Category Archives: Sending presents abroad

Tips on Sending Baked Goods – Wrapping

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What better way to show you care for someone than a nicely wrapped fresh package of baked goods waiting at their door? At RAND Logistics we try to provide first class service along with top quality tips and hints for those sending packages throughout the UK and internationally, from Austria to the Ukraine and everywhere in between. Make sure to look into any postal restrictions before sending any packages abroad.

Double the Gift

Why not wrap breads, brownies or fudge bars in a decorative pan or baking dish to make it a doubled present? For added protection put the whole thing in an airtight container during shipping. Plus providing a baking dish or a decorative pan may encourage your recipient to try their hand at a few baking recipes in turn.

Separate Wrappings


For all types of cookies, both crisp and moist, it is better to wrap them individually in cling film or waxed paper to preserve freshness. Pack wrapped cookies in tight rows in order to prevent the cookies from moving about and breaking during transit.

Whether you are sending a package to a friend or relative, or starting up your own business, RAND Logistics can provide first class postal services at competitive rates. Use the free quotation form to get an instant quotation on your parcel now!

Happy Pancake Day

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It is Pancake Day today! Many people get together to make their own pancakes or they buy them from available stores, but if you fancy baking some pancakes for a foreign friend or relative, here are some tips to getting them shipped fresh and ready to eat.

pancake-day

Preparation
Make sure to prepare all foods immediately before packing and mailing to ensure maximum freshness, however let all foods cool completely before boxing them up and shipping, as hotter foods can cause condensation on the inside of the container used to post them.

Speedy Shipping
To ensure freshness, choose the fastest shipping method available. You can even request urgent shipping from various companies.

Waxed Paper
Cookies and various other baked goods with sticky glazes and iced decorations can be protected by putting sheets of waxed paper in between each layer. Also avoid sending muffins and cookies with moist fillings or frostings as they can become sticky or soft at room temperature.

Make sure to check your local post office restrictions to see what types of goods can be posted internationally. At RAND Logistics we can ensure top quality postage at competitive rates. Contact us for more information.

Sending Baked Goods Through the Postal Service

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With Pancake Day coming up tomorrow, we here at RAND Logistics are looking forward to testing out new pancake recipes in preparation for the big day. However you may know a friend or relative who isn’t so great at baking, and might need a little help.

Baked goods and various perishables are post-able, but it depends on where you want to send them. Check your local postage guidelines to see what types of baked goods and perishable foods are allowed to be sent cross country and internationally. Here at RAND, we have put together a number of top tips that will help keep your baked goods in the best possible condition so that they reach their recipient relatively unharmed.

Choose the Right Container
Hard air locked containers are the best way to sent baked goods. Particularly for long distance parcels, air locked containers are recommended, as plastic will keep it fresh and prevent the goods from becoming stale.

Fragile
Mark the box fragile to ensure that the postal office takes better care of it. ‘This side up’ also works well for decorated cupcakes and frosted doughnuts.

We’ll continue with more tips to delivering baked goods tomorrow, but for excellent service and first class delivery on all packages and parcels from Bahrain to Bulgaria and further afield, choose RAND Logistics.

Commemorative Horse Stamps 2014

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In continuation with the theme of the Year of the Horse, a series of commemorative stamps has been printed to recognise the efforts made by horses in British society today. Although contribution by horses in British society has dramatically reduced since the invention of the motor car, horses are still used in day to day tasks such as pulling lumber, as members of the Queen’s guard, and in many leisure and sporting events.

horse-drawnHorses are incredibly trusting and affectionate animals. They can provide true support to those who need it, and are one of the most commonly used working animals in the UK. To commemorate this year of the horse, British post offices have announced a series of horse-themed stamps available in 2014. Traditional circus and fairground festivals often have horse-drawn carts and many farmers use horses to pull tilling equipment, so equines still have a huge role in today’s workplace!

If you were thinking of sending a package or a gift to a friend or relative abroad, or you were looking at setting up your business with regular deliveries between the UK and the rest of the world, look to RAND Logistics for first rate, competitive service.

Customisable Stamps and Gifts

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As well as the Chinese New Year or the Lunar New Year Festival having its own original set of postage stamps, nowadays you can even personally design your own stamps on various postage sites, and the creativity is endless.

Personalising a custom stamp on a parcel to China or elsewhere in the world could be your way of marking your business, or a cute way of making your envelope seem a little more personal, when sending gifts to a relative. If you are an emerging new business, a personalised postage stamp would be an excellent way to establish yourself as a reliable seller.

Modern day technologies allow customisation on a variety of levels, and postage stamps are just one of the many examples of these. Because of modern printing technologies, there are ways of customising everything from key chains to mugs to t-shirts, and giving a friend or relative a customised gift, no matter how small, makes a great, personal gift that they can cherish.

For all your delivery needs between the UK and international destinations, contact RAND Logistics today, or fill in our Quick Quote form for an instant quotation. It is simple and easy!

