Americans are used to the convenience of USPS Express Mail, FedEx or UPS ready to ship anything safely to almost anywhere in the U.S. or around the world. Americans clearly take this amazing service for granted, so they will not understand the news story from a week ago, when a train-car attendant of the St Petersburg, Russia – Sevastopol, Ukraine rail line was arrested, for smuggling hundreds of rare military medals through the border. The 49 year old woman was hiding the “treasures” under bags of clean sheets.
In Russia, if you decide to send something valuable, let’s say a $20 bill to your nephew for Christmas – it will never make it to the addressee, it will be stolen by the postal workers. If you send regular mail to another city in Russia, don’t hope it will be there next day, or the day after. Sending packages with valuable items is an absolutely crazy idea. There are no FedEx and UPS locations even in the major cities like Moscow. This author had to FedEx a document once, and this task required a two hour drive through Moscow traffic to a distant location, where after showing your ID to several guards you arrive at the only FedEx office serving 15 million Muscovites. It’s not exactly a convenient way to do business.
However, Russians are smart, and they find ways to communicate and send packages quickly. Having my own business at the age of seventeen, I had to send packages overnight from Moscow to Kiev regularly. The package would be sent at 9 pm on Sunday from Moscow to arrive in Kiev at 9 am on Monday. That’s challenging even for FedEx, but only cost me about two American dollars. If I was sending cash, the service would require a 1% surcharge. Also, for additional charges, you can send any kind of contraband or products that can’t legally cross borders without tariffs and customs inspections. Everything can be shipped if you’re willing to pay the price. I have witnessed the most amazing things in my life, while sending music CDs and contracts for my clients.
Moscow has nine major train stations (vokzal) where thousands of trains head in different directions to the former Soviet Union, Asia and Western Europe. Each train car has two attendants; each train has 10-15 cars. Each attendant has his own connections and ways of bribing the customs officers. Every evening, for one hour until the very last moment before the train leaves, there are hundreds of people with envelopes, small packages and huge hand trucks loaded with boxes. If you have to use the “Russian FedEx” regularly, you know the faces of the train attendants, so you can get faster “screening” and discounted rates. If you don’t know any conductors, plan to spend ten minutes negotiating the deal.
After your package gets on a train – it’s on its way, and if you have legal contents in your shipment, there’s nothing to worry about. If you are sending cash or perfume, or God knows what, there’s no insurance anyone can issue guaranteeing that the package will reach its final destination. Sometimes going cheap doesn’t mean getting the best deal. Even if your package is legal, “compensation” of some kind for the customs officials may be necessary.
In major cities you can get DHL or FedEx service for 48 hour international mail -- just be ready to spend over a hundred dollars. The train stations serve specific geographic routes, and if you are sending something locally – just drive or take the subway to the right train station and save yourself some money.
Comments
My experience with sending express mail/packages in Russia, while not like in the US, has been much different than in this post. There are a number of FedEx and DHL offices in major Russian cities. I have sent and received FedEx and DHL from Vladimir without trouble several times. There is also the Russian "Pony Express" (http://www.ponyexpress.ru/) service which has many Russian locations and delivers internationally.
Posted by: Matthew | March 10, 2006 7:08 AM
I've received Fed Ex stuff in Russia before, too. They delivered straight to my door in Irkutsk. There was even a Fed Ex office in Irkutsk, if I wanted to send anything out.
Postal experiences were more varied. One package I sent home never arrived.
A package my parents sent me for Christmas made it to Irkutsk post office in one piece. BUt nobody ever told me it had arrived, so after a month, they sent it straight back to England. Whereupon my parents sent it promptly back to Irkutsk. Where, again, it waited at the post office for a month, before being sent back to England again.
So, I picked up my Christmas present when I got back to England that summer.
Posted by: Andy | March 11, 2006 2:14 AM
Dear friends and readers,
Writing this post I just wanted to give a general idea that Russian postal experience isn’t the same as American or Western European. I talked to my dad yesterday (he lives in Moscow) and he also told me that he always uses FedEx. He doesn’t know where the office is, because they come and pick it up.
I asked him “How much does it cost?” He said he didn’t know, because his assistant handles it. Then I asked him if he remembers a day when my grandparents sent a Christmas package to their relatives in Siberia or Ukraine. He said it had happened this very Christmas. I asked “How did they send it?” They took it to the train station! Bottom-line: to FedEx a document or a badge of Russian pirozhkies even within the nation will cost my grandma her entire pension. And a letter with a $20 bill in it would never even make it to the sorting facility. Go Russian railroads!
Thanks for reading the RussiaBlog! I welcome your comments and critical responses.
Posted by: Yuri Mamchur | March 14, 2006 9:54 AM
hi there, i'm looking for a bit of advice - i've got some post to send to a friend travelling through russia. ideally i'd like to post it to irkutsk, otherwise, st. petes. does any one know if there's post restante in irkutsk?
thanks guys.
