Hello everyone, I have heard that there is a "ban" on shipping lamps(lanterns) to the USA in particular by the EU. Is this the case? If so, why? I also heard that they can only be shipped if they have been "electrified". Inquiring minds want to know. TA Bob
Bob, there is no shipping ban at all. It all is about flight security regulations. If some material ever came into contact with any fuel, it is regarded as "dangerous material" and thus not allowed on a plane. Every single package goes through the X-Ray and if something looks like "dangerous" the security people will not allow it on board. You can avoid this by labelling the box "new lamp, unused" but this is a legal statement and you should not "stretch" the truth too much, as false statments will get you into real big trouble (if they find out). So send a new lamp, label it an unused lamp and it will go through in 9 of 10 tries. Label it "old" in any documents with the shipment it will either be returned to the sender or it will be destroyed at seller's expenses. They do not ask, they just do and send the corresponding bill. You can put some wire and plug, and an old light bulb into the box to fool the flight security people. It works as I was told. I would not do for the trouble it will cause when they find out. Shipments to the US are checked in a particularly accurate way as demanded by US authorities. Shipments from the US (or domestic) are checked fairly lax. So remaining fuel shipped in a lantern inside ths US seems to be less dangerous than remaining fuel from somewhere else. You are not supposed to understand it. Erik add: This also applies for Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Australia, New Zealand and some more countries we used to ship regularly by air freight. So we stopped shipping pressure lamps and stoves to this destinations. Far too much money was wasted on non-refundable shipping costs and far too much paperwork, far too many disappointed customers which demanded refund or delivery.
Hello Erik, Thank you for the "reasons why". I guess I should be thankful that I acquired the items I did before all this nonsense began. I guess all I can do now is go on eBay.de and "drool". Danke, Bob PS Does this apply for parts as well? What if a lamp was shipped disassembled and labeled "parts"?
Guess I got lucky a few months back then, got an Optimus 00 loaded *to the gills* with paraffin. We're talking very little air in the tank. Im surprised that the sender didnt get in deep doo doo for sending flammables through the mail.
De jure it also applies to parts. De facto you can guess a security person will not be able to tell. Except the pressure tank. This item always looks suspicious. Erik
Just ran into a wall with this restriction thing. Stuga couldnt ship a parts source M320 and some poor bloke in the UK tried his heart out to send me a 1930's tilley but his courier wouldnt budge even after he cleaned the tank out with Meths. Guess its limiting my purchases to NIB or dried out desiccated parts.
"Dried out dessicated parts" may also be affected. I seem to recall that it's anything which may have contained hydrocarbons at any time in the past. Seems a bit of an over-reaction to me, considering the plane will contain who knows how many thousands of litres of combustible hydrocarbons in its fuel tanks...
There have been a number of planes which have had a fire start in the hold which tends to mean the pilots and passengers have an interesting time in their last few minutes of life. In general airline companies prefer to arrange their own time to scrap a plane. So you can't really blame them for being a tad nervous about potentially combustible cargo. I dare say they could arrange a scheme of safety certification for a parcel but it has to be simpler and cheaper to just refuse a parcel. What is annoying is the inconsistancy. I have a parcel from the US waiting for me to pay the customs charge. No drama just a regular delivery by the USPO which has made the trip to the UK. ::Neil::
All of which is true, Neil, but to refuse a lamp or lantern which has been completely dry for sometimes decades seems a bit much. It's effectively just a lump of metal...
But it often still smells of/on/to (?) fuel. I do recall a certain dutch guy who got a rather rare stove part on a newark meeting some years ago. Did cost him a lot of time and money to get home again. I can't recall if the item still is in the uk or not.
