Monday 29 April 2013

A Guide to Courier Services: Downloading, Printing and Attaching your Air Waybill


Buying courier services from resellers such as Transglobal Express can save you a great deal of money and time. Resellers usually offer a variety of courier services from multiple carriers and although the basic principles of how to label your parcel and arrange the rest of your documents are the same, the guidelines about what sort of documentation you need can differ slightly depending on which delivery service you choose.

At Transglobal Express, we aim to make the order process and subsequent collection and delivery as simple as possible. This first part of our handy courier services guide should help you navigate the documentation maze!  Today, we look at air waybill (AWBs), the labels you attach to your parcel.

I’ve booked my delivery, now what?
If you’ve booked with Transglobal Express, you will receive a confirmation of your order via email containing a link to your air waybill. Print this off and securely attach it to your parcel. It’s important not to obscure any part of the air waybill, especially not the delivery address or barcode. It’s also a great idea to leave a copy of your air waybill inside your package. If the worst happens and your label is detached from your parcel somehow, the carrier will always be able to determine the destination of your consignment and avoid it being lost or misplaced in transit.

Printing Problems?
Many resellers and courier companies insist you must have a printer in order to use certain services. It’s great if you can print off your air waybill but don’t worry if you can’t! Transglobal Express offer a label forwarding service: if you do not have a printer, just let us know and we will print your labels for you and post them to you free of charge. Please note that this service is only available during our office hours (Monday – Friday 9:00-5:30pm).

Where’s my air waybill?
Our booking system produces air waybills automatically when you make an order. Of the thousands of orders we process each week, some customers may find their AWB is not produced immediately. If this happens: don’t worry. It could be that we are receiving a high volume of orders or that there is a slight problem with the formatting of your delivery address. Our system automatically picks up when an air waybill has not been instantaneously generated and our customer services team set about correcting any address errors and producing your air waybill for you as soon as possible. During office hours, your air waybill should be available in the My Account area within 30 minutes of making your order.

What other documentation do I need? 
If you are exporting goods to any country outside of the European Union, customs require you to produce a list of the contents and value of any packages you send. Check back later this week for our guide to Customs Invoices...

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