P02.1 - Public : Shipping Samples To & From DESY

Shipping Samples

N.B. This document is intended as a guide only! It is not intended as a replacement for instructions from your courier company or for national/international transport regulations. These guidelines have developed from experience of users sending samples. Failure to comply may result in late or non-delivery of your samples and consequent cancellation of your experiment.

As a user you are responsible for:

Declaration of the contents of the parcel as well as for all the paperwork necessary related to the shipment of samples
Following your courier's instructions and being aware of the regulations covering shipment from the country of origin, as well as possible changes in the law
All paperwork and costs due to shipping of your parcel to DESY from your home institution as well as return to your home institution

Details on the regulations covering the shipping of a sample may be found in Section 14 of the Safety Data Sheet (available from the supplier), which details the proper shipping name and also the UN number, which indicates what restrictions there are on the shipping of a substance. For samples which have been synthesised by the users, the users are requested to perform a risk assessment and where appropriate contact the authorities in the country of origin for advice. All samples must be correctly packed according to regulations.

N.B. Shipping of lithium ion battery research samples outside of the EU has proven complex before due to restrictions on air transport. Please consult your local contact in advance of an experiment.

All samples have a worth and this can be important as part of customs checks when samples arrive in Germany. Please ensure that the value of the materials you are shipping (if appropriate, e.g. if samples cross a country border) is clearly indicated to the courier.

Shipping To/From Outside EU

In addition to the standard documents you will need a Customs Invoice (sometimes named “Proforma Invoice”). Failure to provide this documentation and/or failure to pay the costs required for the transport of the parcel until the final destination will result in the parcel being retained at the border/airport.

Shipping Capillary Samples

Glass capillary samples should be carefully packed, as they may break during transportion. Ideally capillaries should be packed inside a vial or centrifuge tube with a small amount of glass or cotton wool to ensure that the capillary doesn't move around too much. Using plastic centrifuge tubes, such as 5ml MilliPore tubes (Sigma-Aldrich: Z688223), has proven successful with some groups:

Shipping Samples To DESY

Parcels should be sent to your local contact at the following address:

<local contact name>
DESY,
Notkestr. 85,
22607 Hamburg,
Deutschland

This is the address that should be given to the courier and should appear on the Air Waybill. After shipping, please inform your local contact that a parcel has been sent and if possible provide a tracking reference number.

Shipments are only accepted on working days within the following hours:

Monday – Thursday: from 9:00h to 15.30h
Friday: from 9:00h to 13.30h
Shipments will not be accepted on weekends or public holidays.

Please ensure that there is plenty of time for a parcel to arrive well in advance of your beamtime!

Returning Sample From DESY

P02.1 is unable to arrange for the transport of your samples back to your home lab. Users can arrange for a courier to collect parcels from the DESY campus to be shipped back to their home lab at their own expense. Samples should be packed following the same guidelines under which they were sent and ideally in the same packaging (this simplifies transport regulations). It is the responsibility of the users to organize packaging of samples, transport and appropriate documentation for return shipping. Not DESY staff.