Sending restrictions

You can send lots of things with us, but there are some items we can’t accept or compensate for. These are listed below.

  • Excluded from compensation: You can send these items with us, but we can’t provide cover or compensation.
  • Prohibited: We simply cannot accept these items, they are not permitted in our network.

Remember, all parcels must meet our weight and size guidelines. It's also important to make sure your contents are safe and secure when wrapping your parcel as it will be moving around our hubs, depots, and vans before reaching its destination.

To learn more, please read our terms and conditions.

Excluded from compensation

You can send these items with us, but we can't provide cover or compensation for them.

  • All items that have been badly packaged or strapped together
  • Fragile or perishable (within 7 days) food or goods, including chilled and frozen food, plants, seeds, flowers and plant derivatives
  • Liquids under 1000ml are accepted as long as they DO NOT contain prohibited contents like paints, oils, perfumes, aftershaves, inks, enamels and varnishes (including nail varnish). All liquids over 1000ml are prohibited
  • Glass items or fragile items that contain glass parts
  • Diamonds and other precious stones or antique items
  • Laptops, computers and game consoles
  • TVs and monitors
  • Lighting equipment such as vehicle lights and light bulbs
  • Paintings, prints or canvases
  • Musical instruments including their cases or suitcases when used as external packaging
  • Ceramic or composite items of any description including without limitation mirrored items, crystal, ceramics, porcelain, plaster, marble, china, stone, slate, resin, granite, concrete (or any item containing these materials)
  • Fossils, stones, marble, stoneware or any stone derivative
  • Articles made largely or wholly of gold, silver or other precious metals
  • Kitchen appliances such as white goods or electronic equipment with fragile/glass parts
  • Antiques - objects over 100 years old
  • Furniture - unless flat-packed and safely packaged
  • Cheques or dividend warrants which are uncrossed and made payable to the bearer, uncrossed postal orders which do not state to whom they are to be paid, bankers' drafts, bearer securities including share warrants, bonds or relative coupons un-franked postage or revenue stamps – except a revenue stamp embossed or impressed on an instrument which has been executed
  • Coupons, vouchers, gift vouchers and cards, tokens, stamps, national insurance stamps, credit cards, debit cards, lottery tickets, scratch cards, SIM cards, tickets or passes such as for travel or events, any forms of currency (including notes and coins)
  • Documentation – such as passports, driving licenses, medical, employment, property or commercial records
  • Memorabilia, photographs, signed items and vinyl records
  • Cameras, lenses, spectacles and optical equipment such as telescopes or binoculars
  • Internal damage to appliances, mechanical items or electronics is excluded from compensation
  • Tobacco and tobacco products
  • Real fur
customer holding parcel at shop counter

Prohibited items

We simply cannot accept the below items into our network.

  • Any paints, oils, perfumes, aftershaves, inks, enamels and varnishes including nail varnish any flammable liquids are prohibited 
  • Any liquids above 1000ml
  • Cleaning products which are flammable, or contain any hazardous materials
  • Sharp instruments – including knives, scissors and axes
  • Pressurised containers – such as aerosols, oxygen tanks or fire extinguishers
  • Scripts or subscription certificates
  • Batteries such as lithium batteries, unless included with the equipment they power
  • Gardening and household tools which have blades or sharp edges, for example shears, secateurs, saws etc.
  • Vehicle parts that contain liquids, weigh over 15kg or measure over our maximum dimension limits
  • Illegal items – goods which are illegal, the carriage of which is illegal, or the supply of which to the recipient is illegal
  • Magnetised material – with a magnetic field strength of 0.159A/m or more at a distance of 2.1m from the outside of the package
  • Miscellaneous manufactured articles – goods made in foreign prisons, except those imported for non-commercial purpose of a kind not manufactured in the United Kingdom, or those in transit
  • Misleading endorsements – parcels must not bear words, marks or designs which are unauthorised, which may reasonably lead the recipient to believe it has been sent On His Majesty’s Service
  • Weapons and replica weapons – including decorative, deactivated or air powered weapons
  • Drugs – any medicinal, narcotic or psychoactive substance controlled under the UK’s current Misuse of Drugs legislation, including medical tests. Off-the-shelf medication purchased without a prescription will be accepted, though conditions may still apply under 'excluded from compensation' for any liquids, glass containers, etc.
  • Human and animal remains including, without limitation, ashes
  • Live animals and eggs – including but not limited to mammals, reptiles, fish, invertebrates, amphibians, birds, insects, larvae and pupae
  • Any combustible or toxic substance or contents that could react dangerously with other substances including without limitation:
    - Serums & Vaccines
    - Pesticides
    - Poisonous, toxic and infectious substances
    - Radioactive materials
    - Pathogens, for example: clinical; environmental and medical waste; Ebola and anthrax