Hello,
Not really a science related question, but still important for progression of it;-)
I would like to get some advice from mainly worm labs in Europe on the best and most
reliable way to ship live worm strains between European countries - which courier do you
use/prefer or may be the regular mail works well?
I have been waiting for the worm strains to arrive from Spain to UK by regular postal mail for some time now.
Our department has DHL and FedEx accounts but DHL said they do not ship anything live and
we have had some problems with FedEx before. Would like to hear your suggestions.
Thanks in advance,
UNC
Hi,
I get worms from the CGC fairly regularly and have gravitated towards FedEx.
I know you are interested in mainly intra-european shipping, but I have found FedEx works really well if all the paperwork is in order. Especially the customs docs…they sit on packages for weeks if you have missed a tick or signature or something.
Forget normal post…it’s a crap shoot!
It really does ‘pay’ to get the quickest and most tracked shipping possible…ok it costs more but I have had so many problems with cheap and cheerful couriers. Normally you end up with a shipment that even DHL would handle!
Steve
The CGC does not use FedEx to ship to the UK – packages are routinely denied entry by customs. Regular post is the most reliable method for us. I don’t know if it is still the case, but for several years the Drosophila stock center was using regular post as well (any fly people out there, please correct me if this has changed!). Shipping times can be variable, most likely due to customs clearance.
While I recommend completing customs forms as completely and accurately as possible, there are certain words that send up red flags: nematode, for example. Something along the lines of “C. elegans – non-hazardous, non-pathogenic, non-infectious” might be sufficient without drawing unnecessary attention…
interesting, the opposite is so here in Germany…I tried normal mail delivery once with the CGC and it disappeared into the aether. So, after communicating this with Aric, Aric, I tried FedEx and it worked really well. Can only imagine it’s the British straight batting suspect packages from over the pond…
Steve
I tried to send some worms to Germany and it got stuck at customs forever (even with the right documentation) using FedEx…luck of the draw I guess. I did put ‘nematodes’ on the commercial invoice though, which was probably a bad idea…
Thank you everyone.
after 2 weeks of waiting I finally received the worms in a very good condition by regular mail,
so probably for non-urgent matters will stick with that;-)
one last remark.
I ordered 13 strains from the CGC…got them shipped by FedEx (crowd booing in the background).
Description for FedEx and the Customs: Gift, living Caenorhabditis elegans nematode (louder booing from the crowd) worms/Biological Specimens/Non Pathogenic/Non Parasitic/No Commercial Value.
The envelope containing the Strains was picked up on Friday 18th October @ 18:20 in Minneapolis.
I just signed for the envelope (Monday 21st October @ 15:19 local time, southern Germany)!
Ok things go wrong sometimes (during the shipping)…but what a great service…
Steve
German customs is hit or miss. Sometimes they hold things up for no apparent reason, even with all proper documentation. At least in Bavaria.