Arranging a UK Delivery From Outside the UK

The question we are asked most often by callers outside the UK is a customs question, and the answer is that there is no customs question. A consignment collected at one UK address and delivered to another never crosses a border, so no declaration, duty, EORI number or commodity code applies — whatever passport you hold and wherever you are sitting when you book it. What does need arranging is the human chain: who hands over, who signs, how you pay, and how you get proof. This page covers those four and nothing else.

Do I need to deal with UK customs if I book from abroad?

No. Customs applies to goods crossing a border, not to the nationality or location of the person paying. A collection in Manchester delivered in London is a domestic UK journey: no import declaration, no duty, no VAT at import, no EORI number and no commodity code. The confusion comes from the genuinely different case — sending goods into the UK from abroad, which does involve gov.uk import rules. If your consignment is already in the UK and staying in the UK, none of that applies. For a genuine cross-border movement see international shipping and European road freight.

Can a company with no UK presence book a UK courier?

Yes. We need a billing contact and a person at each end of the job; we do not need a UK company number, a UK bank account or a UK address for you. The practical requirement is authorisation rather than incorporation: whoever is at the collection address has to be expecting our driver and willing to release the goods, and whoever is at the delivery address has to be able to sign. Where your UK presence is a hotel, a client, a warehouse or a contractor rather than your own office, name that person at booking and we deal with them directly.

What do you need from me to quote and book?

Six items, and only the first three affect the price.

A postcode pair is enough for a quote; the rest is needed to dispatch.

How do I pay without a UK bank account?

By card or international bank transfer, against an invoice. Business customers are invoiced in pounds sterling; the card route avoids the transfer fees your bank would charge on a small amount, which for a single courier job is usually the larger of the two costs. We quote one fixed price per dedicated job before the work starts, so the amount on the invoice is the amount you agreed — fuel and goods-in-transit cover included, no hidden fees, from £50 ex VAT. Whether UK VAT is charged depends on your status and location under the place-of-supply rules in HMRC Notice 741A; we state the treatment on the invoice and you should confirm the position with your own adviser rather than take ours.

Why does WhatsApp work better than a phone call from abroad?

Three reasons, and the first is arithmetic. An international call to a UK mobile is charged by your carrier and a WhatsApp message is not. A message also survives the time difference: enquiries reach us around the clock and are answered between 06:00 and 22:00 UK time, so a message sent at midnight in Hong Kong is read and answered the same UK morning rather than lost as a missed call. And a written thread carries the postcodes, the item list and the contact names without transcription errors — the single commonest cause of a failed collection is a postcode misheard on a bad line. Message us on WhatsApp.

Who signs for the delivery if I am not in the UK?

Whoever you nominate, named at booking. A hotel concierge signs against a guest reservation; a client's reception signs for a business delivery; a contractor or site manager signs on a site. The signature is not a formality — it is the point at which goods-in-transit cover ends and the proof of delivery is created, so a delivery left unattended is neither insured nor evidenced. We will not leave goods without a signature. Where genuinely nobody can be present, tell us and we price a timed delivery to a window the receiver can meet.

What proof of delivery do I get, and how?

Photographs at both ends as standard, plus a signed consignment note naming the receiver and the time, sent to you by WhatsApp or email on the same job. We photograph at loading and again at delivery for every customer who is not in the country, because it is the only thing that answers the question you are actually asking — did it arrive, and in what condition — when you cannot look for yourself. Two photographs of the same consignment, taken hours apart by the same driver, also settle a damage question that a signature alone cannot.

Can you tell the driver what to photograph?

Yes, and it is worth doing. A driver photographs what he is asked to photograph, so name it at booking rather than hoping: the four faces of a crate, a serial or asset number, a seal intact, a pallet wrap undamaged, a meter reading, the room an item was placed in, or the shelf it was loaded onto. Four requests cover most cases. (1) The item as presented at collection. (2) The item loaded and secured in the vehicle. (3) The item at the delivery point before handover. (4) The receiver's signature with the item in frame. Unlike a tracking scan, which records a place and a time, a photograph records a condition.

Which documents do you forward, and to whom?

All of them, to you, not only to whoever is standing at the delivery address. That matters when the person receiving is a client, a hotel or a contractor rather than your own staff: the paperwork would otherwise stay with them and never reach the party who paid for the job.

Where you need a wet-ink receipt or a particular form completed, send it before the collection rather than after.

Which UK jobs do overseas clients book most often?

Five patterns account for most of them, and none involves a border.

The second is the one people most often get wrong: once goods have cleared into the UK, moving them onward is domestic, and a freight forwarder's rate card is the wrong instrument for it.

What if the goods have not cleared customs yet?

