’ve uploaded the pdf download of my correios package tracking statement which shows my packages journey from England to Rio so far. The highlights of this eventful journey are as follows:
- May 5th 2010: Sent from Bristol, England
- May 10th 2010: put on a plane to Brazil
- May 19th 2010: arrived in Brazil – somewhere (9 days to arrive by plane?? OK – lets blame it on the Ash Cloud!)
- May 20th – arrives in Sao Paulo…?
- May 28th – Arrives in Rio (8 days to get from Sao Paulo to Rio!! One could walk it in that time)
- May 29th – apparently en route to be delivered from Santo Cristo (a landfill site in Niteroi…?)
- June 2nd – Still not arrived
The funny thing was, I sent a postcard from Brazil to Estonia on 9th May and it arrived on 20th May. That cost 4BRL (£1.40). How it has taken so long for a £59 package sent by air only the brazilian’s know.
I’ll let you know when it actually arrives – if it ever does – but at least we know it is here – somewhere in Rio.
I looked on here because I sent a small package from London to Foz do Iguacu Nov 30, I was naive enough to think it would arrive within a week but looking at what you say here hasnt instilled any confidence that it wil arrive before Xmas ! What I sent was a webcam to someone who cant afford to buy one, my question is will she have to pay an import tax when it eventually arrive ?