Chinese New Year Celebrations – Day 2

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As the Chinese begin the week long celebrations to welcome the Lunar New Year, we have a look at some of the specially designed, limited edition stamps created across the world to honour the start of the Chinese New Year. These can come in a variety of designs, but often have something to do with the Zodiac animal of that year. As this year is the year of the horse, many of the New Lunar Year stamps will feature the design of a horse.

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Singapore’s Design for Year of the Horse 2014

Some stamps are available only as collector’s items, whereas others can actually be used as real stamps. Sheets of specially designed Lunar New Year stamps will sometimes come on a printed background that has the phrase ‘Happy New Year’ written in both English and Chinese written across the top, or down the side. Sheets will also typically have a design printed on the background of fireworks, or a traditional Chinese dragon.

Why not use your recently acquired Lunar Festival stamps to send a parcel to China or send a package to a friend or relative living overseas? With RAND Logistics, we can ensure that your package gets to its intended recipient quickly and safely.

Chinese New Year Celebrations – Day 1

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Last Friday was Chinese New Year, and with it marks the start of traditional Chinese New Year’s celebrations. These celebrations will happen over the course of the next week and will involve cleaning out the house in preparation for the New Year, hanging paper lanterns and other colourful decorations about the house, painting to bring in the New Year, and a whole host of other traditions that sees 2014 as starting afresh!

chinese new year

2014 is the year of the horse, which surprisingly, means prosperity and wealth for all those not born in the year of the horse. According to superstitions, in your zodiac year you will offend Tai Sui, so those born in the year of the horse may suffer from bad luck. Horses can offset this by wearing the horses lucky colours; red, green or purple.

Like January the 1st represents a new start for many other cultures, the 31st January represents a clean slate in China. The Chinese will often send gifts of money and food to their family friends and business partners in order to amend relationships. Why not send a heartfelt gift to a friend or relative living abroad, to imitate the ‘new beginnings’ attitude brought about by the Chinese New Year, using RAND Logistics?

Uses for Junk Mail; Confetti

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Junk mail is an issue that most people have to deal with nowadays. Even if you subscribe to a removal service, there is still the odd occasion where a leaflet or two about TV licensing for example, can slip through. Wouldn’t it be fantastic if there was a use for all this junk mail? Well with a bit of imagination, we here at RAND have thought of a whole week’s worth of different uses for junk mail. Starting with:

Paper Bedding

If you have any kind of small animal, shredding up some of the paper leaflets can make a great alternative to buying paper bedding. Just be sure that you don’t use anything too colourful, as some younger or smaller animals tend to eat the paper, and the ink may be harmful.

As Confetti

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Budget confetti may seem like a half hearted attempt at celebrating, but nobody can fault your ingenuity, and your recycling prowess. Plus so many advertisers nowadays use brightly coloured designs and shiny paper, so shredding some leaflets and junk mail together could create some really colourful confetti. Try it!

For first rate services in record times, use RAND Logistics when sending your friend or relative a gift to celebrate a special occasion in India. Try our Quick Quote form to see what you can save!

Did You Know? Postal Facts Final Day

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The first pillar boxes designed by the Royal Mail were in fact green, not red, to blend in with the landscape so as not to be an eyesore. However they blended in a little too well and the Royal Mail office was flooded with complaints from people who couldn’t actually find their local post box. The decision was then made to paint them red in 1874, which took around ten years for the repainting of all the post boxes to actually take place, so the iconic red post box was not actually fully recognised until the late 19th century. Although their design has not changed one iota since.

It is actually possible to send dead animals as well as live ones, so long as the packaging or animal itself does not violate local postal laws about shipping biohazard materials. If the animal has been cleaned and preserved properly, and is kept in an air tight container then it is perfectly legal to be allowed to ship it.

If you absolutely have to ship your brothers dead hamster to his home address by sending a parcel to Peru, find out how RAND Logistics can provide you with excellent service by using our Quick Quote function.

Did You Know? Postal Facts Day 3

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Just fewer than 6000 postmen were bitten by dogs in the USA alone in 2012, the highest rates city being Los Angeles, which suffered 69 separate incidents of letter carriers being attacked. Surprisingly, this was a decrease from 83 attacks in the previous year, which is a little bit of good news, albeit still making it the worst city in the continent.

In 2001, the Postal Service in Germany decided to take decisive action and taught courses on dog psychology to couriers to decrease the number of attacks, as there were around 3000 letter carriers a year attacked in Germany, leading up to around £8 million worth of medical bills.

Some dog bites have been so severe that they can lead to fatalities, or if the courier is an elderly citizen, can lead to heart attacks, although this is rarely the case. On the 15th July 2013 the Royal Mail launched its first Dog Awareness Week, as dog attacks have resulted in the loss of over 4500 working says since April 2011.

Take care when sending a parcel to Los Angeles for your friend or relative, as dog attacks tend to increase during school holidays. To find out our excellent rates for international shipping, use RAND Logistics quick quote form.