Shipping battery cells in Europe

Shipping individual cells should be less restrictive than sending batteries, so I’m wondering what people have used in the past to do so.

Situation is that I have bought 48 30Q cells in the UK, and need them shipped to Latvia, but can’t find any courier that says that individual cells are okay. DHL seems to require it to be from an authorized shipper, and UPS has a whole document about batteries consisting of more than 1 cell, but doesn’t mention the rules on just regular cells. Any advice / past experience to share?

Also open to doing a trade of some sort if someone has 30Q cells in Europe outside the UK, and want to trade them for cells in the UK :stuck_out_tongue:

1 Like

Dhl should be able to ship them by ground transportation.
You should give dhl a call and explain the situation.

What about individual couriers? I had the same issue and from Lithuania this seems like the only way a battery can cross border.

Look into it a bit more and I think you’ll find they prefer an enclosed battery than individual cells. Companies like nkon and fogstar pay for a certification to ship lithium cells around europe and abroad. If your battery is secured inside a difficult to remove enclosure (like on your board) it’s often easier to ship.

1 Like

True, I did notice that often a battery already put into a device had less strict regulations than on its own.

1 Like

try GLS
10c

1 Like

GLS UPS and DPD ship batteries

But with GLS I need to use their local branch/partner, which in the UK is parcelforce, who seem to be against batteries completely. (Side-note: In Latvia GLS’s local partner doesn’t even provide individuals with a way to send packages lol. Just receiving I guess.)

Paging @pjotr47

He did a group buy in Europe so probably knows what’s up

1 Like

He used GLS. If my package from him hadn’t gotten lost by GLS I wouldn’t be in this situation to begin with :laughing:

Also, since he has / is in the process of getting full licenses for his battery making service and stuff, he might have gone through the process of becoming an approved battery shipper.

I need help yet again!

I’m trying to ship cells within the UK. Edinburgh -> Manchester. Ground shipping, should be easy, right?

Hermes & DHL say no to any batteries.
DPD say no to lithium batteries. (If you’re an individual)
Parcel Force only allow batteries within a device.
GLS’s partner in UK is parcel force.

UPS are the only ones that say that cells bellow 20Wh are fine for ground shipments. However, when I toggle the option when purchasing that my package contains lithium ion batteries, I get this error, no matter what I say the package contains:

I’ve tried calling them, no answer. I think no one is working at their call centers because of the lockdown. Also sent them an email, but no response.

What have other people used? Maybe @BenF from Fogstar can help? (I was going to sell the cells to @mutantbass, but maybe just returning them is the easier option? )

For context: I’m ending my tenancy in the UK, and I don’t want these cells (50 Samsung 40T, unused) to go to waste.

1 Like

how would you return them :rofl:

Use gls and dont tell them there are batteries inside, they dont ask anything.

The problem with ground shipping are underwater tunnels like in the uk, elswere its okay.

I shipped at least 200 packages with them no issue what so ever

Fogstar would create a return label :stuck_out_tongue:

1 Like

Would that be the case also for a battery pack?

Yea, the only way to ship a battery without a certificate is either to pay 200€ to dhl to package it, or dont tell them and use ground shipping from my knowledge.

1 Like

Put a resistor led and switch hay presto it’s a tourtch. With the words longed runtime🤷‍♂️

2 Likes