If you want to create a draft shipment, it's important to know if your shipment is passing customs or not. This is because if your shipment is passing customs our draft shipment endpoint requires more information than if your shipment is not passing customs.

In the shipping world, shipments that need to pass customs are called dutiable. If the shipment doesn't require to pass customs, the shipment is considered non-dutiable. In short, this endpoint returns if a shipment is dutiable or non-dutiable so that you know how you need to build up the body of the create a draft shipment request.

When does a shipment needs to pass customs and is considered dutiable?

A shipment is dutiable when it meets the following conditions:

You're shipping a parcel or pallet

AND

Either the pick-up country or destination country is not part of the European Union (EU).

Please note, document shipments are always considered not dutiable and thus don't pass customs.

Examples

Let's look at the following examples to clarify when a shipment is dutiable or not:

Pick-up Country	Destination Country	Shipment type	Dutiable?
The Netherlands	United States	NONDOC	true
The Netherlands	United States	DOC	false
The Netherlands	Italy	NONDOC	false
United States	The Netherlands	PALLET	true

Method

In order to create a draft shipment, you need to use the following method:

GET

Endpoint

You need the following endpoint:

https://services.parcelparcel.com/partners-api/v1/dutiable-route/{countryFromIso}/{countryToIso}/{parcelType}

Header

You need to add the following headers:

Name	Value
Content-Type	application/json
X-PP-API	{YourAPIKey}@{YourAPISecret}

Don't you have an API Key and API Secret yet? Check our Authentication and how to get them in under a minute.

Parameters

Name	Value
countryFromIso	2-digit ISO code. For example, the Netherlands would be "NL".
countryToIso	2-digit ISO code. For example, the United States would be "US".
parcelType	Choose one of the following options: DOC, NONDOC or PALLET. You should choose NONDOC if you're shipping a parcel.

Request example

In the example below, we are checking if a parcel (NONDOC) shipment from the Netherlands (NL) to the United States (US) is dutiable or not.

You can copy the cURL code below and paste it e.g. into Postman to test your request. Don't know how to do this? Read our guide on this page.

curl --location --request GET 'https://services.parcelparcel.com/partners-api/v1/dutiable-route/NL/US/NONDOC' \
--header 'X-PP-API: {YourAPIKey}@{YourAPISecret}'

Don't forget to replace the {YourAPIKey} and {Your APISecret} in the X-PP-API header with your own API credentials. Don't know how to acquire your API credentials? Check our Authentication page.

Response example

{
    "errors": false,
    "message": "Query processed successfully",
    "data": {
        "dutiable": true
    }
}

Response elements

This request outputs the following response elements:

Name	Value
dutiable	(bool)