US Postal Service bans international shipping of lithium ion batteries

[kfox203]

Starts May 16th.
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-57432323-93/usps-to-ban-overseas-shipments-on-tablets-smartphones-more/

[bman77]

This could be a pain...

[Kris81]

Not so much a pain as it will be a bit more expensive.

[NG]

Hopefully this'll give retailers more incentive to push UPS et al to can those horrific brokerage fees.

I still can't believe they're still shipping this stuff in the US yet we're excluded. 75% of Canadians live within 90 minutes of the US border yet we're treated, yet again, like we're somewhere in Europe.

[HunkaHunkaBurningLove]

Does anyone know if Canadians can still ship cameras with lithium ion batteries inside them to the US? I'm looking at selling a camera, but I'm concerned that it will be sent back to me if USPS won't accept it from Canada Post at the border.

[Ojam]

Does anyone know if Canadians can still ship cameras with lithium ion batteries inside them to the US? I'm looking at selling a camera, but I'm concerned that it will be sent back to me if USPS won't accept it from Canada Post at the border.

The only way to be sure is to not use a service that hands the package over to USPS.

[HunkaHunkaBurningLove]

If I ship from Canada to the US using UPS or Fedex, will the US buyer have to pay crazy brokerage fees like we have to?

[Piro21]

How do they reconcile this with the fact that people are still allowed to bring their electronics, which are full of these very same batteries, on to civilian aircraft and through airport security?

[woof]

If I ship from Canada to the US using UPS or Fedex, will the US buyer have to pay crazy brokerage fees like we have to?

No. They have a $200 exemption for duties and there are no Federal sales taxes (PST/GST/HST) and the US Customs doesn't collect state taxes so as long as the item is worth less than US $200 they shouldn't pay anything no matter what carrier you use. In fact it's not surprising they have such a large deficit in the US when they collect so few taxes.

[brunes]

I see this ban lasting for all of 3 months before it is changed, because of insanely how much business USPS stands to lose... this along with the fact that it also bans shipments to APO and FPO locations (US troops overseas).

Wait until the first Colonel can't buy his new iPhone 5, and things will change.

[delavoie]

I bought 2 Lithium Ion batteries for my Olympus camera on Amazon.ca and they have shipped from the USA... they are on the way, so no issue with any sort of ban so far.

[redpattison]

I tried to ship a Lithium Iron battery(Motorbike) back to the States via Fed- Ex. Was told had to fill in loads of forms. One of the forms had to be typed only. Also a dangerous goods form. Gave up in the end. Told the company I bought the item from (USA) and they replied more as though it was my fault that I bought one of their batteries and the responsibilty to return it was mine. Not the company i bought it from in Toronto.Good job that the company I bought it from in Toronto would accept the responsibility.
What a load of "BS Act"

[HunkaHunkaBurningLove]

I bought 2 Lithium Ion batteries for my Olympus camera on Amazon.ca and they have shipped from the USA... they are on the way, so no issue with any sort of ban so far.

Are you sure they are shipping using USPS? Let us know if you receive them. I wonder if they catch packages at the sorting plant to be sent back to the shipper if their system detects the international shipment. It's weird though - they aren't restricting US to US shipments of lithium ion batteries so are the planes only blowing up when they cross the US/Canadian border? :confused:

I wonder how many held / returned packages they have if they are stopping as many lithium ion batteries as they can. What do they do with packages without return addresses? If they are enforcing this new restriction there has to be massive amounts of things getting bounced back considering the number of electronics that contain or use lithium ion batteries.

[bylo]

Are you sure they are shipping using USPS? Let us know if you receive them.
I ordered this about a week ago: GTMax Extended Battery with Cover + Microfiber Pouch Case for Samsung Galaxy Nexus i9250 (http://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B0074GU06M) from amazon.ca. The vendor, eMaxland, is located in the US and my order was shipped from City of Industry, CA by USPS. It arrived a couple of days ago without having been opened and without any hassle about the Li-Ion battery inside. The customs declaration reads, "cellphone accessories."

So at very least, despite the outright "ban", in practice this seems to be a YMMV.

P.S. Considering that this transaction went through Amazon, I'd expect a full refund if anything went wrong at the border.

