Posting lipo batteries is there any legal way

[ChrisB]

All Lithium batteries are a class 9 dangerous good,thats the law and applies to every carrier,the penalties for failure to disclose are severe.The enforcing bodies are the HSE,DOT and VOSA.


With TNT who i work for and only just this week did my ADR and Dangerous goods yearly refreshers,the stance is you need to be a known shipper to send them,TNT will have inspected your premises,know exactly what you are likely to ship,how its packed,your staff are trained to the standards that the packaged goods regulations require,and the packaging is of the required standard and labelled accordingly.

But i know for a fact the rules are tightening up and yes although its hardly exciting enough to make the news there have been and are lithium battery fires during transport from time to time,the feedback we received is that some are caused by packages getting damaged in transit but most of the time have been substandard packing hence the rules.

Small but relevent section of the bumph ive had to read through this week.
http://www.tnt.com/express/en_vn/sit...batteries.html

http://www.tnt.com/content/dam/tnt_e...APRIL_2011.pdf

[Mike Sanders]

I see that your company's regulations refer only to lithium ion and lithium metal batteries. Does this mean that lithium polymer batteries are exempt or that they may not be transported under any circumstances?

[Mark_T]

I see that your company's regulations refer only to lithium ion and lithium metal batteries. Does this mean that lithium polymer batteries are exempt or that they may not be transported under any circumstances?

The full name for a LiPo is 'Lithium Ion Polymer' so 'Lithium Ion' includes our Lipos as far as I know ...

[Mike Sanders]

Well wadderyerknow!

[helijohn]

I've used Collect+ to send lipos, they do have an prohibited list but its much shorter than royal mails.. basically as long as its not petrol, fireworks, explosives or pressurized gas containers then they seem to be ok with it. Price is reasonable too.

Collect+ are a brilliant courier always delivering items I send the next even on their 3-5 day service but they start at a price where RM leaves off. I use them almost once a week these days. If it means paying £4.89 instead of £3+ then it is a winner. I only use RM for items at around 90p to £1.40 anyway and PF mainly for collections to me.

Unless I've missed something, you can't as an individual sent one with a kit or as spares to a kit, but you could send one if it is installed in a device, such as a mobile phone for example ...

"Lithium ion/polymer batteries sent in isolation or sent with but not contained in equipment are prohibited."

The rules for a business are different ...

I had a stop put on me for wanting to send a car alarm with batteries in the remote. So that's like watch batteries cameras etc. I have to be able to send stuff that has batteries in it or I grind to a halt. It is a similar problem over airgun equipment too. At this rate we'll be sending nothing better than DVDs.

With regard to lipos though, I treat it a bit like liquid fuel and once bought I intend to use it up - I don't anticipate it is an item I would be forwarding. So my worry would be actually getting the fuel (LiPo) especially as I am now turning to electric partly because getting nitro was becoming a silly problem. So now it looks like I should have gone petrol - at least I can syphon some from my tank.

I believe in Australia the situation is really tight so it is a problem everywhere.

[trillian]

The reason I wanted to look into this now is because I have a 5000mah 6s Turnigy blue 20-30C pack that I don't use now because it is not matched up as a pair. I was going to give it to someone but it would have to be posted. It's not worth paying over the odds to ship as DG with a courier so I guess I'm stuck with it. It is a bit puffy but charges and balances fine. If I can't post it I can either find a use for it or give it to someone at one of the clubs I fly at.

[xygax]

I get batteries from china... they always come via RM and are normally marked as 'Toy Part' which is indeed an accurate description and I have never been asked about the contents by our postie...!

Stevee

[ChrisB]

I see that your company's regulations refer only to lithium ion and lithium metal batteries. Does this mean that lithium polymer batteries are exempt or that they may not be transported under any circumstances?

Yes as Mark says,Lithium polymer batteries are classed the same.

[Mark_T]

I get batteries from china... they always come via RM and are normally marked as 'Toy Part' which is indeed an accurate description and I have never been asked about the contents by our postie...!

The Chinese are a big part of the problem in this area as they continue to fail to correctly label their shipments in accordance with internationally agreed standards and thus hamper any attempt to correctly handle more dangerous items that they introduce to the system.

It may work in our favor as consumers, but it is going to cause accidents at some point if it has not already done so.

[ltaylor88]

To be fair if royal mail and others take care of parcels like they should do and didnt drop, kick, trow and stand on them (all have been witnessed) then there shoulnt be a problem in sending them. But then I can see that if joe blogs sends out a lipo he has over charged on a nimh charger becasue he dosnt know any better, then this is where issues would arrise.

[helijohn]

To be fair if royal mail and others take care of parcels like they should do and didnt drop, kick, trow and stand on them (all have been witnessed) then there shoulnt be a problem in sending them.

Ain't that the truth!!
I would have thought that, by now, some sort of inexpensive and secure packaging would have been made available. I have had battery items sent to me with a sticker on stating it is a hazardous item and to handle with care. If I put fragile on a packet in RM it WILL get broken.

The Chinese are a big part of the problem in this area as they continue to fail to correctly label their shipments in accordance with internationally agreed standards and thus hamper any attempt to correctly handle more dangerous items that they introduce to the system.

Some of that is the failure of countries to recognise that this is a global market place and insist on taking a chunk of the end consumer's money in the form of what I consider to be unfair taxation.

[Mark_T]

Some of that is the failure of countries to recognise that this is a global market place and insist on taking a chunk of the end consumer's money in the form of what I consider to be unfair taxation.

You are going to have to go back a long time in history to the roots of that one, taxing imports has been around pretty much as long as taxation and of course so has smuggling.

Only difference is that instead of sneaking brandy from France ashore, on a quiet beach at midnight, you now label the goods as 'toy parts' and send them from China

I guess when the 'global market place' starts paying towards the upkeep of the country there may not be a need to tax imports, but until then ...

[helijohn]

You are going to have to go back a long time in history to the roots of that one, taxing imports has been around pretty much as long as taxation and of course so has smuggling.

Yes it's understood but, like with the internet, the shrinking world is not being caught up with quickly enough with government who are so last century and I am not referring to seeing that we pay and enforcing archaic regulations - I am referring to the easing of the limitations. This applies to so many areas beside shipping items but that's for another thread! lol

[ModelGuard.Com]

Just wrap well and send standard post, i have sent and received packs recently like this with no problems

Make sure the address labels are well and truly inflammable. If your lipo starts a major loss fire you can kiss goodbye to your house, car and everything else you own.!

Sent from my GT-I9505 using Tapatalk

[helijohn]

Make sure the address labels are well and truly inflammable. If your lipo starts a major loss fire you can kiss goodbye to your house, car and everything else you own.!

Sent from my GT-I9505 using Tapatalk

But the thing is it isn't just lipos.