Frequently Asked Questions

As a freight forwarder, we are able to negotiate discounted rates with major carriers for air freight, sea freight and door-to-door parcel delivery.

We also deal with the logistics on your behalf, by arranging the necessary documentation and labels, filing insurance, and also arranging the storage of your goods for some services. Through our site, you can track your orders and print off labels and invoices.

There are three big reasons to book with Transglobal Express.

Number one: our rates are massively reduced from standard carrier prices and could save you up to 70%.

Number two: the booking process is smooth and simple, with a wealth of information on the website to guide you if needed.

And number three: our Customer Services team are always on hand to ensure that you are able to talk to a human should you have any queries.

We believe that exceptional customer experience puts us ahead of our competitors, as well as the fact that booking with us is far cheaper and easier than going to carriers directly.

We liaise with carriers at every step of the way and will do our very best to ensure that your delivery arrives safely and on time. We pride ourselves on our award-winning Customer Services team who are more than happy to take your call during office hours if you have any problems at all.

However, customers should be aware there are some things that we have no control over as freight forwarders. Carriers such as UPS, TNT and DHL each have their own policies pertaining to deliveries and collection times that we are not able to influence.

Similarly, we cannot influence Customs. You should familiarise yourself with the customs regulations for your destination country before you attempt to book a delivery. If customs duties and taxes are required, the carrier will be in contact with the recipient directly (with some exceptions—please see specific service information).

For air and sea freight orders, our agents at the destination port may apply their own charges in addition to the amount quoted by Transglobal Express.

We will always do what we can to open lines of communication and to keep you informed. For damaged or missing items, you may submit claims for refunds or compensation through us, and we will liaise with the carriers.

For further information, please see our full terms and conditions.

As the sender of goods, it is your responsibility to check the following:

• To ensure that your goods are not prohibited.
• To ensure that you are familiar with the customs regulations of your destination country.
• To ensure that your goods are sufficiently packaged.
• To ensure that the contents of your goods are declared in full.
• To provide accurate weight and dimensions.

You will be responsible, and subject to charges, if problems arise due to failure to meet any of the above conditions. Please see our full terms and conditions for more information.

TG Flex and TG D Flex are our own branded services. They use the third-party couriers like DHL and FedEx respectively and offer exactly the same services as those companies, with the same policies—but at cheaper rates!

You can get a free, no-obligation quote through our website. Simply enter your destination country, along with the weight and dimensions of your parcel. Be sure to include accurate postcodes in the quote for a preview of any relevant surcharges.

To obtain an accurate quote, we require both the weight and dimensions of each item of your consignment. You can still use our easy quote tool to get an estimate based on rough weight and dimensions, but please note that the price may not be accurate unless you provide the exact details.

For information on how to accurately weigh and measure your parcels, please see our weighing and measuring guide.

How do I quote for/send more than one parcel at a time?

To send more than one parcel at a time, all you need to do is select the number of items when entering your quote details, and enter the weight and dimensions for each. You will not be charged per item but on overall size and weight, and in fact the rate per kg is likely to improve the more items you add.

Which carrier or service you should use will depend on your needs. Our quote results will automatically display the cheapest options first, but you can view further information by hovering over the service name.

Carriers’ services may be worldwide, Europe only, or UK domestic. Carriers usually offer express services with speedy (sometimes next day) delivery and economical services that are cheaper and slower.

You can view our carrier service information pages for full details: UPS, DHL and TNT.

Your quote results page will expire after 20 minutes. Saved quotes will record the details of your consignment only, not the tariffs at the time of saving.

You have the option to select "parcel" or "document" when entering your quote details. Selecting "document" will give you a quote for all services with which documents can be sent.

If your document weighs up to 0.5kg, you will be able to select our UPS Envelope services, which are generally the most inexpensive.

There are extra services for documents only, which are usually cheaper than their non-document counterparts.

Also, documents do not require customs invoices (also known as packing lists) for shipments to countries outside of the EU.

Yes, you will need to enter weight and dimensions for documents. Please refer to our weighing and measuring FAQ.

