International shipping lights and batteries in time of Covid

We have shipped nearly everywhere in the last 10 years. South Africa, Europe, Indonesia, we have gone out of our way to accommodate our loyal customers, wherever they are located.

The IATA (International Air Transport Association) has periodically updated its rules regarding air transport of haz mat, in particular Li-Ion batteries and parts containing batteries.

LiIon batteries by themselves are listed as UN3480. Lights with batteries are listed as UN3481.

UN3480 can only go on cargo air shipments. It is not allowed on passenger aircraft.
UN3481 can go cargo or passenger aircraft.

Not all carriers have cargo flights to every country. Sometimes we can ship UPS but other times, we need to use Fedex.

The Covid complication we have to deal with is the dramatic drop in passenger flights. Many of these international flights also carried cargo on behalf of UPS, Fedex… For example, while Fedex may not have flown its own plane from NYC to Glasgow, it rented luggage space in a BA flight. UN3481 could ship this way.

In many cases, these flights have disappeared, increasing the carrier lead time (sometimes by weeks) or forcing us to look at alternatives (DHL, TNT). In a few isolated cases, we had to cancel orders.

So please bear with us. We do everything we can to ship your goods on time, all the time.