International courier from Bangalore to Canada. Free home pickup.
Collected from your Bengaluru door at any hour, packed and documented, and flown out of Kempegowda on the DTDC International network — no domestic leg to Mumbai or Delhi first. 6–9 working days door-to-door on express, from ₹1,500 per kilogram before fuel surcharge and GST. Canada is our second-busiest western lane after the United States, and it does not behave like it.
Five steps from your Bengaluru door to a Canadian address.
Pickup, Bengaluru.
Free at 5 kg+, at any hour — the HSR Layout desk runs 24×7. Late August and late December are the peaks on this lane, because that is when the study-permit intakes land and when families ship winter kit after the first cold week has done its work. The agent carries tape, bubble wrap, compression bags and the international airway bill.
Pack & document.
Itemised declaration with a value on every line, sender KYC, and a commercial invoice with HS codes for anything that is stock or samples rather than a family parcel. If it is a genuine gift between individuals, say so and give the value honestly — Canada treats gifts differently from goods and the distinction is worth stating properly.
BLR gateway.
Into the DTDC International facility and out through Kempegowda. Because Bengaluru flies international from its own airport, the parcel is not spending a day or two on the road to another city before it is airborne. Once it is in the air, the transit and the border are the same as from anywhere else in India.
Canadian border (CBSA).
Clearance at Toronto-Pearson, Vancouver or Montreal depending on routing. The Canada Border Services Agency assesses duty and taxes and refers anything agricultural to the Canadian Food Inspection Agency and anything medicinal to Health Canada. Clean paperwork clears in 24–72 hours; the recipient pays whatever duty and tax is assessed before the parcel is released.
Doorstep delivery.
Last mile via Canada Post or the local courier partner. Give us the unit or apartment number and a Canadian mobile — a great deal of this lane ends in condo towers in Brampton, Mississauga, Surrey and Scarborough, where a courier without a buzzer code and a phone number leaves a card instead of a parcel. POD comes to you the day it is signed.
Starting rates. The final figure follows the weight.
Charging runs on the greater of actual and volumetric weight, with the day's international fuel surcharge applied and Indian GST on top. Canadian duty and taxes are separate again, and the recipient settles those.
Starting per-kg rates
- Express (6–9 days, door)from ₹1,500 / kg
- Economy (10–14 days, door)from ₹1,100 / kg
- Min billable weight0.5 kg
- Pickup from BengaluruFree at 5 kg+
Volumetric formula: (L × W × H cm) ÷ 5000.
Worked example
A 4 kg parcel — a winter jacket, thermals, sealed filter coffee and dry podis, about 40 × 35 × 25 cm:
- Volumetric7 kg (billed over actual)
- Express, 7 kg × ₹1,500≈ ₹10,500
- + fuel surcharge (~25%)≈ ₹2,625
- + GST 18%≈ ₹2,363
- Approx total, express≈ ₹15,488
Indicative only. Winter clothing is bulky and this lane is priced on volume — compression bags routinely take a third off this figure. Canadian duty and taxes are additional and are collected from the recipient.
What you’ll need at pickup.
Canada is not a difficult customs destination, but it is a thorough one, and it assesses duty and tax on far more inbound parcels than families expect. Getting the declaration and the gift status right is what keeps the bill at the far end small and predictable.
KYC of the sender
A single government photo ID for the person named on the AWB — Aadhaar, passport or driving licence. We photograph it at pickup; it is not retained beyond DTDC's own record.
Declaration, and the gift line
Every item listed with a quantity and a value. Canada allows a genuine gift sent from one individual to another to come in free of duty and tax up to a modest value — currently CAD 60 per gift — with the excess assessed above that. It is worth declaring a gift as a gift and valuing it honestly. Under-declaring does not save your family money reliably; it risks the parcel and shifts the argument to them.
