E-Bike Delivery and Collection Across the UK

Almost everything written about shipping lithium batteries is written by air freight forwarders, so the rules you will find are air rules. Two of them matter here: an e-bike has not been UN 3171 since the start of 2025, and the 30% charge limit does not apply to a road movement at all.

What UN number does an e-bike travel under?

UN 3556, if the battery is lithium-ion and stays fitted to the bike. That entry is new: ADR 2025 added UN 3556 for vehicles powered by lithium-ion batteries, UN 3557 for lithium metal and UN 3558 for sodium-ion.

It has applied since 1 January 2025 and became mandatory through national regulations on 1 July 2025. Before that, battery-powered vehicles travelled under UN 3171 — so an e-bike is no longer a UN 3171 consignment, and any internal procedure or carrier template still naming 3171 is out of date.

That matters practically rather than academically. The UN number drives the transport document, the marking and the carrier's own acceptance checks, and a document naming a withdrawn entry is a document that gets queried at the kerb.

Does the battery have to be at 30% charge?

Not for road. The 30% state-of-charge limit is an IATA Dangerous Goods Regulations requirement, mandatory for air since 2016. ADR has no general equivalent.

This is worth saying plainly because almost every result you will find says otherwise. The first page of search for lithium battery shipping is written by air freight forwarders, and their constraints get presented as the rules. A sender planning a van therefore gets somebody else's rulebook from every source, and either discharges batteries for no reason or prepares a road consignment to air rules.

If any leg of the journey is by air, the air rules govern that leg and the 30% limit applies to it. For a UK road movement it does not. We carry by road, which is why we can say so.

Should the battery travel in the bike or separately?

It changes the classification, and the choice is yours to make before collection.

For most e-bike movements leaving the battery fitted is simpler: one article, one entry, one set of markings. Removing it creates two consignments and a UN 3480 movement in its own right. Our UN 3480 versus UN 3481 article sets out the difference between the two loose-battery entries, and shipping e-bike batteries covers the battery-only case.

What paperwork does the sender have to provide?

A transport document with the particulars ADR 5.4.1 requires, and — on request — the battery's test summary. ADR 2025 added a note making it explicit that manufacturers and distributors must make that summary available to the consignor when asked.

That is a useful right to know about. If you are selling or reselling e-bikes and a carrier asks for the test summary, the manufacturer or distributor is obliged to make it available to you; you are not expected to generate it.

What the transport document itself needs is set out on our dangerous goods note page: the UN number, proper shipping name, class, packing group where assigned, the number and description of packages, the total quantity, consignor and consignee, and the tunnel code where one applies.

What about a damaged or recalled battery?

That is a different job and it needs saying before collection, not at it. A battery that is damaged, defective, swollen, has been in a fire or is subject to a recall is not carried under the ordinary provisions, and a carrier that accepts one unknowingly is carrying an uncontrolled risk.

The honest answer from us is that damaged and defective cells need a specialist arrangement and specific packaging, and we will say so rather than take the booking on the assumption that the pack is sound. A visibly swollen battery or one that has been dropped hard is in that category.

If the battery is at end of life rather than damaged, it is waste. We hold Environment Agency registration CBDU654368 as an upper tier waste carrier, broker and dealer, so a battery going for recycling is a movement we can make — see waste duty of care for the obligation that sits on you as the business handing it over.

How should the bike itself be prepared?

Pedals off, handlebars turned in line with the frame, and anything that protrudes removed or protected. A bike box or a hard case is better than cardboard for a carbon frame, and a cardboard bike box is adequate for aluminium if the frame tubes are padded.

1. Step 1 — remove the pedals, which is where most transit damage to adjacent items comes from.
2. Step 2 — turn or remove the handlebars and protect the brake levers and the display.
3. Step 3 — pad the frame tubes, the chainset and the rear derailleur, which is the most easily bent component on the bike.
4. Step 4 — secure or remove the battery per the classification you have chosen, and make sure it cannot switch on.
5. Step 5 — deflate the tyres partially if any leg is by air; for road it is unnecessary.

Step 4 is the one that matters legally. A battery that can be activated in transit is the hazard the whole regime exists to control, and ADR expects packaging that prevents activation.

What does an e-bike weigh, and why does it matter?

Weight decides the handling and it also decides the default compensation. Vehicles and machines over 30 kg can, under ADR, travel in cages, on pallets or secured unpackaged rather than in a rigid outer, which is how a cargo e-bike is usually moved.

What is an e-bike actually covered for?

Far less than it cost. Under the RHA Conditions of Carriage 2024, the default limit is £1,300 for every tonne of gross weight lost, wrongly delivered or damaged — and an e-bike is a small fraction of a tonne.

A 25 kg e-bike is 0.025 of a tonne, so the default cap is £32.50 — against a machine that commonly costs well into four figures. A 50 kg cargo e-bike reaches £65.00. That is the single most useful number on this page.

Our own goods-in-transit cover is £50,000 as standard, with higher limits to £1,000,000 arranged through partner carriers for high-value work. See goods in transit insurance for how a carrier's conditions and a cargo policy differ, and agree a declared value at booking rather than after an incident.

Who is this service for?

Four patterns, and they want different things. A retailer or distributor moving stock wants a repeatable process and a transport document template that is right once. A manufacturer shipping to a dealer wants the test summary question settled. A private buyer from a marketplace wants one bike collected and delivered without becoming an expert in ADR. A workshop sending a bike for warranty repair wants it back as well as out.

The common need is that somebody decides the classification before the vehicle arrives. For a trade account that is a decision made once; for a one-off collection it is a two-minute conversation.

For marketplace purchases specifically, the thing that goes wrong is that the seller does not know the battery chemistry or capacity and the buyer has not asked. Both are on the battery label.

Can you collect from a private address or a shop?

Both. A shop or workshop is straightforward: a trade counter, someone who can hand it over, and usually a box already. A private address needs someone in, and needs the bike ready rather than being dismantled while the driver waits.

For a marketplace collection we ask the seller for the battery details and the buyer for the delivery access, because the two halves of the information sit with two different people and neither tends to volunteer it.

If the bike is not boxed we will say what it needs rather than load it unprotected. An unboxed e-bike in a shared load is how a derailleur gets bent and a dispute starts.

What can T&C Logistics carry, and what can it not?

We hold ADR competence across classes 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8 and 9 — class 9 is where lithium batteries and UN 3556 sit — and we do not carry class 1 explosives or class 7 radioactive material. Heavy goods work beyond 3.5 tonnes runs through partner operators holding their own Operator's Licence, because we hold none.

We are not an IATA cargo agent and make no air-side claims: where a consignment has an air leg, that leg runs through partners and the air rules apply to it. That is also why we can be straight about the 30% charge limit not applying to our own road work.

Our operational base is in Birmingham on 0121 720 3841; enquiries come in round the clock and are answered between 06:00 and 22:00, seven days a week. Tell us the bike, the battery capacity and whether it stays fitted and we will confirm the classification and the paperwork before anything is booked.