Posted by: hels | March 29, 2006 10:49 AM
Dear hels,
If I were you I would do the following:
1) if the package is not time-sensitive and your friend can afford waiting 2-12 weeks, send it via regular mail, avia, insured. When it’s insured, they don’t steal it or wreck it.
2) If the package is time sensitive, I would go with 48 or 72 hours DHL or FedEx. DHL always has problems with customs, and their 48 hours is about 8-10 days (you’ll never get a refund or apology), FedEx is excellent, which is reflected in their prices.
Hope it was helpful!
Yuri
Posted by: Yuri Mamchur | March 29, 2006 11:31 AM
Dear Sir(s),
I would like to receive information wether I can send medicine for my daughter to USA and the cost (the weight is about 200 gr)and how long it will take. Thank you.
Posted by: Irina | May 24, 2006 9:22 AM
Insured mail is absolutly the way to go. I have sent dozens of packages to Kazakhstan with insurance, and never lost one.
The packages arrive in a mail bag sealed with an elaborate lead and string seal, and they will weigh the package to ensure it is the same weight as on the postage. It's cheap and relatively quick-2-3 weeks. Only problem is the packages are always beat to hell on arrival.
Posted by: Jim | September 19, 2006 9:09 PM
I haven't been up to anything today. I don't care. I've just been staying at home not getting anything done. Basically not much happening right now. Maybe tomorrow. I guess it doesn't bother me.
Posted by: TramadoL29743 | September 23, 2006 5:20 PM
DHL in Russia is a small slice of Delivery HelL. Customs problems is right, my friend Emily had her boyfriend in Texas send by DHL a package with a couple of favourite shirts for the summer and a box of 100 bobby-pins for her hair. Customs blocked it and DHL kept it at the airport and said she was being charged import taxes because "who would need a box (price $1) of 100 small bobby-pins? They must be for resale." After WEEKS of haranguing DHL made no attempt to help or apologize and insisted that she pay the $100 'storage fee' they wanted from her before she could get the package. DHL in America said: "Russia is like an island, nothing we can do." So much for MNCs and corporate responsibility. DHL requires large amounts of paperwork and copies of all documents you could ever be issued with, even standard Russian post does need all this stuff; and to top it off, DHL staff is not pleasant.
In short: FedEx is better, and even Russian post first class is better, end of story.
Posted by: Mike | February 5, 2007 5:19 AM
I am curious about how you prepare FedEx shipments in Russia. Do you create an airbill on www.fedex.com or do you hand-write an airbill on paper? I have some friends in Russia that are interested in sending me something by FedEx. Thanks, Derek
Posted by: Derek | July 16, 2007 7:36 AM
A month ago send a gift (about 3kg, about 100 pounds worth) to Russia (Kirov) from London with Fedex. Following tracking info parcel arrived in Moscow and waited there for a month with "clearance in progress" and then yesterday recipient received a call from Fedex/Moscow asking for 500 UDS to be paid, saying that parcel has been paid only till Moscow. Fedex/London gave another details, saying that 500$ has to be paid to russian customs in order to get the parcel in Kirov or BACK in London!!! Unbelievable!
Good luck to those who decide to use Fedex.
Posted by: Jack | July 20, 2007 2:07 AM
I have a very bad experience sending docs from US to Moscow using Fedex. I done it twice, first time delay was 2 days. But the last time they will not be able to deliver within more 12 business days( I paid 75$ to be deliver in 5 days).See my full story with details phone call history to their office http://www.gtrifonov.com/blog/2007/07/11/Fedex_delivery_guaranteed-_or_how_to_spend_75$_for.aspx
Posted by: George Trifonov | July 24, 2007 11:58 PM
Sounds like it is really hit or miss with FedEx. Some people have had good experiences, others have had awful expreriences. I would still like to know how someone in Russia would send a FedEx package to someone in the US? Do you create an airbill online? How does FedEx pick up the package? I have some friends in Kursk, Russia that would like to know.
Posted by: Derek | August 3, 2007 12:27 PM
anybody khnow emex express?i think it is agent of fedex in russia.
Posted by: babak | September 4, 2007 2:30 PM
Hi,
I sent a package to my former exchange student in Kazakhstan from the US.
It had a digital camera (value about $50 US) and a few trinkets in it a little candy...
She says now that the customs people want her to pay them $200 for her to receive it.
What's the deal? What kind of CREEPS are we dealing with here? It's a BIRTHDAY present for goodness sake.
Had I thought they would do something like this I'd have sent a Western Union
money gram.
What can we do?
Thanks!
Darci
Posted by: Darci Farnum | October 1, 2007 5:59 PM
About a year ago I needed to send a bank card to a friend in the Ukraine so that I could deposit money in an account in the US and they could withdraw it in the Ukraine. I used a company called Meest and was extremely pleased with the way they got the job done. Their website is
http://www.meest.net/
Posted by: Dave | October 4, 2007 2:37 PM