Invoices, labels and prescriptions
Commercial stock and samples need a printed invoice with HS codes. If the goods are consumer products headed for Canadian retail, remember that Canadian labelling rules require bilingual English and French text — that is a merchandising problem, not a customs one, but it is cheaper to solve before the pallet ships. Medicines need sealed strips, the prescription with the doctor's registration number, and a personal supply only — Health Canada generally allows up to a 90-day supply or a single course of treatment.
What Canada doesn’t let in.
These are CBSA, CFIA and Health Canada rules rather than our caution. Two of them surprise almost every Indian sender: Canada is stricter than the United States on weapons, and considerably more workable than the United States on packaged food. Both facts are worth knowing before you pack.
Don’t even try
- Cannabis, CBD and anything containing them — the Canadian trap. Cannabis is legal to buy and use in Canada and it is still a criminal offence to move it across the border by post or courier, in either direction, including CBD oils, balms and edibles. Legality inside the country changes nothing about the border.
- Prohibited weapons — replica and imitation firearms, pepper spray and mace, butterfly knives, brass knuckles and switchblades. Canada classifies several of these as prohibited weapons outright, where other countries treat them as ordinary goods, and a decorative replica is not an exception.
- Meat and poultry products — including dried, sealed and vacuum-packed.
- Dairy — ghee, paneer, khoya, and the milk-solid sweets built on them: Mysore pak, dharwad pedha, kalakand.
- Eggs and egg products — CFIA restriction, and it catches some ready-mix packets.
- Fresh produce, plants, seeds, soil and untreated plant material — curry leaves, fresh coconut, and anything with earth on it.
- Aerosols, all liquids, lithium cells above 100 Wh — universal courier rules.
Allowed with care
- Commercially packaged dry food — and this is where Canada differs usefully from its neighbour. Sealed filter coffee powder, dry podis, chakli, factory-packed mixture, ground spices and packaged snacks generally move on this lane, provided they are manufacturer-sealed with a full printed ingredient list and no dairy, meat or egg content. Declare each item by name and net weight.
- Silk sarees and textiles — Kanjeevaram, Mysore silk, cottons, lehengas, sherwanis. Declare a fair value; under-declaring is what triggers a hold and a query.
- Prescription medicines — sealed strips, prescription attached, personal supply only, no injectables and no liquids.
- Wooden and cane handicrafts — permitted but subject to plant-protection rules: bark-free, dry and declared. Say what the item is made of rather than calling it a handicraft.
- Books, documents and printed matter — uncomplicated. Declare the titles and what they are worth.
- Non-precious jewellery and small electronics — declare make, model and value. Precious metal does not ship.
The student pipeline, the GTA, and a first Canadian winter.
Canada takes more Indian students than any other country in the world, and Bengaluru contributes a large share of them. Around that sits a South Asian population in the Greater Toronto Area and Greater Vancouver big enough that whole suburbs run on it — which changes what is actually worth shipping.
Parents shipping to study-permit students
The largest single category on this lane. Ontario's colleges and universities — Toronto, Waterloo, Conestoga, Seneca, Sheridan, Humber — plus UBC, SFU and the Alberta campuses. September and January intakes, with a second wave in November when the weather makes its point. Thermals, a proper jacket, bedding, textbooks, a steel kitchen set. Address it to the residence with the room number and give us the student's Canadian mobile.
Families across the GTA and Greater Vancouver
Brampton, Mississauga, Scarborough, Surrey, Abbotsford, Calgary, Edmonton and Winnipeg — a Punjabi and South Asian population large enough to have its own high streets, temples and grocery trade, and a growing Bengaluru contingent inside it from the last decade of IT migration. Documents, clothing, festival wear, and things that are simply cheaper here than there.
Wedding and function outfits
Silk sarees, lehengas, sherwanis and blouse pieces sent for stitching and returned, mostly to Brampton and Surrey where the wedding calendar is genuinely dense. Always express and always well ahead of the date. Declare each garment separately with a fair value — a single line reading "clothes, ₹5,000" on a parcel worth far more is what turns a two-day clearance into a week.