[cloneman]

Wonderful... just another restriction that will keep prices of Canadian electronics artificially high by making imports difficult

[bylo]

Wonderful... just another restriction that will keep prices of Canadian electronics artificially high by making imports difficult
First, this is a USPS, not Canada Post restriction so your beef starts with Uncle Sam.
Second, it's also a Canada Post restriction, so even if it wasn't a USPS restriction you still wouldn't be able to import Li-Ion batteries from the US by mail. (Dangerous Goods • Class 9 – Miscellaneous: lithium batteries (https://www.canadapost.ca/tools/pg/manual/PGnonmail-e.asp#1378314))
Third, before you start a beef with Canada, check out agreements among international inter-governmental organizations like the UPU and IATA who also restrict the transport of potentially dangerous goods like Li-Ion batteries by mail, air, etc.

[Jimboski]

Meh just pick another shipping method, More costly but still able to get the package!

[cloneman]

First, this is a USPS, not Canada Post restriction so your beef starts with Uncle Sam.
Second, it's also a Canada Post restriction, so even if it wasn't a USPS restriction you still wouldn't be able to import Li-Ion batteries from the US by mail. (Dangerous Goods • Class 9 – Miscellaneous: lithium batteries (https://www.canadapost.ca/tools/pg/manual/PGnonmail-e.asp#1378314))
Third, before you start a beef with Canada, check out agreements among international inter-governmental organizations like the UPU and IATA who also restrict the transport of potentially dangerous goods like Li-Ion batteries by mail, air, etc.

I'm well aware that this is U.S. Restriction. I don't care who is to blame when there is a problem, I care that there's never any significant discourse to come up with better solutions for consumers, RE, the problem of cost with non-USPS/Canpost shippers

[bylo]

I don't care who is to blame when there is a problem, I care that there's never any significant discourse to come up with better solutions for consumers, RE, the problem of cost with non-USPS/Canpost shippers
Have you contemplated the possibility that Li-Ion batteries are considered to be potentially dangerous, by Canada, the US and other developed countries, much like some other common items, and therefore aren't allowed to be shipped by post out of safety concerns rather than "just another restriction that will keep prices of Canadian electronics artificially high by making imports difficult"?

[cloneman]

so.. domestic lion shipments are safe, but international is not?

[bylo]

so.. domestic lion shipments are safeDid you read the Canada Post link I provided upthread?

[cloneman]

Did you read the Canada Post link I provided upthread?

nope, because I don't care. USPS allows domestic shipments of Li-On but not international, that's the new rule of interest to me.

[Wingding]

nope, because I don't care. USPS allows domestic shipments of Li-On but not international.

Actually, they don't. What this article doesn't mention is that USPS has officially prohibited the shipment of lithium ion batteries via any of its air-based services for quite some time now. Domestically and internationally. The only way it's been technically permissible to ship lithium ion batteries around the USA has been using a service level that travels entirely by road. Of course, everyone stateside probably just ignores this rule entirely. I haven't heard of USPS going around ripping open in-country airmail to look for Lithium Ion batteries . . . although with the powers their Postal Inspectors have it's probably not outside the realm of possibility.

BTW, has anyone ever actually heard of a flight going down because a tiny lithium ion battery spontaneously exploded and instantly turned the plane into an earthward-plummeting fireball?

Or was someone at USPS perhaps just not feeling quite empowered enough yet?


.

[bylo]

BTW, has anyone ever actually heard of a flight going down because a tiny lithium ion battery spontaneously exploded and instantly turned the plane into an earthward-plummeting fireball?
The ideal objective of such regulations is to prevent disasters before they occur. After they occur gets the authorities only a distant silver medal.

I'm not defending this regulation. After all it seems silly considering the number of devices with Li-Ion batteries carried and used on board by passengers every day on every flight. I'm just pointing out the motivation behind it.

BTW, in addition to your hyperbolic flight of fancy, the answer to your question would be, "yes." And it wasn't a small plane either. It was a 747.

UPS Airlines Flight 6 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UPS_Airlines_Flight_6#FAA_Reaction)
In October 2010, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) issued a Safety Alert For Operators highlighting the fact that the cargo on board Flight 6 contained a large quantity of lithium batteries and that Halon 1301 was inefficient in fighting fires involving them.[8] The FAA issued a restriction on the carrying of lithium batteries in bulk on passenger flights.And Lithium Ion Batteries Faulted for Jet Crash (http://gigaom.com/cleantech/lithium-ion-batteries-faulted-for-jet-crash/):
A new report on the crash of a UPS jet carrying rechargeable lithium batteries outlines the hazards of transporting these devices. It’s the latest fuel for concern about the safety of lithium ion batteries, which store energy not only for gadgets but also plug-in vehicles.