We offer import services from worldwide territories to Germany with our UPS, TNT services.

Any deliveries between countries outside of Germany would have to be made via Germany and booked as two separate deliveries, with someone in Germany to pay for any customs charges.

We would be happy to transfer your labels if you would like to send via the Transglobal warehouse (customs charges notwithstanding), but you would need to notify us.

For courier deliveries to and from the UK, you can use UK website. 

Once you have a quote for your parcel, you can proceed to book with your chosen service. On the quote results page, simply click Book and you will be taken step by step through the rest of the booking process.

To make a booking, you will need the full street address for both collection and delivery, or the shipper and consignee addresses even if you are not sending door-to-door. This includes contact phone numbers, which must be local to the addresses provided.

You will also need to provide a detailed list of the contents of your parcel, along with the values of each item. Businesses will need to provide EORI and VAT numbers if relevant.

You do not need to register to get a quote. However, you will need to register to make a booking.

You can save your quote details by clicking Save quote on the quote results page. This will allow you to email the quote to yourself.

You can also save your details for quicker quotes using the Saved Consignments tool. 

When making your booking, you can save your progress once you reach the Contents Declaration stage. This allows you to come back to it later if you don't have all the details to hand. Please refer to our how-to guide. 

Orders are also "saved" to your basket once you have completed your Contents Declaration, prior to choosing cllection and insurance options. From here you can edit your orders or check out at any time. 

You can use your Product Library to save item descriptions (including commodity codes, weight, value and country of origin) for future use. 

After booking, details for orders you have booked will be saved to your account.

Yes, you can re-use the details from a previous order using our Edit & Ship tool. This also allows you to amend any of the details, including the service type, country, sender and delivery addresses, and contents declaration.

When completing your Contents Declaration, you can also save item details (including commodity codes) to your Product Library for future use. 

To book a large number of consignments in one go, you can use our bulk uploader tool. You will need to upload a spreadsheet that follows the template provided. For a step-by-step guide, see our help page. 

An Economic Operator Registration and Identification (EORI) number is a number assigned to you by the tax office (or other local state department) to identify you as an importer or exporter to and from the EU. It’s used by the tax office to track all of your shipments.

An EORI number should only be required for commercial shipments, but you can also apply for an EORI number as an individual or sole trader. One EORI number is valid for all shipments. To apply, visit the relevant government website.

A Commodity Code, also known as a Harmonising (HS) Code or a Tariff Code, is an eight-digit number (for exports from the EU) or ten-digit number (for imports from outside of the EU) that classifies your goods to ensure that you pay the right taxes and duties on them.

While the codes themselves are generally only required for commercial shipments to or from countries outside of the EU, we advise that you should always include descriptions of your goods in the fields provided during booking, to ensure a smooth delivery.

Failure to provide a commodity code may result in delay if the carrier requires this information.

You can use the relevant government website to find the right Commodity Codes.

All carriers handle parcels with the same standardised level of care. As such, any additional consignment information that is not requested during the booking process is likely to be ignored by the carriers. This includes FRAGILE or orientation ("this way up") labels. Parcels may be stacked and are processed through automated sortation centres using conveyors and chutes, and you will need to package your items securely.

If you need to change your address details after booking you can do so before your parcel is collected. Instructions on how to change your address details after booking can be seen here.

For address changes after your parcel has been collected or if you have made a different mistake in your booking, please call our customer service team as soon as possible. There may be a surcharge from the carrier, if the collection or delivery addresses need changing.

Yes. You can add new users to your account by clicking on Account Users under My Account, and entering the details of a new person.

You can choose to give them either Read Only or Full Access. Full Access will give them administrative rights, allowing them to edit account settings (such as billing address, payment details and credit) and add new users.

Read Only access will allow them to view invoices and orders and make bookings, but not edit account details.

To edit a saved collection or delivery address, click on "Manage Address Book" in "My Account". You can make changes to or delete an existing address. New addresses will need to be added (and optionally saved) during the booking process.

