Postal Shipment (CBSA Cargo Exemption)

🔖 This article is part of the Shipment Release Types Guide

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How to create a Postal Shipment exemption in ACI.

A typical Postal Shipment

A Postal Shipment is a Canadian Cargo Exemption / Cargo Exception category under CBSA ACI/eManifest highway rules for mail (Canada Post, U.S. Mail, International).

In Canada, international mail items are presented by Canada Post to the CBSA for processing through the CBSA mail stream (including assessment of duties/taxes where applicable).

To qualify for the ACI/eManifest mail exemption/exception handling in highway mode, the load must be mail (Canada Post, U.S. Mail, International) and be reported following CBSA’s highway eManifest rules for either:

• Full load only mail (exemption), or
• Mail as part of a mixed load (exception – cargo data not required, conveyance data required + exception code).

Reporting Postal Shipments in ACI eManifest

CBSA lists Mail (Canada Post, U.S. Mail, International) – full load only as a Highway Cargo and Conveyance exemption (no full eManifest cargo/conveyance submission required for that exemption scenario).

CBSA also lists Mail … as part of a mixed load as an exception to cargo data (conveyance data required, and the mail is indicated using the postal exception code).

To report a postal shipment the carrier will need to set the Postal exception code on either the truck, trailer or container, depending on where the mail is loaded. This tells Customs that there is a postal shipment aboard. The carrier will not create an ACI Shipment to report the postal shipment, it must be reported using the exception code only. The example below shows how to report Postal shipments using BorderConnect's ACI eManifest software.

If the postal shipment is the only thing being transported, the carrier can transmit the ACI eManifest with only the trip (conveyance) portion, and no ACI Shipments attached. Otherwise, the other shipments can be added and the manifest can be transmitted normally.

In order to comply with ACI eManifest requirements you are required to ensure that both your manifest and the broker clearance on any PARS shipments are on file with CBSA for at least one hour before the driver arrives at the border.