EU Export/Import delays on small parcels

[EJR2021]

I wanted to ask how others are getting on with sending and receiving goods from the EU after the 1st January.
We are not having much success, and have not managed yet to have any parcels delivered or received.
We have a DPD Local parcel sent on 5/1 which still seems to be on its way to Germany. I know DPD paused EU shipments on the 7/1 until recently, but perhaps they have not been able to clear the backlog yet.
We have a Fedex parcel which has been stuck in Polish customs for a week.
We are trying to get parts imported from Germany, but these seem to be stuck at Stansted.

Is this situation the same for all couriers, or are others having more success?

 

[Paul Norman]

We paused all EU orders on 20th December to avoid having any sales caught up in any potential disruption.

I think the combination of new rules and COVID were likely to produce this, and it seemed prudent to stand aside for a week or so.

Anecdotally, your experiences seem at the top end of not very good, but far from unique.

 

[EJR2021]

Thanks for the response. We are sending far fewer parcels to the EU than usual on the same premise, but want to get our products to customers that need them.
The good news is that our imported parts have made it through after 9 days in UK customs, and amazingly a parcel that we sent to the Netherlands by Fedex yesterday arrived this morning.

 

[Mr D]

We have had increased EU sales (mostly to Germany) and so far stuff sent after 1st Jan appears to be getting delivered - no customer complaints and a couple of feedback.

Personal deliveries are also getting through at least in Germany without too much delay.

 

[EJR2021]

May I ask which courier you are using?

 

[Mr D]

Royal Mail

 

[jay2021]

We have items stuck in the EU and GLS delaying transporting goods in to the UK on three occasions now. We’ll see next week what they say but expecting it to be delayed again. It’s just a headache!

I wanted to ask how others are getting on with sending and receiving goods from the EU after the 1st January.
We are not having much success, and have not managed yet to have any parcels delivered or received.
We have a DPD Local parcel sent on 5/1 which still seems to be on its way to Germany. I know DPD paused EU shipments on the 7/1 until recently, but perhaps they have not been able to clear the backlog yet.
We have a Fedex parcel which has been stuck in Polish customs for a week.
We are trying to get parts imported from Germany, but these seem to be stuck at Stansted.

Is this situation the same for all couriers, or are others having more success?

 

[wolfluecker]

We're having major issues getting stock from Europe via "fast parcel" couriers and road haulage operators. In case this is useful for anyone, here's a list with our experiences of receiving and sending in the last couple of weeks.

Incoming:

• DPD from Czechia - services to UK suspended
• DPD from Germany - services to UK restarted now, but still returned shipments to sender
• UPS from Germany - returned shipments to sender
• DB Schenker from Germany - services to UK suspended last week but restarting now
• GLS from Germany - OK
• FedEx from Czechia - OK
• DHL from Germany - OK

Outgoing:

• Royal Mail to Ireland - As normal, 2-3 days
• Royal Mail to EU - OK but very slow sometimes (3 weeks to Greece!)
• Royal Mail to Hong Kong - stuck in Heathrow for 4 weeks but now delivered
• UPS to Australia - in Stansted for 1 week, spurious reasons for not clearing customs, probably just overloaded

 

[Mr D]

3 weeks to Greece? Pretty normal for past 6 months via royal mail.
Actually that is normal for parts of France and Spain for years too.

 

[wolfluecker]

3 weeks to Greece? Pretty normal for past 6 months via royal mail.
Actually that is normal for parts of France and Spain for years too.

I should have said that it was sent by International Tracked and Signed, which officially has a "delivery aim" of 3 to 5 working days.

And 3 weeks is my estimate now, because the parcel was posted 11 days ago and has not even made it onto the Hellenic Post tracking system...

 

[Mr D]

Most of my stuff overseas used to go standard international. A chunk of the time with tracked I found it was not tracked past the airport. Customer would leave positive feedback and I could see parcel still not tracked as delivered.
So I do not bother with tracked or tracked and signed for anymore with international. Anything meeting our requirements for that goes courier - and that has a much greater chance of being tracked and signed for.
Cost factored into international pricing.

 

[wolfluecker]

Most of my stuff overseas used to go standard international. A chunk of the time with tracked I found it was not tracked past the airport. Customer would leave positive feedback and I could see parcel still not tracked as delivered.
So I do not bother with tracked or tracked and signed for anymore with international. Anything meeting our requirements for that goes courier - and that has a much greater chance of being tracked and signed for.
Cost factored into international pricing.

I agree, the tracking is very patchy. We never used to use Royal Mail for international deliveries at all. But for the same parcel UPS is now quoting me £35 (on our account rates), which is £20 more than RM. So the customer in this case said "we're not in a rush, let's try RM".

 

[2JP]

Thank you for the info, wolfuecker. Useful information from real experience.

 

[DontAsk]

Since the 1st lockdown I have use tracked, signed or tracked & signed for all exports. Lost only one parcel and RM paid up with a few days of the claim going in.

 

[Mr D]

Since the 1st lockdown I have use tracked, signed or tracked & signed for all exports. Lost only one parcel and RM paid up with a few days of the claim going in.

By not spending hmmmm..... £700 at a guess on tracked and signed for with all exports, we have got deliveries since 1st lockdown and lost 3 parcels (one just yesterday where La Poste say it should be delivered next week). Total losses about a fiver in wholesale cost plus postage of course. We get to absorb that cost as we cannot claim. Call it £12 in losses total.

But we didn't get to spend £700 covering that £12 losses.

 

[wolfluecker]

By not spending hmmmm..... £700 at a guess on tracked and signed for with all exports, we have got deliveries since 1st lockdown and lost 3 parcels (one just yesterday where La Poste say it should be delivered next week). Total losses about a fiver in wholesale cost plus postage of course. We get to absorb that cost as we cannot claim. Call it £12 in losses total.

But we didn't get to spend £700 covering that £12 losses.

Good for you. But some of us don’t sell things that are a fiver in cost. Very different when you trade in small, high value items.

A lost order can be very costly, so most of the time the compensation offered by tracked services is indeed worth it.

 

[Mr D]

Good for you. But some of us don’t sell things that are a fiver in cost. Very different when you trade in small, high value items.

A lost order can be very costly, so most of the time the compensation offered by tracked services is indeed worth it.

I do trade in small high value items too. Well, small by my standards - say under a square meter total package. Just not sending those by royal mail.

Whatever is sold we have to make decisions as business owners about risks and costs. To spend a lot of money covering a minor risk would be foolish. To spend too little on a bigger risk again would be foolish.
Have come across some who will cover all under a blanket policy, sending all of a type by higher priced better cover means, rather more of us will look closer at particular risks and act accordingly.

 

[DontAsk]

Good for you. But some of us don’t sell things that are a fiver in cost. Very different when you trade in small, high value items.

A lost order can be very costly, so most of the time the compensation offered by tracked services is indeed worth it.

Indeed. And the customers pay (willingly) in our case.