You can pay for bookings by card, PayPal or pre-paid credit. You can also set up a PayPal Billing Agreement.

You will have the option to select payment method at the end of the booking process.

Payment card details can be stored by Adyen, which is the secure card payment platform we use. You will have the option to save card details during the booking process.

You can manage your saved payment options on your account via your privacy and data settings. You can remove saved cards here, but new cards can only be added during the booking process.

For secure card payments, we use Adyen. Adyen is audited by Trustwave, an independent Qualified Security Assessor (QSA) and an Approved Scanning Vendor (ASV) for the Payment Card Industry Security Standards Council. Adyen is Level 1 compliant with Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards (PCI DSS), which is the highest level.

If you do not wish to verify your card every time you book, or use a saved card, you may purchase pre-paid credit. You will have the option to select this payment method at the end of the booking process.

You can top up your pre-paid credit amount via My Account. Click Account Settings and then, next to Available Credit, click the Add Credit button.

We offer 30-day term credit accounts. If you would like to open a credit account, please contact our customer service team.

If you have an invoice you have not yet fully paid, either because you are using a credit account or because surcharges have been applied to one of your orders, you can pay the outstanding amount via the Invoices section of your account.

Please see our guide for more details.

You will earn loyalty points with every parcel delivery or shop order. You will earn 1 point per € 1 spent. Each point is worth 1 cent.

Loyalty points are not currently earned on air or sea freight orders.

Loyalty points can be redeemed, and their value deducted from the total cost of your order, at the end of the booking process.

You can find your current loyalty points balance under Account Settings in "My Account".

Sometimes we offer special discounts for our customers, which we make available in the form of Promotional Codes.

You can enter Promotional Codes at the Order Overview stage of booking. The discount will apply to your total shipping costs, excluding any surcharges or insurance fees. VAT, if applicable, is applied to the total after discount.

For more information, including terms and conditions, please see Promotional Codes.

A Customs Invoice is a document required for all international shipments, used by customs authorities for the assessment of goods and to calculate applicable duties and taxes. It includes details such as invoice number, importer and exporter information, VAT and EORI numbers, Commodity Codes, and the description and origin of your goods.

A Packing List is a document that provides information for the exporter, importer and freight forwarder relating to the items packed in your parcel or pallet, including the weight and dimensions of each item. It’s required by carriers for international shipments.

We will generate both of these for you as part of a combined Contents Declaration. You can also opt to use your own Customs Invoice.

Please refer to our Customs Information.

For most services, we state that you will need four copies of your Customs Invoice in accordance with the official word from our carriers, though you may be told by the driver or depot that not all of them are required

The number of copies required may vary between services. Please follow the labelling instructions for your specific service.

For deliveries outside of the EU, the recipient may be required to pay customs duties, taxes or fees. We are generally not involved in this process (with some exceptions—please see specific service info), and as such customs fees will not be included in your quote. The carrier will be in touch with the recipient directly and the relevant Customs office will retain your items until the fees are paid.

Sometimes the carrier will pay duties and taxes on behalf of the receiver and recover the costs on delivery (sometimes referred to as "cash on delivery"). When this happens, the invoice to the receiver will be from the carrier, not customs.

You will need to check the customs regulations for your destination country to see if you are likely to have to pay customs charges, which may depend on the nature or size of your consignment. Whilst we are able to acquire updates from Customs via our carriers, we are not able to influence their policies or decisions.

Domestic shipments within Germany, exports to EU countries and imports from EU countries include VAT (value-added tax) or „Mwst.” („Mehrwertsteuer”) as an additional charge. Quotes will list the subtotal of your booking ‘+ VAT’ if it applies. The actual amount will be listed in your Order Overview before your booking is confirmed.

Please refer to Gov.uk for a full list of EU countries. Special territories such as the Canary Islands, Channel Islands and Monaco are exempt from VAT.

We are not normally involved with the handling of customs duties and taxes, except for our UPS import services, in which case we would raise an invoice on the customer’s account.

