The Scandinavian Transport & Logistics Blog

International shipping costs rose in January and February 2021 across the board, affecting the cost of trade between the UK and the EU. Bloomberg notes that the average for quoted courier rates has increased by a third to half of their previous value between November 2020 and February 2021. Reuters also reports that UK-EU export traffic has fallen by 68% on January 2020 levels.

If you're sending heavy goods business-to-business from anywhere in the UK to Norway, you'll want to optimise your shipping costs. Getting the best value from your Scandinavian shipments is easy - with a little know-how. Here's how to work out the cheapest option for shipping to Norway:

When shipping to Norway from the UK, are there any custom charges or import duties you should be aware of? Fortunately for British businesses, trade tariffs are very simple: in most cases there aren’t any! Norway is not a member of the EU but is part of the European Economic Area. This makes it part of the single market, with no trade tariffs between member states and common tariffs when trading outside the zone. The same rule applies when importing goods from Norway to the UK. In most cases you won’t need to pay any customs or import duties.

Brexit has meant a few changes to how goods are imported and exported between the UK and Scandinavia. As the United Kingdom has now left the EU Customs Union (which includes EU members Sweden, Finland, and Denmark, together with EEA member Norway), you'll now need to supply a Customs Declaration with every Scandinavian-bound shipment you send.

Transporting wide loads on UK roads requires some advance planning and special permits. What constitutes a wide, or abnormal load? While most logistics standards are closely harmonised across the EU, road transport restrictions vary from country to country. Therefore, when transporting large, or unusually shaped goods, it is important to be aware of width, height and length allowances in all of the countries you travel through. In Scandinavian logistics, for instance, you may need to traverse two or even three national jurisdictions by road, as well as the first mile journey in the UK.

When it comes to shipping commercial goods from one country to another, time is a sensitive issue. There are numerous ways to send items from the UK to Sweden. Your cargo can travel by ship, plane or lorry, or – more usually – by a combination of transport modes.

The distance to travel is different for each of the three methods. The number of documents to prepare, the loading process, and the cost differ as well. Your choice of delivery option depends on the cargo weight and sensitivity as well as the urgency and cost.

The UK-EU Trading Agreement agreed before the end of the Brexit transition guaranteed mutual recognition of goods and waived all import duties. The only day-to-day change is the requirement for importers to file some additional import paperwork, in line with what is already required for UK imports from non-EU countries.

Imports and exports between the UK and the EU (including Norway) now need to state the item’s commodity code. These codes are drawn from the globally-recognised, WTO-approved Harmonised Code (HS) system, so the commodity code for a shipment of bricks, for example, is the same whether it comes from Germany, India, or Ghana. HS Codes are ten-digit quick reference strings that tell readers the broad category, specifics, variant, and country of origin of the goods they're describing. Here's how they work:

Brexit has meant a few changes to the customs paperwork needed to send or receive goods between the UK and Scandinavian countries. Thanks to the 2020 Trade Agreement, most customs regulations will fundamentally remain the same. However, you'll now need to provide more information to customs officials than you might have once expected. Here's what to supply:

Whether or not a last minute trade deal is agreed between now and Christmas, it’s likely that the way you conduct business with your partners in the EU will change after 31st December 2020. Customs paperwork and import duties will become a routine part of importing and exporting goods between Europe and the UK – at least until a trade agreement is reached. This doesn’t mean that delays and significantly increased costs are inevitable – but the more prepared you are for potential changes today, the less impact there will be on your supply chain as the UK completes its exit from the EU.

Here’s our guide to what to expect when shipping goods in the New Year. We’re here to help and provide all the support you need to minimise costs and delivery times – so please get in touch if you have any questions.