Temporary Surcharges

There are currently two temporary surcharges in operation, please find more information on each below. 

The exact surcharge amount due for your shipment will be clearly displayed at Step 1 of the booking process. 

On services with both an ESS and Fuel Surcharge, they will display combined. When the Emergency Situation surcharge is lifted on the majority of routes on 1st April, the temporary fuel surcharge will still apply.

Emergency Situation Surcharge (ESS) 

We are pleased to confirm that on 1st April 2024 the ESS was removed from the majority of our global services.

It remains in place on a small number of services, including UK worldwide export services. We are working with partners to secure the removal of the charge from these remaining routes as soon as possible.

The ESS was introduced by our logistics partners worldwide during 2020 to cover the cost of scheduling additional aircraft when global supply chains were affected by the pandemic. In the years since the couriers have kept this charge in place citing a variety of reasons, we completely oppose the ESS and have lobbied for it to be withdrawn as soon as possible. 

The surcharge is applied once per shipment and is based on the total actual weight or total volumetric weight of the shipment. 

Current rates:  £0.20 / $0.27 / 0.23 Euro / $0.40 AUD per kg on the majority of air express routes. 

Asia, Australia and New Zealand are subject to higher charges which vary based on route. 

Temporary Fuel Surcharge

Since 2022 a fuel surcharge has been applied to all services. On routes which include an ESS the fuel surcharge has been incorporated into this, and on other routes the fuel surcharge shows standalone. 

While we absorbed as much of the rising fuel costs as possible, as a transport business fuel is one of our largest expenses and ultimately we had to pass some of the increasing cost on.

Rather than increasing our overall price we introduced a fuel surcharge which we could modify in line with current fuel costs. 

The surcharge is currently set at 9% (as of 1st April 2024). Our hope is that in the months ahead we will be able to remove the surcharge entirely. We appreciate your support and patience while this temporary surcharge remains in place.