If you are not an existing Transglobal Express customer, or if you are not expecting to receive a delivery and do not know the sender, any emails purporting to be from Transglobal Express are most likely fraudulent. Please read our information on fraud and online scams.

The documentation required varies from service to service. For door-to-door courier services, we will automatically generate your documentation for you when you make your booking. After you have made your booking, we will email you instructions regarding the documents required.

For air and sea freight services, we will manually generate your documentation and email it to you.

If you don’t have a printer, we can send your documentation to you via post. Call us and we can arrange this for you. If you are opting to use this service, please allow time for your documents to arrive when picking your collection date.

Your documents should be generated and emailed to you within an hour of booking. If you have not received your documents, or if they are not accessible via your account, please contact us.

If bookings are placed outside of working hours and labels are not available, they will be sent on the following business day.

If you are using a DPD service and sending from a non-UK address, the driver will provide the shipping label at the point of collection.

For all other services, please use the labels provided by Transglobal Express. If you do not have a printer, you can arrange for us to mail the documents to you.

While the drivers may carry manual shipping labels, we must insist that our pre-printed labels are used in order to avoid billing complications.

You can insure your goods against loss or damage, up to a maximum value declared in your policy. All consignments (except Evri and USPS) are covered free of charge up to a value of £50, unless they are classed as a No Compensation item. You can purchase Enhanced Transit Liability Cover to insure goods up to a maximum value of £2500.

All Evri and USPS shipments are covered free of charge against loss or damage up to a maximum of 25 € per shipment (not per box). A premium of 5 € is charged for goods with a value between 25 € and 250 €. 

It is not advisable to underinsure, as you will not be adequately covered for the whole value of your goods.

Please note that certain items cannot be insured—see our insurance details for more information.

If your consignment is has a value in excess of £2500, it is unfortunately not eligible for our Enhanced Transit Liability Cover. You should consider taking out independent freight insurance to cover your goods whilst in transit.

You will be given the option to add insurance during the booking process and pay for it as part of your booking.

We will calculate your insurance premium for you during the booking process, based on the given value of your consignment. Alternatively, you can use our insurance calculator or view our insurance information.

We would never ask for insurance payments via email, from the sender or the receiver. Insurance is always arranged during the booking process.

If you are not an existing Transglobal Express customer, or if you are not expecting to receive a delivery and do not know the sender, any emails purporting to be from Transglobal Express are most likely fraudulent. Please read our information on fraud and online scams.

For door-to-door courier deliveries, surcharges vary depending on the carrier. You can view our list of surcharges from all carriers.

Typically surcharges are applied for remote area destinations (places that are difficult for drivers to get to, or must be subcontracted to third parties), overweight or oversized parcels, address changes, and duty reversal (requesting that the sender be charged for customs duties rather than the receiver). Surcharges can also be applied if a pallet is used to transport a shipment and is considered non-stackable due to its packaging, contents or shape or is clearly marked with the instruction (non-stackable e.g. due to risk of breakage / glassy symbol).

The carrier may also apply surcharges, in addition to any duties and tax you may have to pay, if the shipment requires customs clearance that is not considered “routine”. These charges cannot always be predetermined prior to sending as they will vary, but to give an example: UPS will charge for brokerage services such as warehouse storage (if they have to keep your consignment for more than three working days), duty and tax forwarding, and customs inspection.

Some surcharges are the result of extra handling and administration required due to improper packaging or incorrect information, so please check the requirements. Please also be aware that there are fines for dangerous or prohibited items. 

For parcel deliveries, surcharges will be included in your quote where pertaining to the weight and dimensions of your consignment. Remote area surcharges are also included, but you will need to provide accurate postcodes as part of the quote to view them at the outset.

Yes, you can ship tyres with Transglobal Express. Please make sure they are packed properly. For more advice, please visit our information page.

You can send suitcases via Transglobal Express. However, please be aware that not all of our providers accept suitcases as such. For UPS services for example, you would have to put your suitcase in a cardboard box for transport. For more information and to find out which providers are most suitable for suitcase delivery, please see our info page.

