Canadian Dealers Can Claim Cross-Border Costs Only If Policy Allows

The short answer: sometimes, and only on the manufacturer's terms

A Canadian dealer can request inbound parts freight, customs brokerage, duty and taxes, or transport of the unit on a warranty claim only where the manufacturer's current warranty policy allows that specific cost, and only with documentation that ties each charge to the claim. There is no single rule across the industry: one manufacturer may reimburse a cost as its own line, another may fold it into a parts or handling allowance, and another may exclude it entirely, so the answer for each claim comes from the warranty manual or portal, not from what was paid last time.

That matters because cross-border costs are easy to treat as an afterthought. The repair gets approved, the part arrives with a courier invoice and a brokerage bill attached, and someone in accounting has to decide whether that money is recoverable or absorbed. If nobody checked the policy before ordering, and nobody kept the paperwork with the repair order, the charge usually ends up as dealership expense even when the manufacturer would have paid it.

The practical approach is simple to state: confirm the rule before the cost is incurred, request each allowed cost on the line the manufacturer expects, and attach a document that proves the amount. The rest of this article walks through each type of charge, what to check, and what a reviewer needs to see. For the customs side of the question, including duty relief and refunds on warranty parts, see our guide to warranty parts and Canadian customs; this article stays on the claim itself.

Cost by cost: what each charge is and where it can go wrong

Inbound freight is the cost of getting the replacement part to your door. Many manufacturers ship warranty parts at their own expense, in which case there is nothing to claim and nothing to pay. Where the dealer sources the part, or pays for expedited shipping, freight may be reimbursable as a separate line, covered by a parts markup or handling allowance, or not covered at all. Expedited shipping in particular is often reimbursed only when it was authorized in advance, so read the manual for the words that apply to it.

Customs brokerage is the fee a broker or courier charges to clear the shipment into Canada, and it is a charge that is easy to lose. It frequently arrives on a separate invoice, days after the part, addressed to whoever was listed as importer. Duty and taxes are a different thing from brokerage: duty is assessed on the goods, and GST or HST is charged at import. On the duty side, parts of US origin may already enter duty-free under CUSMA when the shipment carries proper proof of origin, and warranty replacement parts may qualify for duty relief, which our customs guide covers; confirm the tariff classification and the current rule with your customs broker or the CBSA. The tax treatment depends on whether your dealership can recover it, which is covered further down.

Transport of the unit covers moving the RV itself: to your shop when the customer cannot tow it, between your locations, or to a factory or authorized repair center when the manufacturer requires it. This is the cost manufacturers most commonly want approved before it happens. Some treat it as sublet, some as a separate travel or transport line, and some do not cover it unless they directed the move. Whatever your manufacturer's position, a transport invoice with no prior approval and no reason recorded on the repair order is the hardest of these costs to recover. The list below sums up, for each cost, what to check in the policy and which document to attach.

• Inbound freight: check who pays standard shipping; attach the freight invoice or packing slip
• Expedited freight: check whether prior authorization is required; attach the invoice and the approval
• Brokerage: check whether it is its own line or part of an allowance; attach the broker's invoice
• Duty: check origin and duty relief with your broker or the CBSA; attach the customs accounting document
• GST/HST: check whether recoverable tax is excluded; attach the invoice with tax shown separately
• Unit transport: check preauthorization and the line type; attach the carrier's invoice and approval number

Confirm the policy before the cost is incurred

Every manufacturer publishes its warranty terms somewhere, usually a warranty or service policy manual and bulletins posted on the dealer portal. Look for the sections on parts ordering, freight, sublet, travel and transport, and any Canada-specific notes. Manufacturer policies differ and change, so read the current version rather than relying on a summary from a training session years ago, and note the date or revision of what you read in your warranty file.

When the manual is silent or ambiguous, ask your manufacturer's warranty contact or district representative in writing, and keep the reply. A short email that says what part, which unit, which cost, and asks whether it is reimbursable and on which line gives you an answer you can attach to the claim. If the manufacturer offers preauthorization through the portal, use it for unit transport and for any part you plan to source yourself or ship urgently.

Ask one more question that saves a lot of brokerage bills: how does the manufacturer ship parts to Canadian dealers? Some route parts through a Canadian distribution channel or clear them on their own account, which can mean no brokerage invoice lands on you at all. Others ship directly from the US by courier with the dealer as importer. Knowing which applies tells your parts department what paperwork to expect and who should be named as importer of record.