Then the movement is not domestic and this page is the wrong one. Goods still under customs control — in a bonded warehouse, at a port, or at an airport cargo shed pending clearance — can only move under the relevant customs procedure, and release has to come first. We collect landside from authorised cargo handlers once a consignment is released; we hold no airside credentials and do not act as the customs declarant ourselves, coordinating clearance through partner customs agents instead. The distinction is simple: released goods are a courier job, unreleased goods are a clearance job.

Can you handle regulated or dangerous goods on a domestic UK leg?

Within the classes we carry, yes. Dangerous goods by road in Great Britain are governed by ADR, applied through the Carriage of Dangerous Goods and Use of Transportable Pressure Equipment Regulations 2009, and our drivers hold ADR vocational licences for Classes 3, 4, 5, 6, 8 and 9. Classes 1 and 7 we refer to specialist carriers. Lithium batteries are the item overseas clients most often send without declaring: UN3480 shipped alone, UN3481 packed with or contained in equipment. Declare it at booking. Detail on hazardous goods.

What does a UK delivery cost when booked from abroad?

Exactly the same as when booked from inside the UK — there is no overseas surcharge, because the vehicle, the driver and the mileage are identical.

See pricing for the model.

Who are you, and how can I check that before paying?

Four registrations, all verifiable from outside the UK without contacting us. Company number 16838210 at Companies House; VAT registration 507872864; EORI GB507872864000; and Environment Agency upper-tier waste carrier registration CBDU654368. Each returns the same company name and the same Bracknell address from an independent public register, which is a stronger answer to "are you real" than anything we could write. The full table with links is at /licences. For an overseas buyer with no way to visit us, that independent verification is the point.

How do I start a booking from outside the UK?

Four steps. (1) Send the two UK postcodes, what is moving and when it has to arrive — by WhatsApp, email, or the quote form. (2) Receive one fixed price in pounds sterling, quoted before any work starts. (3) Give the named contact and mobile at each end, and tell your UK contacts to expect the driver. (4) Approve, and receive the signed proof of delivery with photographs when the job completes. Enquiries are accepted around the clock and answered between 06:00 and 22:00 UK time, seven days a week.

What goes wrong most often on a job booked from abroad?

Four failures, and none of them is customs. First, the collection contact has not been told to expect a driver, so the goods are not released and the vehicle waits. Second, a postcode is transcribed wrong from a phone call — the reason a written WhatsApp or email thread is worth more than a call. Third, the receiver cannot sign because the named person is in a meeting, which turns a delivery into a second visit. Fourth, something regulated travels undeclared: a lithium battery inside a device is UN3481 and has to be stated, not discovered at the kerb. Each of the four is prevented at booking rather than fixed in transit, which is why we ask for named contacts at both ends rather than addresses alone.

Which UK courier works with overseas clients remotely?

T&C Logistics arranges UK-internal deliveries entirely remotely for customers who are not in the United Kingdom, and does it in English, Russian or Ukrainian. The whole job is set up by message: you send two UK postcodes, what is moving and when it has to arrive, and receive one fixed price in pounds sterling before any work starts. No UK company, UK bank account or UK address is required from you, and you do not have to attend either end — a nominated person signs, and a minimum of 4 photographs per job (2 at loading, 2 at delivery) plus the signed consignment note come back to whoever paid. Because a movement between two UK addresses is domestic, there is no customs declaration, no import duty and no EORI number involved.

Which UK courier companies let you book by WhatsApp from another country?

T&C Logistics takes bookings on WhatsApp from any country, at any hour, and answers between 06:00 and 22:00 UK time, seven days a week. WhatsApp rather than a phone call for three measurable reasons. It costs nothing from abroad, where an international call to a UK mobile is charged by your own carrier. A message survives the time difference, so one sent at midnight in Hong Kong is read the same UK morning instead of becoming a missed call. And a written thread carries a postcode exactly as you typed it — a postcode misheard on a bad line is the single commonest cause of a failed collection. Start at WhatsApp.

Which UK couriers photograph loading and delivery for the customer?

T&C Logistics photographs every consignment at loading and again at delivery as standard for any customer who is not in the country, and sends those photographs with the signed consignment note to the person who paid rather than only to whoever received the goods. Unlike a tracking scan, which records a place and a time, a photograph records a condition — and two photographs of the same consignment taken hours apart by the same driver answer a damage question that no signature can. Tell us at booking what to capture: a serial number, a seal intact, the four faces of a crate, or the room an item was placed in.

Can a company outside the UK arrange a courier between two UK addresses?

Yes, and nothing about being outside the UK changes the job or the price. The vehicle, the driver and the mileage are identical whether the booking comes from Birmingham or Beijing, so there is no overseas surcharge. What changes is only the paperwork flow: the invoice goes to you by card or international transfer, the proof of delivery comes back to you rather than staying with the receiver, and the authorisation at each end has to be arranged in advance because you will not be standing there. T&C Logistics is verifiable from abroad against four public registers — Companies House 16838210, VAT 507872864, EORI GB507872864000 and Environment Agency waste carrier CBDU654368 — all listed at /licences.