Yes, you can send chocolate via our services as long as the goods are non-perishable. Please see our information page for further information. 

For shipping skis, please make sure that your skis are properly and securely packed. How to pack them properly and for further information please see here.

Yes, you can send mobile phones. Please be aware that not all of our delivery providers accept mobile phones or smart devices and might have restrictions on their phone delivery services. Please see here for more information on sending mobile phones.

Yes, you can send your passport out of Germany. Other countries will each have their own rules. Please refer to our information page for further information.

We have a list of dangerous and prohibited items which is shared by most of our carriers as standard policy.

Each destination country will have its own set of regulations and requirements that you will need to be aware of before attempting to send your goods there.

Please see our guide to country information and restrictions—but please note that this is not a comprehensive resource and you should seek advice from the relevant government authorities for the most up to date advice.

Perfume is considered a dangerous and hazardous item because it is flammable due to its alcohol content. In the high pressure of an aeroplane’s cargo hold (as opposed to the aircraft cabin where the passengers sit), this is very unsafe.

The decision not to allow the international shipment of perfume is one made by Civil Aviation Authorities and enforced by all carriers.

The ISPM 15 regulation refers to the requirement that all non-manufactured wood be heat-treated, in order to protect certain local ecosystems from foreign insects and disease. To find out which countries this applies to, please see our ISPM 15 information.

We recommend using our DHL or UPS services when looking to send a mobile phone. For more information, including on country-specific restrictions, please contact our customer service team. We can ship mobile phones with lithium ion batteries if these do not exceed 100 Wh and are integrated within the device during transport. 

No 'hazardous' label needs to be attached to your parcel.

Do not send faulty or recalled items per air courier. If the mobile phone you are sending is a sales return and is being shipped outside of the EU, please contact your recipient in advance to agree that they will cover customs fees and taxes, therefore avoiding you being charged with fees for a return of the shipment back to you.

For help with packing your goods, please read our guide to protective packaging.

Please see our guide to weighing and measuring your parcel.

"Volumetric weight" refers to the amount of space that a package occupies. It’s usually relevant when an item is of a large size but weighs relatively little. Your shipment will be charged based on either actual weight or volumetric weight depending on which is largest.

How volumetric weight is calculated depends on the carrier and service—you can view the specific information for each.

All carriers handle parcels with the same standardised level of care. Parcels may be stacked and are processed through automated sortation centres using conveyors and chutes. As such, FRAGILE or orientation ("this way up") labels may be ignored. You will need to package your items securely - as a general rule, your parcel should be able to withstand a drop from waist height onto a solid floor.

Yes, you will need to provide weight and dimensions for documents.

However, the minimum chargeable weight for any document service is 0.5kg—so as long as your document doesn’t exceed 0.5kg in weight, entering 0.5kg is fine for items weighing less than that amount.

To use the UPS Envelope services, the document must fit into a UPS branded envelope, which measures approximately 33.5x22.5cm and can hold up to 150 pieces of 90g/m² A4 paper.

If the depth ("height") of your document is negligible, an estimate is acceptable. The lowest you can enter is 0.01cm, which is the thickness of two A4 pieces of paper.

Most of our parcel delivery services are door-to-door. TNT will only deliver to business addresses, however.

Our air freight and sea freight services are not door-to-door, but we offer an optional collection service for air freight orders.

You will always be able to pick a specific day for collection. Most carriers will let you choose a specific four-hour window for the collection of your parcel, which you can select during the booking process. The courier will then endeavour to make the pick-up during that time period.

With TNT, you can narrow the collection window by picking a time from which your goods will be ready, but goods may be collected at any time up until 6pm.

Please note however that collection windows cannot be guaranteed. If the courier fails to collect initially, we will rebook the collection for you. This is not always automatic and we will need to be notified.

To find out same day collection cut-off times for your postcode, you can use our Collection Cut-Off Calculator. Simply enter your postcode and we'll list the cut-off times in your area for all carriers.

We'll also notify you of the collection cut-off time for your chosen service during the booking process.