How to document each cost so the reviewer can match it to a line

A warranty reviewer approves lines, not stories. Each cost you request needs its own line, the line needs an amount that matches a document exactly, and the document needs something on it that connects it to this claim: the part number, the VIN, the repair order number, or the manufacturer's order or authorization number. A brokerage invoice that covers three shipments and lists none of those details forces the reviewer to guess, and reviewers do not guess in the dealer's favor.

Build the paper trail as the part moves, not when the claim is filed. Have parts staff write the repair order number on the courier waybill and the brokerage invoice the day they arrive, and scan both into the repair order. If one brokerage invoice covers several parts, prepare a short allocation note that shows how the charge splits across claims. For unit transport, record on the repair order why the unit could not be repaired where it was or why it had to move, along with the approval reference. When an invoice is in US dollars, convert it the way the manufacturer's manual specifies: some want the amount in the invoice currency, others in Canadian dollars at a stated rate, such as the rate on the invoice date, the rate your bank actually charged, or a rate the manufacturer publishes. Show the conversion in a note on the claim, with the original amount, the rate, its date and its source, so the reviewer can reproduce the figure, and confirm the method in the manufacturer's manual before you file.

Before submitting, check each requested cost against this list:

• Policy reference: manual section, bulletin or written approval that allows this cost
• Its own claim line, on the line type the manufacturer specifies
• Invoice amount that matches the line to the cent, in the currency the portal expects
• Repair order number, VIN or part number written on every invoice
• Allocation note when one invoice covers several claims
• Reason for unit transport recorded on the repair order, with the approval number
• Tax shown separately so the reviewer sees what is and is not requested

A worked example: a slide-out motor shipped from the US

A customer brings in a travel trailer whose bedroom slide will not extend. The technician confirms power at the motor connector and finds the motor seized. The warranty administrator checks the manufacturer's manual. For this example, assume a hypothetical manufacturer policy, not any one brand's rule: the part ships from a US supplier by courier with the dealer as importer, standard freight is paid by the manufacturer, brokerage is reimbursable as a separate line when the invoice is attached, and tax recoverable by the dealer is not reimbursed. The administrator saves that page with the claim.

The Complaint, Cause and Correction read: Complaint: customer states bedroom slide-out will not extend. Cause: slide-out motor seized; power verified at motor connector, motor does not turn when energized. Correction: replaced slide-out motor, cycled slide fully in and out, verified operation and seal contact. The claim then carries the labor line at the manufacturer's flat-rate time for the motor replacement, the parts line for the motor, and a separate brokerage line with the broker's invoice attached, marked with the repair order number and part number, and with the tax amount shown but not requested.

What made this claim clean was not the wording; it was the order of operations. The policy was checked before the part was ordered, the importer of record was known, the brokerage invoice was matched to the repair order the day it arrived, and the line amount equals the invoice. If this manufacturer had folded brokerage into a parts allowance instead, the right move would have been to leave the line off and keep the invoice on file, not to request it and wait for a rejection.

Taxes, denials and taking this work off your desk

GST and HST paid at import deserve their own decision. A GST/HST-registered dealership can generally recover tax paid on business inputs through input tax credits, and many manufacturers do not reimburse tax the dealer can already recover, so requesting it on the claim can mean asking to be paid twice. Confirm the treatment with your accountant and with the manufacturer's policy, and show tax separately on any line so the reviewer can see exactly what you are and are not requesting. If you're in Quebec, QST on imported goods is not handled the same way as GST at the border, so confirm the QST treatment with your accountant rather than assuming it follows the GST logic.

When an allowed cross-border line is denied, treat it like any other denial: read the reason, fix what is fixable, and resubmit or appeal with the policy reference and the matching document. These denials often come down to a missing invoice, an amount that does not match, or a transport move with no approval on file, and each of those is answerable if the paperwork was built as the part moved. When a cost is genuinely not covered, stop requesting it and price it into how you handle that manufacturer's repairs.

This is exactly the kind of detail that gets lost on a busy service desk, and it is the work Dealer Suite 360 does every day. We are the RV warranty claims management specialists: we read each manufacturer's current policy, write the Complaint, Cause and Correction with the right lines, attach the freight and brokerage documents to the line they support, file on the manufacturer portal, follow up, answer information requests and appeal denials. Your team photographs the unit in the DS360 app, uploads the work order and does the repair. Every claim is covered by one flat monthly subscription, with no per-claim fees and no percentage of what is recovered: your dealership keeps 100% of it. Your dealership handles the repairs. We handle everything around them.

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