International Courier Service from Bangalore to the world

We book international consignments from our counter at 71 Somasundarapalya Main Road, HSR Layout, as an authorised DTDC booking partner. Your parcel goes out on a genuine DTDC air waybill and travels on DTDC’s overseas network. We are not a carrier and we do not hold relationships with other international carriers, so you will not find their names on this site.

We do not publish international prices, and that is deliberate

Every domestic destination on this site carries a real rate table, because we hold DTDC’s published card for our Bengaluru counter and can show you exactly what you will pay. We hold no equivalent card for international traffic.

So we quote international consignments one at a time. Tell us the destination country and city, the weight, the size of the box and what is inside, and you get a firm figure before we collect anything. What we will not do is print a starting price or a per-kilo figure that sounds reassuring and then changes at the counter. A number you cannot rely on is worse than no number at all.

Two things drive an international price regardless of destination. The first is that you are charged on the greater of actual weight and volumetric weight — a light, bulky box of clothing is priced on the space it occupies, not on what the scale says. The second is that the price moves with the destination, the service and the day, which is precisely why a fixed published figure would be fiction.

What customs needs from every international parcel

The paperwork is nearly the same everywhere, and it is where almost all delays come from.

KYC from the sender. Aadhaar or PAN, taken at the counter when we book.

An itemised invoice. Not “gifts” or “personal effects” — every article listed separately, described in plain language, with a quantity and an honest value. Customs officers read this document and make their decision from it. A vague invoice is an invitation to open the box.

An accurate contents declaration. If there is food in the parcel, it is declared. If there is medicine, it is declared and the prescription goes with it. Declaring something that turns out to be restricted usually costs you one item. Concealing it costs the whole consignment.

A complete address with a working phone number. International last-mile delivery is a phone call. Addressing conventions differ sharply — the UAE and Qatar have no postal codes at all, Singapore’s six digits identify a specific building, Canada and the UK route almost entirely on the postcode. Each destination page sets out what that country actually needs.

Why under-declaring value backfires

It is the most common request we refuse. Writing a low value on the invoice to reduce the recipient’s duty does not usually work, because customs services value goods against what they know those goods are worth, and an implausible figure is the single strongest trigger for inspection. What follows is revaluation, a penalty, a delay while somebody at the other end sorts it out, and occasionally seizure. It also removes any protection on the shipment: cover pays against the declared value, so a laptop declared at a token figure is a laptop worth a token figure if it never arrives.

What we will not send abroad

Liquids of any kind. Perfume, attar, oils, ghee, syrups, gels and aerosols are prohibited on every consignment we book, domestic or international. DTDC will not accept them, so neither can we, and no amount of packing or asking changes it.

Beyond that, customs authorities everywhere block a common core: currency and bullion, gold and undeclared valuables, hazardous and flammable goods, loose lithium cells and power banks, narcotics, and counterfeit goods.

Food is the category that varies most. Sealed, dry, commercially packaged vegetarian food with an intact printed label is broadly the safest thing to send. Meat, fish, eggs and dairy are restricted almost everywhere and prohibited in many places — which rules out khoya and paneer-based mithai, however well it is boxed. Some countries go much further: Australia destroys undeclared seeds, nuts, honey and untreated wooden items as a matter of routine biosecurity, and the United States applies FDA rules to food imports and bars meat and dairy from India outright.

Alcohol and pork are prohibited across the Gulf and in Malaysia. Vaping devices are illegal to import into Singapore. Non-Islamic religious material is restricted in Saudi Arabia. None of these are rules we can work around, and the country pages say so plainly rather than leaving you to find out at the border.

Destination guides

Each country page covers the customs and documentation reality for that destination — thresholds where they exist, what the recipient will be asked to pay, what the address needs to contain, and what will not be accepted.

• United Arab Emirates — Makani addressing, Emirates ID, the AED 1,000 threshold
• Saudi Arabia — why the recipient’s Iqama number is needed
• Qatar — no VAT, no postal codes
• Singapore — GST on imports and an absolute vape ban
• Malaysia — the RM 500 air courier exemption
• United States — what changed when de minimis was suspended
• United Kingdom — import VAT from the first pound, and the gift relief
• Canada — the CAD 20 threshold that catches Indian senders out
• Australia — biosecurity, not duty, is the real risk

Booking one

Call or message us with the destination and the weight. We collect free anywhere in Bengaluru, fill the invoice in with you at the counter rather than after you have gone, and give you the air waybill number the same day so you can follow the consignment yourself at dtdc.com.