Inside our operation
Our premises, our warehouse, our staff and our vehicles — photographed on the job. Not stock images.
A posting to a new station, an overseas detachment, or the move back to civilian life — we help Royal Air Force personnel and their families ship personal effects and household goods wherever they're headed.
From the stations — Brize Norton, Coningsby, Marham, Lossiemouth, Waddington and others — we collect across the UK and manage the shipping. Posted abroad? We can send things out to you or bring them home to the UK.
Service life means you're not always at home when things need to move. We collect from anywhere in the UK — a family member, a partner, storage, or Service Family Accommodation can hand over on your behalf. Just let us know the arrangement when you book.
Official Service moves — the ones covered under JSP 752 with removal and disturbance expenses — are co-ordinated by the MOD's appointed contractor. We're not that contractor, and we won't pretend to be. Where we help is everything around and beyond the official move:
A note on BFPO: the British Forces Post Office is the official mail route for letters and parcels to forces addresses. For larger consignments, excess baggage and full relocations — the things that don't fit the post — that's where a dedicated shipper like us comes in. See our forces BFPO & relocation guide for how the two work together.
Tell us what you're moving and where. We'll come back with a clear, no-obligation quote.
Get a quoteExcess Luggage Co. is an independent, family-run shipping company established in 1998. We are not affiliated with or endorsed by the Ministry of Defence; official Service relocations are handled by the MOD's appointed contractor.
Service life moves you, often at short notice and rarely at a convenient moment. Here is the practical detail.
Every carrier limits checked bags to 23kg each, and anything over 32kg cannot be loaded as a checked bag at all — it has to travel as cargo. If you are flying out on posting with more than the airline will take, the choice at the desk is to pay their excess rate, unpack in front of the queue, or leave things behind. Sending it ahead as freight avoids all three.
From a few boxes to a full household. We collect from anywhere in the UK — garrison, station, base, Service Family Accommodation, a storage unit or a family address — wrap and protect everything at our own warehouse near Heathrow, complete the UK export documentation, and ship by air or sea.
Resettlement moves are their own kind of complicated: a new civilian address, possibly a new country, and belongings spread across more than one place. We can collect from multiple UK addresses on separate dates and consolidate them into one shipment.
Partners and families do not always move on the same timeline as the Service Person. We can ship for them independently, to or from an overseas posting, without the Service Person needing to be there.
Kit takes a beating in transit because it is handled many times by people who cannot see inside the box. The single most common mistake we see is packaging that was never designed for international transport — single-wall storage boxes, plastic storage crates, canvas bags, and black bin liners. None of it survives the journey properly.
We recommend double-wall shipping cartons designed for international transport, and we can supply them. For anything fragile or high value we build purpose-made timber crates in-house.
You are charged on actual or volumetric weight, whichever is greater. Volumetric is length × width × height in cm, divided by 6000. A box of bedding weighs little and takes a lot of room, so it prices on volume. Dismantle and flat-pack anything you can — it costs less and it travels better.
Our premises, our warehouse, our staff and our vehicles — photographed on the job. Not stock images.
“I have worked in this industry for more than 40 years, and safety has always been my highest priority. Our responsibility is to protect not only the shipper’s belongings, but also airline staff, carriers, customs authorities, and fellow passengers travelling on the aircraft carrying the shipment.”
Excess Luggage Co. comply with the UK aviation and maritime security act and regulations, we ship all dangerous goods under IATA and IMDG rules, and all our staff are trained in aviation & maritime security for shipping.