Pitney Bowes Cross-Border Delivery Service (CBDS)¶

Overview¶

The PB Cross-Border Delivery Service (CBDS) ships parcels to international destinations and ensures the parcels comply with international regulations prior to shipment. To ship with CBDS, a merchant uses a CBDS delivery solution to deliver parcels to a CBDS Consolidation Center and provides commodity information when shipping parcels. At the Consolidation Center, Pitney Bowes ensures compliance before shipping the parcels to their international destinations.

CBDS provides outbound shipping from the U.S. and United Kingdom. CBDS ships from the Consolidation Centers listed here. The Consolidation Center a merchant uses is determined during setup of the merchant’s delivery solution.

CBDS is a post-paid service, and each merchant has a CBDS Client ID that identifies the merchant as the one who receives the invoice. The PB Ecommerce APIs integrate with CBDS through the API operations listed below.

Onboarding with CBDS¶

To onboard an account to ship with CBDS through the Ecommerce APIs, contact either ClientSupportTechServices@pb.com or ShippingAPIBusinessDevelopment@pb.com, or contact the account’s implementation manager.

During onboarding, the account owner chooses a delivery solution. The account owner might also be required to provide a category tree to improve the accuracy of restriction screening. If required, the category tree is received in advance and then rated and stored in our system.

API Operations for Shipping with CBDS¶

The APIs integrate with CBDS through the following operations:

Operation	Method	Endpoint
Rate a parcel	POST	/v1/rates
Create a CBDS shipment	POST	/v1/shipments
Reprint label	GET	/v1/shipments/{shipmentId}?carrier={carrier}
Retry label	GET	/v1/shipments?originalTransactionId={transaction_id}&carrier={carrier}
Void label	DELETE	/v1/shipments/{shipmentId}?carrier={carrier}&cancelInitiator=SHIPPER
Get tracking information	GET	/v1/tracking/{trackingNumber}?packageIdentifierType=TrackingNumber
Request predicted HS code	POST	/v1/crossborder/hs-classification/items
Get a quote for a shopping cart	POST	/v1/crossborder/checkout/quotes
Accounts APIs	——	See the Accounts APIs table on the Merchant Accounts page.

CBDS Service Classes¶

CBDS offers the following service classes. Each has a Terms of Delivery that determines who pays importation cost. Availability of a service class depends on the merchant’s service agreement and on the shipping lane from the Consolidation Center. A spreadsheet listing all shipping lanes and services can be downloaded from the Supported Countries (Shipping Lanes) page.

Service ID

Service Name

Terms of Delivery

Description

PBXPS

Standard DDP

DDP

This service is cost effective and offers full tracking.

PBXUS

Standard DDU

DDU

The service uses postal clearance at the country of destination.

PBXPE

Expedited DDP

DDP

This service is faster than Prepay Standard and costs more. It offers full tracking. Note: Expedited DDP does not support delivery to P.O. Boxes.

Terms of Delivery¶

Every shipment has a Transportation cost and an Importation cost. The Importation cost covers the duties and taxes charged at the destination country’s border. The terms of delivery determine whether the merchant or the buyer pays the Importation cost. Each CBDS service class specifies one of the following terms of delivery:

DDP: Delivered Duty Paid. The merchant pays both the Transportation and Importation costs. When a merchant creates a shipment that uses a DDP service class, the Create Shipment API returns estimates for both the Transportation and Importation costs.
DDU: Delivery Duty Unpaid. The merchant pays only the Transportation cost. The buyer is responsible for the Importation cost and might have to pay this upon receipt of the parcel. When a merchant creates a shipment that uses DDU, the Create Shipment API returns an estimate only for the Transportation cost.

Supported Countries¶

For the supported countries for each Consolidation Center, download the spreadsheet available on the Supported Countries (Shipping Lanes) page.

CBDS Parcel Type¶

CBDS shipments use the following parcel type.

ID

Parcel Type

PKG

Package

Tracking¶

You can track parcels through both the Track a Package API and the Pitney Bowes Parcel Tracker, located at https://tracking.pb.com.