Following an enquiry from John Coombes the following overseas carriers have been recommended by members:

From Miles Bartley. "Recommends a shipping company: Unipac Shipping (UK) Ltd., 10-11 Larkstore Park , Lodge Road, Staplehurst, Kent, TN12 0QY. Tel: 01580 893481. Fax: 01580 893949. I do not believe they are on the internet. We have used them for a number of years and they have been efficient, reliable and cost effective. They uplifted a consignment of 39 boxes of books for us in Ireland and delivered them to Hastings and we felt the cost was excellent value for money. In the past we have sent urgent consignments by Air via Unipac and the customers were pleased with the outcome."

From Inch’s Books: "We used Aurora Forwarding for a large shipment to Barcelona by sea and they were very good. They may be worth asking. Contact Miri Jackson, Tel 01455 559127. They were originally part of PSL freight."

From Robert Kirkman: "Miles Bartley gave me details of Unipac in Kent who are incredible good value for road freight to Europe. I sent a consignment to Germany 300 kilos for £150. Their prices for USA are in line with other carriers. However, they are a very friendly company keen to do business and I think it might be worthwhile having a chat with them about a group deal. Also, booksellers like myself do not send enough volume to take advantage of "M Bag" through the Post Office. Perhaps somebody like Tennyson would be willing to act as a consolidation agent for "M Bag" which is really cheap for U.S.A. bulk surface mail. Peter Miller at Spelman's could provide further information about "M Bag". If enough smaller booksellers like myself could get together through Tennyson or the like we might be able to take advantage of the cheap rates that already exist."

From John Lewcock: "I have no problems with Royal mail's M Bag service. No bag contents may exceed 11 kgs so multiple bags are sometimes needed. There is a minimum annual requirement so occasional shipments could be difficult/impossible. A workaround would be for a few dealers operating near to each other to set up a single contract but all use it. This requires a level of trust to exist between the participants - but when was that a difficulty?"

From Heidi Proctor. "We use IMX and find them very reliable, especially their service to USA & Canada is very good, with reasonable prices, and track-back. Contact: Lavinia Devine, Business Services Manager IMX, Unit 4, Kingsmill Business Park, Chapel Mill Road, Kingston-upon-Thames, Surrey, KT1 3GZ. Tel: 020 84 39 11 77. DDI: 020 85 46 16 07. Fax: 020 84 39 11 44. Email: sales@imxuk.co.uk"

From Martin Steenson: Carriers: "Mercury International 8890 9833, www.mercury-international.com."

Footnote from John Coombes:

"After the request in the ABA Bulletin for information on carriers for overseas consignments, I had a number of replies through the office and several members were kind enough to telephone or e-mail me direct. My thanks to you and all the members who came up with information. Eventually I obtained three quotations for sending a consignment of 60 kgs. by air to Australia, door to door. Fedex quoted £662.39, Mercury quoted £220.79 and Pharos quoted £172.20 using the Post Office M Bag Priority Service. I accepted the Pharos quotation. The M Bag Service limits the weight of each carton to 11 kgs. The bookseller does not need a contract with the Post Office as Pharos are acting as agents. I didn't ask them how big an area they cover, but their quotation included £12.00 for collecting from me at Dorking, about twenty miles from their depot at Westerham. They told me that delivery should be within seven working days from the date the consignment leaves their depot. Contact details: Pharos International Ltd., Unit C & D, The Flyers Way, Westerham, Kent TN16 1DE. Tel. 01959 547900. Fax 01959 547901. E-mail info@pharos-international.co.uk. Website www.pharos-international.co.uk."