Customs basics for businesses working around UK ports

Published 2026-09-10 · Last reviewed 2026-09-10 · Next review due 2026-12-10

This guide is general information written for people working around UK ports. It is not legal or customs advice, and it does not certify that any consignment complies with anything. Requirements change and depend on the specific goods, materials, route and dates involved. Always check the official sources linked below, and take professional advice where the consequences of getting it wrong are significant.

Why a pallet supplier is writing about customs

Because packaging turns up inside customs questions more often than people expect. Wood packaging attracts plant health attention. Packaging can affect weight declarations. Reusable packaging moving out and back has its own treatment. And the operators who buy pallets around ports — forwarders, devanning warehouses, exporters — spend a lot of their week inside customs processes.

The core pieces

Declarations

Goods crossing a customs boundary generally require a declaration to the relevant authority. In the UK this is normally submitted electronically, most often by a customs agent, freight forwarder or fast parcel operator acting for the trader. The legal responsibility usually remains with the trader even when an agent submits.

Commodity codes

Goods are classified using commodity codes, which determine duty rates and which controls apply. Classification is genuinely technical and getting it wrong has financial consequences. GOV.UK provides the trade tariff tool for looking codes up.

EORI numbers

Businesses moving goods into or out of the UK generally need an EORI number. Separate arrangements can apply for movements involving Northern Ireland.

Customs procedures and reliefs

There are procedures for goods that are being stored, processed or temporarily admitted rather than simply imported for free circulation — customs warehousing, inward and outward processing, temporary admission, and transit arrangements among them. Devanning warehouses in particular often operate under one or more of these.

Where packaging intersects

• Wood packaging draws plant health checks that are separate from, but happen alongside, customs processes.
• Packaging weight can matter to declared gross weights.
• Returnable and reusable packaging moving out and back may be handled under specific procedures.
• Repalletising during a customs procedure may need to be permitted under the authorisation you hold.
• A packaging problem found at inspection delays the customs process, not just the cargo.

Sources

Each link was checked on the date shown. Where a site blocked our automated check we say so rather than implying a clean result.