Bonded Warehouse Collections & Deliveries Across the UK

A bonded warehouse — HMRC's own term is customs warehouse — is a site authorised by HMRC where imported goods sit under customs control while import duty and VAT are suspended. HMRC puts it plainly: you can store goods there and delay paying duty and VAT until the goods are released for free circulation, and no duty or VAT is due at all if the goods are re-exported or moved to another customs procedure.

We are not that warehouse. T&C Logistics is a same-day courier and road-freight operator, and our part of this job is the vehicle: collecting from a customs warehouse, an external temporary storage facility (ETSF) or an airport transit shed once the paperwork is in order, and delivering into one when that is the destination. This page sets out how the regime works, what our driver needs at the gate, what we cannot legally do, and who you need instead if the thing you are shopping for is the storage itself.

Do you operate a bonded warehouse?

No. T&C Logistics holds no HMRC customs-warehouse authorisation and no excise-warehouse approval, and we neither own nor rent bonded storage anywhere in the UK.

What we do hold is on our licences and registrations page: ADR dangerous-goods licences at driver level, Driver CPC, an EORI number, goods-in-transit insurance of £50,000 as standard (up to £1,000,000 through partner carriers), public liability cover of £1,000,000, GPS tracking on every job, and a ULEZ-compliant fleet. Companies House number 16838210.

What we do not hold, and will not claim: customs warehousekeeper authorisation, excise warehouse approval, WOWGR registration, customs-broker or customs-agent status, and Authorised Economic Operator (AEO) status. An EORI number registers us to move goods across the UK border. It is not an authorisation to store them under duty suspension, and it is not a licence to make declarations on your behalf.

What does HMRC authorisation to run a bonded warehouse actually involve?

An operator must be authorised by HMRC as a warehousekeeper before a single pallet goes into bond. It is an estate-and-systems authorisation, not a transport one.

HMRC requires an applicant to be established in the UK, hold an EORI number, be financially solvent, have a good customs compliance record, prove a business need for the warehouse, be able to make declarations or employ an agent who can, keep inventory records, and provide a guarantee for Customs Duty and VAT unless they are an AEO. The application itself needs written procedures for goods entering and leaving, screenshots of the warehouse or duty management system, site plans showing perimeter dimensions, marked entrances and fire exits, CCTV, security gates and a clearly marked customs area — plus, for a public warehouse, letters of intent from customers with their annual duty-suspension figures. HMRC recommends applying at least 2 months before you intend to use the warehouse.

That is the bar. It is why a courier cannot simply describe a van or a yard as bonded storage.

What is the difference between a customs warehouse, an excise warehouse and temporary storage?

They are three different authorisations with three different duty positions and three different dwell rules. Mixing them up is the most common reason a collection goes wrong at the gate.

Most airport work we do is the third row: a forwarder's or handler's transit shed, where the clock is short and a vehicle is needed the same day. Most inland work is the first row, where dwell is measured in weeks and the courier leg is a scheduled collection.

How does a courier collect goods from a bonded warehouse?

In five steps, and the first two are not ours. Nothing leaves a customs-controlled site until the entry is cleared and the facility has issued a release.

1. Your customs agent files the import declaration in the Customs Declaration Service. CDS replaced CHIEF for import declarations from 1 October 2022, so a release reference quoted as a CHIEF entry is a sign of stale paperwork.
2. The facility releases the goods. HMRC requires it to supply whoever removes them with a hard copy of the goods release note and a systems-authenticated removal authority, which closes the inventory record.
3. The warehousekeeper or handler books a collection slot, usually naming the vehicle and the driver in advance.
4. Our driver presents identification and the release reference at the gate, checks the piece count and signs for the consignment.
5. We deliver direct — no depot sortation, no consolidation — and send proof of delivery with a GPS timestamp.

Where a shipment is still travelling under transit, the goods arrive accompanied by a Transit Accompanying Document on NCTS, and the receiving facility ends the movement.

How quickly do cleared goods have to leave the shed?

Within 3 days of customs clearance, where the goods sit in a temporary storage facility. HMRC requires the facility to remove cleared goods inside that window and can ask for a written explanation when they overrun.

The outer limit on temporary storage itself is 90 days from presentation, and a facility's records must show the time left on that clock for every consignment. A customs warehouse is the opposite case: once HMRC has authorised the warehousekeeper, goods can stay for an unlimited time.

