Freight transport: find a haulier for your loads

A handful of pallets usually travels on a pallet network: the haulier collects, the pallets go through a hub overnight and another member delivers. It is economical for regular small volumes, but the goods are handled several times and delivery windows are wide.

A part load shares a trailer with other customers' goods on a similar route. It suits consignments too big for a pallet network but not big enough to fill a vehicle. A full load, or full truckload, is a dedicated vehicle from your dock to the delivery address with no stops in between. It is the choice for high-value, fragile or time-critical goods, and it is often the simplest way to control how the load is handled.

Temperature-controlled goods, loads needing a tail lift, and deliveries with a fixed booking slot all narrow the field of suitable carriers. Say so at the start, because they change which vehicle can be used and how the haulier plans the route.

In Great Britain a business needs a goods vehicle operator's licence, the O-licence, to carry goods in a vehicle with a gross plated weight over 3,500 kg. A standard national licence allows a haulier to carry other people's goods within the UK; carrying them on international journeys needs a standard international licence. A restricted licence covers only a firm's own goods, so a company holding one should not be moving yours for payment.

Since the rules on light goods vehicles changed, vans over 2,500 kg maximum authorised mass that carry other people's goods for hire or reward in the EU, Norway, Iceland, Liechtenstein or Switzerland also need a standard international licence. Licences are granted by the traffic commissioners, and you can look up any operator on the public vehicle operator licensing search on GOV.UK. Northern Ireland has its own licensing system.

Ask for the licence number and check it yourself. The record shows the licence type, the number of vehicles authorised and the operating centres, which tells you whether the business you are speaking to actually runs trucks or subcontracts the work.

Many UK hauliers trade on standard terms, often the Road Haulage Association's conditions of carriage for members, or their own. Those terms apply only if they are part of your contract, so read them before you book. They typically cap the carrier's liability by weight, set short deadlines for reporting loss or damage and for making claims, and allow the haulier to subcontract. If your goods are worth more per kilogram than the cap, the gap is your risk unless you insure it.

International road journeys are different. Where goods are collected and delivered in two different countries, at least one of which has signed the CMR Convention, the Convention applies to the contract by law, through the Carriage of Goods by Road Act 1965. It limits the carrier's liability to 8.33 units of account per kilogram of gross weight short, unless you declare a higher value or a special interest in delivery on the consignment note against an agreed surcharge. Visible damage should be noted on delivery; hidden damage has to be reported in writing within seven days, not counting Sundays and public holidays.

Neither regime replaces your own cargo insurance. Ask the haulier what its goods-in-transit cover pays out and for which goods it is excluded.

Source: legislation.gov.uk

Goods moving between Great Britain and the EU need customs declarations on both sides of the border, and the business moving the goods usually needs an EORI number. HMRC's guidance for hauliers is clear that making the declarations is the trader's responsibility, done directly or through a freight forwarder or customs agent; the haulier needs the correct documents from you before the truck reaches the port.

A haulier offering international work should be able to tell you how it handles the Goods Vehicle Movement Service, safety and security declarations and transit documents, or which customs agent it works with. Movements between Great Britain and Northern Ireland have their own arrangements, so mention them separately.

• commercial invoice and packing list with commodity codes
• who acts as exporter and importer of record, and the agreed Incoterms
• the customs agent or forwarder making each declaration
• any licences or certificates the goods need, for example for food or plants
• the CMR consignment note for international road journeys

Many ordinary products are dangerous goods for transport purposes: aerosols, lithium batteries, paints, adhesives, cleaning chemicals. In Great Britain the Carriage of Dangerous Goods and Use of Transportable Pressure Equipment Regulations 2009 apply the international ADR agreement to road transport. The consignor is responsible for classifying, packing, marking and documenting the goods correctly, so the safety data sheet has to be right before a haulier can quote.

Carriers and consignors that handle dangerous goods regularly must appoint a Dangerous Goods Safety Adviser, and drivers carrying loads above the thresholds need ADR training. Tell the haulier the UN numbers and quantities up front. A carrier that accepts dangerous goods without asking for them is a warning sign rather than a convenience.

Source: legislation.gov.uk

You tell us what is moving, how often, from where to where and anything unusual about it. After you confirm your phone number with a text-message code and your email address through a link, we offer the details without your name or contact information to freight businesses covering that area. Only one business can buy the request. It pays Offrano, the service costs you nothing, and the request then leaves our shop.

Before that haulier sees your contact details, we email you its name, address and phone number. If nobody takes the request within 21 days, it is withdrawn. You do not have to accept any quote, and you can still ask other carriers. We only confirm that the buyer is a registered business, so checking its O-licence and insurance is up to you.