You've seen the thin plastic mailers with Chinese customs labels declaring "$2.50 — plastic accessory" or "$4.00 — household item." Temu, Shein, AliExpress, Wish — they flood into every depot by the hundreds. It's easy to treat them as throwaway deliveries. But here's the thing most drivers don't consider: the declared customs value has nothing to do with how much the item matters to the person receiving it.
Why Customs Value Means Nothing to Your Customer
Overseas sellers routinely under-declare the value of goods on customs forms to reduce import duties. A phone case declared at $3 might have cost the customer $25. A piece of jewellery marked "$5 — metal accessory" could be a birthday present someone's been waiting three weeks for. The declared value is for customs purposes — it's not a measure of how much the customer cares about receiving it.
According to the ACCC online shopping consumer guide, Australian consumers have the same rights when buying from overseas retailers as they do from local ones. If a product doesn't arrive or arrives damaged, the customer has grounds for a refund — but the process is far more difficult with international sellers. That's why a missing Temu parcel is genuinely stressful for the customer, even if the item itself seems trivial to you.
Every parcel matters to someone. The $8 Temu order might be a kid's birthday present that took three weeks to arrive. The thin Shein mailer might contain a dress someone bought specifically for an event this weekend. Treat every delivery with the same care regardless of what the customs label says.
Handling Tips for High-Volume Low-Cost Parcels
Don't stack heavy on light. Thin mailers from Temu and Shein get crushed easily. Keep them in a separate section of the van — a bag or crate works well — so they don't end up under a 20kg box of dog food.
Watch for multiples to one address. Temu customers often order 5–10 items that arrive as separate parcels over several days. If you're delivering three Temu mailers to the same address, make sure you deliver all three — not just the one on top of the pile.
Don't leave them exposed. A thin plastic mailer on an open doorstep blows away in the wind, gets rained on, or gets picked up by anyone walking past. Tuck them into a letterbox, behind a pot plant, or under a doormat. Small effort, big difference.
Don't throw them. It's tempting to toss a light Temu mailer onto a porch from a few metres away — but door cameras are everywhere now. Even a gentle underarm throw looks terrible on camera, and if the item inside is fragile (cosmetics, phone accessories, small electronics), it can break. Place every parcel down. The customer might be watching you live on their Ring doorbell.
Scan every one. With high volumes of similar-looking packages, it's easy to scan one and deliver another. Double-check the address on each individual mailer. Misdelivering three identical-looking Temu packages to the wrong houses creates three complaints, not one.