Filter coffee, podis and dry provisions
Worth its own entry because the rules here are friendlier than families assume from the American experience. Manufacturer-sealed dry goods with printed ingredients generally clear CFIA — filter coffee powder above all, plus podis, chakli and packaged mixture. Dairy, meat and egg content still do not, so the sweets stay at home.
D2C stock and samples to Canadian retail
Bengaluru brands sending sample runs and first stock to Canadian buyers, distributors and marketplace warehouses. Commercial invoice with HS codes, and a warning worth having early: consumer products sold in Canada need bilingual English and French labelling, and in Quebec the French requirements are stricter still. Fixing that after the stock lands is expensive.
Credential evaluation and immigration paperwork
Educational credential assessments, transcripts, degree certificates, apostilled and attested documents, police clearance records, employment letters. This is a permanent-residence pipeline as much as a student one, and the paperwork moves constantly. Always express, always tracked, and tell us the deadline so we can route for it.
AWB on WhatsApp. Track on dtdc.in. POD when it lands.
The AWB reaches you on WhatsApp the moment the parcel is booked into DTDC International, at any hour — the Bengaluru desk is staffed around the clock. Track it at dtdc.in. Tracking goes quiet during the air leg and again during CBSA clearance, and neither silence means anything is wrong. What is worth acting on: a status showing the parcel held for information, or a duty and tax request your recipient does not understand. Send us the AWB in either case and we will deal with it from this end.
Asked most often on this lane.
I was told food never clears North America. Can I really send filter coffee and podi to Canada?
Yes, in most cases, and this is the most useful thing on this page. Canada's inspection regime is not the American one, and the difference is real: manufacturer-sealed, shelf-stable dry goods with a printed ingredient list — filter coffee powder, dry podis, chakli, packaged mixture, ground spices — generally move on this lane without difficulty. What still does not go is anything with dairy, meat or egg in it, which rules out ghee-based and milk-solid sweets, and anything fresh, homemade or unlabelled. Two conditions make the difference: keep every packet factory-sealed with its ingredients readable in English, and declare each item by name and net weight on the paperwork rather than writing "food items". Do that and a coffee-and-snacks parcel to Brampton is an ordinary shipment.
Cannabis is legal where my son lives. Can he receive a CBD balm from me, or send one back?
No, in both directions, and this is the single most common misunderstanding on the Canada lane. Canadian legalisation applies inside Canada. Importing or exporting cannabis in any form — flower, oil, edibles, CBD balms and skincare, and products marketed as hemp derivatives — without a federal permit remains a criminal offence, and the Canada Border Services Agency treats parcels found to contain it as exactly that. It does not matter that the product is on a shelf in a shop in Vancouver, and it does not matter that the quantity is small. If a balm or a supplement you were planning to send lists any cannabis or CBD content, leave it out of the box and tell us, so we can check what else in the parcel might be affected.
My family in Surrey got a text asking them to pay a customs fee before delivery. Is that genuine?
It might be, and it might not, so here is how to tell. It is genuine that Canada charges duty and taxes on many inbound parcels and that these are collected from the recipient before the parcel is released — that is normal and it is not us adding a charge. What is also true is that fake customs-fee messages imitating Canadian carriers are extremely common, and they are timed to arrive when someone is genuinely expecting a parcel. The safe rule: never pay from a link in a text message. Match the tracking number in the message against the AWB we sent you on WhatsApp, and pay only through the carrier's own site or at delivery. If the numbers do not match, it is a scam. Forward it to us if you are unsure — we can see the real status of your consignment in a minute.
Tell us the rough weight and the destination postal code.
Pickup at your Bengaluru door, whatever the hour.
WhatsApp us the pickup address and the Canadian postal code, or ring the HSR Layout desk. It is staffed 24×7, which matters when the person you are shipping to is eleven hours behind.