Some parcel delivery services offer the option to use drop-off centres instead of collection (for example, UPS Access Points), as do air freight and LCL sea freight services. These options will be shown during the booking process.

You can book Saturday collection with DHL.

Saturday delivery is available for DHL Domestic Express. Your parcel must be collected before the cut-off time.

Drivers will not ring ahead of collection and delivery. They are not typically issued with work phones to make external calls. Unfortunately having to make calls would slow down the whole delivery process.

You will need to be available for the duration of the selected delivery window, which is usually a period of four hours.

DPD may be able to offer a one hour collection window the morning of the collection, with their Predict service, if you have booked more than 24 hours in advance and provided a valid mobile phone number for the recipient.

We are not always made aware of failed collections, so if your parcel was not picked up in the given collection window, please get in touch with us. We will rebook the collection at your earliest convenience.

Arrival times are estimated and cannot be guaranteed. However, if your parcel or freight delivery has not been made within the estimated timeframe, please contact us and we will investigate the status of the delivery for you.

Estimated transit times are given as the number of working/business days it will take for your shipment to be delivered. This excludes weekends unless the service includes weekend delivery.

Working days are usually Monday-Friday. However, some countries have a different working week:

Sunday to Thursday: Egypt, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Libya, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Sudan and Syria.

Saturday to Wednesday: Afghanistan and Yemen.

Saturday to Thursday (only Friday off): Djibouti, Iran and Somalia.

Sunday to Friday (only Saturday off): Nepal.

Monday to Saturday (only Sunday off): Equatorial Guinea, India, Mexico and Uganda.

Couriers will do their best to fulfil deliveries on time. However, transit times cannot be guaranteed.

You can track your parcel to get a general idea of the progress of your delivery. We are not able to chase drivers throughout the day, but if the driver has not arrived and it is getting close to the “close time”, please feel free to call and we’ll follow it up with the carrier.

Carriers are generally unable to deliver to PO boxes – a full street address and local telephone number are required. There are some exceptions to this rule for African and Middle Eastern countries. You can contact us to confirm.

You can track your parcel using our parcel tracker tool.

Once your booking has been made, you can view tracking numbers for all of your orders by selecting Orders from the Account menu. Just click on the tracking number to view tracking details.

Your tracking data will only become available once your parcel has been collected, and in some cases not until it has been processed at the depot.

If your tracking details are still not updating by the end of the following day (after collection), please contact us and we will look into this for you.

As tracking numbers are of a fixed length, there are a finite number of possible combinations for them, which means that sometimes they get recycled (particularly with TNT, whose tracking numbers are only nine digits long). Occasionally this means that you may initially see the tracking details for another shipment that was previously assigned the same number.

Don’t worry! Once the tracking details for the current shipment have been updated, they will usually override the old tracking details.

If you have a question about delivery, please contact us and we will liaise with the carrier if necessary. We have contacts and account agents within these companies, allowing us to expedite any queries. If approached directly, carriers will often tell you that you need to contact us instead.

We are committed to keeping our promises and achieving our service aims, but we are also realistic and recognise that things don’t always go according to plan.

If you are not happy with the service or advice you have received, we would invite you to contact our Customer Services team who will endeavour to resolve your complaint in a timely manner.

Please view our claims and liability guide for further information and download the claims form that applies to you.

All claims for lost or damaged items must be reported within a certain time frame depending on the service provider's regulations.

If you wish to cancel an order, please contact us immediately. A full refund will be issued for orders that are cancelled prior to collection.

PayPal refunds will be received on the same day that they are processed. However, refunds for card payments can take up to 2-3 days to clear, depending on your bank.

If you have received an email or SMS purportedly from Transglobal Express and you are not expecting a parcel, do not know the sender, or are simply unsure if the message is from us, please read our information on fraud and online scams or contact us.

To find out how we use your data, please see our privacy policy and our GDPR summary.

You can change your privacy and communication settings via your account. These include emailing options, saved payment options, and order history management for order details older than 12 months.