Why so expensive? - travel and shipping from Vietnam?

Question

OK, so I live in Taiwan. I bought an instrument a month ago from Hawaii. It came in three days. FAST. Tracking and everything. It even came on a typhoon day which is supposed to be a non-work day...

It cost me $59 US.

So I've been looking at another one from Vietnam. The guy quoted me $60 bucks US for shipping and I scratched my head going - well it's half the distance... why would it be the same amount.

So we talked and I started doing some checking with the dimensions and weight and... WOW!

Fedex is $125+

DHL is $253!!!!! (they were willing to give me 10% off if I signed a contract to send one package a month... even though he knew before I told him that Fedex would do it for half the price with no special requests)

Why on earth would it be so expensive to bring something from Vietnam to Taiwan?

I thought I could look into air fares and WOW. They are TERRIBLE. $850 bucks is the cheapest. $1200 bucks with most airlines... It cost me less than that to go back home to Canada - a 14 hour flight!

Why is it like this?

What is going on?

Can anyone explain this to me?

Thanks.

Answer 1

Gas prices affect shipping prices......As well as all the customs B.S. and it also depends on the (to and from) countries.  With international shipping, price isn't always decided solely on distance

Answer 2

As the previous poster mentioned, countries can vary.  The US is fairly easy to deal with in terms of international shipping.  Vietnam, not so much.  Therefore the shipping companies charge extra for the extra difficulty.

The difference between Fedex and DHL is probably due to the fact that FedEx has a much larger and more efficient Asian operation that DHL does and thus can pass that cost savings along.