Plain-English explanations of every term you'll encounter when shipping personal effects and household goods by air cargo or sea freight from the UK.
Common terms used in personal effects shipping, air cargo, and sea freight — explained clearly without jargon.
Items that belong to an individual — clothing, footwear, household goods, books, electronics, furniture, and other belongings used personally. Personal effects are distinguished from commercial goods (intended for resale). Most countries offer customs duty relief for personal effects shipped by relocating residents.
Personal belongings shipped separately from the owner — not travelling on the same flight or vessel. Unaccompanied baggage is the standard method used by Excess Luggage Co., where goods are collected from your UK address and shipped independently to your destination.
The transport of goods by aircraft. For personal effects, air cargo typically takes 4-10 working days from the UK to most destinations worldwide, subject to space and flight availability with the carriers. Charged by actual weight or volumetric weight (whichever is greater). The Air Waybill (AWB) is the key document for air cargo shipments.
The contract of carriage and receipt for air cargo shipments. The AWB travels with your personal effects and contains shipper details, consignee details, flight routing, description of goods, and declared value. Each shipment has a unique AWB tracking number. Excess Luggage Co. prepares the AWB as part of your shipment.
Air cargo is charged by either actual weight or volumetric weight — whichever is greater. Volumetric weight is calculated as: Length (cm) × Width (cm) × Height (cm) ÷ 6,000 = volumetric weight in kg. Light but bulky items (like pillows or lampshades) are often charged by volumetric weight rather than actual weight.
The transport of goods by sea in shipping containers. Sea freight is significantly cheaper than air cargo for larger volumes of personal effects and household goods, but transit takes 6-12 weeks from the UK depending on destination. Charged by cubic metre (CBM). The Bill of Lading is the key document for sea freight shipments.
The contract of carriage and title document for sea freight shipments. The Bill of Lading is issued by the shipping line and must be surrendered to collect the goods at the destination port. It contains shipper, consignee, and notify party details, port of loading and discharge, vessel name, and description of goods. Excess Luggage Co. prepares the Bill of Lading as part of your sea freight shipment.
A sea freight service where your personal effects and household goods are consolidated with other shippers' cargo in a shared container — you pay only for the space your goods occupy (charged by CBM). LCL is the most economical option for partial household moves and personal effects shipments that do not fill a whole container.
A sea freight service where you book a dedicated container exclusively for your shipment — a 20ft or 40ft container. FCL is used for larger household moves where you have enough volume to fill a container. As the sole user, your goods are not handled or consolidated with other cargo.
The standard unit of measurement for sea freight volume. 1 CBM = 1 metre × 1 metre × 1 metre. LCL sea freight is charged per CBM. A standard removal box (typically 45 × 45 × 45 cm) has a volume of approximately 0.09 CBM — roughly 11 boxes per CBM.
The process of submitting goods declarations and paying applicable duties and taxes at the destination country's customs authority. For personal effects, customs clearance involves presenting the packing list, passport, Air Waybill or Bill of Lading, and any applicable relief documentation (such as a ToR1 URN for UK imports).
HMRC's relief that allows people moving their main home to the UK to import personal effects and household goods without paying customs duty or 20% import VAT. Requires living outside the UK for at least 12 consecutive months. Apply to HMRC before shipping — processing takes 2-6 weeks. Full ToR1 guide →
A numeric code used on UK customs declarations to identify the basis on which goods are being imported or exported. CPC 40 00 C01 is the standard Transfer of Residence relief code for personal effects; CPC 40 00 C06 is used for students arriving for full-time study who do not need a ToR1 form.
A detailed list of every item in your shipment, with quantities, descriptions, and estimated replacement values. Required for customs clearance at destination — it determines whether duty and VAT apply and must be accurate. The packing list must match the Air Waybill or Bill of Lading description exactly.
A shipping service where goods are collected from the shipper's address and delivered to the consignee's address — both ends of the journey are door-to-door (subject to your destination), with the carrier handling all customs clearance and inland delivery. Door-to-door is available for personal effects to many but not all destinations.
For destinations without a door-to-door (subject to your destination) delivery infrastructure for personal effects, goods are cleared through customs and then collected by the consignee (or their agent) at the arrival airport or seaport. The consignee must personally attend with passport and shipping documents to clear and collect the shipment.
The person or company sending the goods — in personal effects shipping, this is you, the owner of the belongings being shipped from the UK. Your name and UK address appear on the Air Waybill or Bill of Lading as the shipper.
The person receiving the goods at destination — typically the same person as the shipper for personal effects, but can be an authorised representative. The consignee's name and destination address appear on the shipping documents and are the details used for delivery or customs collection.
Insurance covering loss or damage to personal effects during international shipping. For owner-packed goods, transit insurance is generally charged at approximately 5% of declared replacement value. For professionally packed goods, the rate is approximately 3.5%. Goods must be declared at accurate replacement values.
Port of loading is the seaport from which the container departs; port of discharge is where it arrives. For UK sea freight shipments, the main UK ports of loading are Felixstowe, Southampton, and Tilbury. The port of discharge depends on the destination country.
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