Sending your luggage home
If you are going home after studying at Oxford Brookes, you are likely to have much more luggage to carry than when you first arrived. Here are some ways to help you decide what to do with it.
Extra luggage allowances
Airlines may allow students in their final year, a free extra luggage allowance. Ask your travel agent when you book your airline ticket. You can ask for an 'attendance certificate' which will show your student details, from the Student Administration and Systems Office (tel: 01865 483451). You can also order a certificate through your PIP.
Shipping companies
If you are travelling by air extra luggage can be very expensive, and you may want to send things you can not carry with you by a shipping company.
You can find the names of shipping companies in the Oxford area:
- in the 'Yellow Pages' telephone directory, under 'Shipping & forwarding agents'
and - under 'shipping agents' and 'Oxfordshire' at www.yell.com
How to choose a shipping company
Take care when you are choosing which company to use. Ask at least three companies to give you a written quotation for how much you would have to pay them. Here are some questions to ask when you are choosing a shipping company:
Do you want to have your luggage:
- collected from where you are living in the UK and delivered to your address in your home country?
- collected from your address in the UK and delivered to the nearest seaport or airport in your own country? (Check whether the shipping compnay will charge for storing your belongings at the port; this can sometimes be very expensive.)
- collected from an airport or seaport in the UK and delivered to the nearest seaport or airport in your own country?
- sent by air or sea? (by air is charged by weight and by sea is charged by size)
- delivered to your home address quickly?
To make sure that you choose a company that you can trust and which will not charge you too much, ask:
- are they a member of the BAR (British Association of Removers) ?
Look for the BAR logo or contact BAR:
email: info@bar.co.uk www.bar.co.uk
- does the company deliver to your home country?
- have any of your friends used the company before? Did they get a good service?
- is their price more or less than other companies?
- do they offer the kind of service you need?
- will they accept small loads?
- do they give free packing containers?
Other tips for using a shipping company
- it can cost less to share with other students as one large load is often cheaper than two small ones
- take out an insurance policy to cover your luggage for the journey. Check what it covers, for example, part or all of the cost of replacing any lost or damaged goods? You can usually arrange insurance through the company.
Other things to think about
If you are planning to stay in the UK , you may want to store your luggage over the vacation. Click here for Storage in Oxford
If you are going to buy new goods in the UK to take home with you, have a look at VAT refunds.
