A palletised shipment reaches Amazon one of two ways: through a partnered carrier bought inside the seller account, or through your own haulier arranged outside it. That choice decides who books the appointment, where the pallet labels come from, who issues the bill of lading and who carries the customs work on a run from Poland to the United Kingdom.
Route one: the partnered carrier
The seller picks the partnered carrier option at the step where carrier and pallet information is confirmed, approves the unit configuration and buys the service in the account. Pallet labels are printed from the system at the next step, four copies per unit. Amazon generates the bill of lading on the morning of the pickup date, and the seller must hand a valid document to the carrier, because without it the shipment will be refused on delivery. The appointment is booked by the carrier on the seller behalf.
The programme carries its own limits, and those decide whether it is even in play. Amazon documentation names, for palletised deliveries to the United Kingdom, units of one hundred and twenty by one hundred centimetres up to one hundred and eighty centimetres high, GMA grade B or higher or CHEP, with a maximum of twenty-six pallets per shipment and up to five hundred kilograms per pallet. Units must be non-stackable, pallet exchange is not offered, and dangerous goods are excluded. Parts of the British Isles are also outside the service, among them Northern Ireland, the offshore islands and much of the Scottish Highlands.
Route two: your own haulier
Here the seller confirms the pallet count in the account, prints the unit labels and arranges the movement outside the system. After despatch they enter the carrier consignment number and the bill of lading numbers in the tracking tab. The appointment is filed by the carrier on the usual terms: a Carrier Central request, at least a day ahead, with the full set of numbers and counts. We unpack that in the article on booking an Amazon delivery appointment.
This route gives three things the first does not: freedom in choosing the vehicle and the date, the ability to serve a multi-drop run on one vehicle, and customs handled in the same process as the movement. The price is that more data has to be entered by hand and nothing happens on its own.
What changes in the paperwork
- Pallet labels — on the partnered route printed at a separate step after buying the service, on the own-haulier route printed earlier, when the pallet count is confirmed.
- Bill of lading — generated by Amazon on the morning of pickup on the partnered route, issued by the carrier on the other.
- Consignment and document numbers — on the own-haulier route the seller enters them in the account after despatch.
- The appointment — booked by the carrier either way, but only on the own-haulier route can it be fitted to a multi-drop plan.
What those numbers mean and what has to match at the gate is set out in the article on shipment and appointment references.
Customs: the deciding factor on a run from Poland
A movement from Poland to the United Kingdom crosses a customs border, so whichever route is chosen the goods need an export declaration in the European Union, an import declaration in the United Kingdom and a reference tying the movement together at the crossing. Amazon notes in its partnered programme documentation that on shipments between the United Kingdom and the European Union the seller must be customs compliant and prepare the documentation.
That is why on continental despatches the own-haulier route is usually simpler in practice: the movement and the clearance run as one process rather than two separate conversations. We file the declarations working with our regular customs agencies on both sides. The subject is unpacked in the articles on the GMR reference and on the EORI number for UK trade.
Which route when
The partnered route can be straightforward for a single shipment from one warehouse to one site that fits inside the programme limits. Your own haulier wins when several destination sites are involved, when the load is collected from several senders, when units need rebuilding, or when a buffer warehouse in the UK is required. Then one dispatcher, one vehicle and one set of documents is what counts, as described in the articles on one collection and several Amazon warehouses and on choosing between FTL and LTL.
Sources
- Amazon Seller Central: Partnered Carrier Programme overview
- Amazon Seller Central: partnered programme for pallet, LTL and FTL deliveries
- Amazon Seller Central: confirm carrier and pallet information
Wondering which route works out cheaper for your shipment pattern? Describe it in our quote form and we will cost the own-haulier option including customs and a buffer in England.