That gap is where a same-day vehicle earns its fee. Storage and handling charges in a transit shed accrue per day and per pallet, slots are finite, and a consignment that misses its removal window becomes someone's compliance paperwork. We quote on the deadline, not on the distance alone — a Heathrow shed clearing at 16:00 and a consignee in Leeds is a different job from the same pallet collected tomorrow.

Can you move goods that are still under duty suspension?

No. Duty-suspended excise movements have to run between approved premises under the Excise Movement and Control System, each consignment carrying an Administrative Reference Code, and we are neither an authorised warehousekeeper nor a registered consignor.

In practice this splits the work cleanly. We carry duty-paid or customs-cleared consignments — the large majority of alcohol and wine courier work, and all general import traffic. Where a leg genuinely has to move in suspension, the warehousekeeper arranges that movement under their own approval and EMCS record, and we handle the legs outside it: the duty-paid delivery, the sample run, the urgent replacement case.

We will tell you which of the two you are in before you book. Getting it wrong is not a transport problem — it is an excise liability for the goods owner.

Which bonded and transit sheds do you collect from?

Landside cargo facilities at the main UK freight airports, inland customs warehouses, and forwarders' ETSF sheds. We work with the handler who holds your consignment rather than around them.

At Heathrow that means the cargo terminals and forwarder consolidation facilities — see Heathrow air freight collections and the Heathrow cargo guide for the workflow in detail. We also collect at Manchester, Stansted, East Midlands, Birmingham and Edinburgh, where whisky export consignments come out of Central Belt bonded warehouses and go into the handler before flight cut-off.

Collections are arranged with the authorised cargo handlers — Swissport, Menzies Aviation, dnata, DHL, Kuehne+Nagel and DB Schenker among them. To be explicit about a boundary that matters: all of our collection is landside. We hold no airside vehicle credentials and no CAA airside access, so ramp-side movement stays with the handler.

What paperwork should you have ready before we arrive?

Six documents cover almost every bonded collection. A missing release authority is the single most common reason a driver waits at a gate.

For goods arriving under transit, add the Transit Accompanying Document. For anything classified under ADR, the dangerous-goods note travels with the consignment and the driver's ADR class has to match it.

What happens if the goods have not been cleared yet?

Then nothing moves, and no courier can change that. Removing goods from a customs-controlled site without an authenticated release is a compliance failure for the facility, so the gate will refuse the vehicle.

There are three honest routes out. Your agent completes the declaration and the facility releases on clearance — usually the fastest. Or the goods move to another facility under transit on NCTS with a TAD, which keeps them under customs control while they travel. Or they are declared to a different procedure, such as customs warehousing, which parks the duty question until release.

What we can do while that resolves: hold the vehicle on standby, re-book the slot for the same day if clearance lands in time, or run a dedicated journey the moment the release reference comes through. Waiting time is charged, and we will say so before the driver sets off rather than after.

Who do you need if what you want is the storage itself?

An HMRC-authorised warehousekeeper: a public customs warehouse operator, a freight forwarder holding an ETSF approval, or a bonded logistics provider in the region where your goods land.

Your customs agent will almost always have one or two they work with, which is the shortest route to a quote — they already hold your commodity codes and know whether the goods need a customs warehouse, an excise warehouse or simply a few days of temporary storage. HMRC's guidance for depositors in a public or private warehouse sets out what the goods owner is responsible for once the goods are in bond.

We are not that provider, and we do not take a referral fee for pointing you at one. What we add is the movement either side of it: the collection that gets your pallets out of a transit shed inside the 3-day window, and the delivery that gets them from the bonded site to the consignee. See also transit warehousing and freight forwarding.

What does it cost to move goods to or from a bonded warehouse?

One fixed price per dedicated job, quoted upfront, with fuel and goods-in-transit insurance included and no hidden fees. Collections start from £50 (ex VAT). Final price depends on distance, vehicle, urgency and time — quoted in full upfront before you book.

Waiting time is the driver that surprises people on bonded work specifically. See pricing for the full model.

How do you book a bonded warehouse collection or delivery?

Call +44 7963 400173 (06:00–17:00) or +44 7737 778964 (08:00–22:00), or use the quote form.

Six details let us quote without a second call: the facility name and address, the release or entry reference, the air waybill number where there is one, the piece count and weight, the deadline you are working to, and anything that changes the vehicle — ADR class, temperature range, a pallet that needs a tail lift.

If your enquiry is actually about storing goods in bond, say so at the start of the call and we will say so back. We would rather spend two minutes telling you we are the wrong supplier than take a booking we cannot deliver against. Where the job is the movement, we quote the same day.