Hi, my name is Ilcho Kazakov. I am the manager of Distribusha and it is time for me to write my first post on our company blog. In this blog entry I will be concentrating on shipping to Arab Emirates, Particularly Dubai, as this is one of my most commonly asked questions from our current and potential customers.
As with all the United Arab Emirates states, Dubai is a flourishing destination in the Arabian Peninsula with many connections to the world of international business. Exchanging hard-copy documents is often of a great importance and time is precious. Sending parcels next day to Dubai and other Arab states is one of the most common requests I get for this part of the world.
To keep you informed of our current service offering I will go through the three options which we currently have and explain you how the process works.
Option 1:
The most popular option is to send parcels or documents to The United Arab Emirates with one of the international courier networks like DHL, TNT or DPD. The standard transit time is about 2-4 working days. Once we have your parcel, we drop it at one of our partners’ Heathrow hubs. In the evening the cargo is loaded on a plane and flown direct to its destination. The earliest it lands is about 07.00 AM. Every import is subject to customs checks and duties. This is probably the most time consuming part of the journey. It could take anything from a couple of hours to an entire day. The reason why next day cannot be achieved is that, even if your parcel is first through customs, the carrier will wait for the whole shipment to clear before placing packages out for local delivery. This will usually take place the following day. Therefore, in this option the best case scenario is that your package will be delivered in no less than two working days at price of about £35 for an A4 envelope of documents.
Option 2:
Of course next day parcel to Dubai is not a myth and if your documents are time sensitive we can make it happen. To secure next day delivery you have to be ready in the morning; enabling us to put your documents on the first possible flight to Dubai. On the next day your parcel will be separately processed at the customs and once released it will be immediately collected and sent for delivery with dedicated vehicle by one of our local partners. Considering that such individual approach takes more effort it comes to about £80 for the same type of parcel as above. Most of our customers are very happy with this price.
Option 3:
Finally we offer a personal courier service. Customers will request this service when they have missed the afternoon flights for next day delivery or they need weekend delivery in the morning hours (from 1 September 2006, Dubai’s official Thursday – Friday weekend has changed to Friday – Saturday). We can arrange a collection or you can drop it in our Heathrow office where we will check and seal your documents. For safety reasons we do not accept any sealed envelopes or packets. The last flight to UAE for the day is at about 10.00 PM. Direct flight takes approximately eight hours so the earliest our courier can reach Dubai is about 07.00 AM local time (+ 4 GMT). Most of the business addresses are within two hours travel time from the airport. The price of this service is highly dependable on the airfares and could easily reach £900.
One final note regarding shipments to UAE:
UAE customs officers are very strict and to avoid delays or even loss of your goods please refer to the guidance available at the following link:.
The timings referred to in this blog relate to sending paper documents, we cannot be held responsible for delays packages containing items that will be scrutinised more closely in customs.
I do hope you have found this helpful and I will be happy to answer any of your questions.
