Return, Disposal and Destruction of Goods Policy

Overview

In the event that DPD is unable to successfully deliver a Consignment pursuant to DPD's Standard Terms and Conditions of Carriage ("STCC"), DPD reserves the right to return, dispose of, delegate the disposal of, or allow the disposal of consignments, individual parcels and the contents thereof, under certain circumstances, by DPD, or a third party designated by DPD or a relevant customs authority.

All goods that cannot be returned to the consignee or consignor for any reason, including the goods being Lost Property (as defined below), may be disposed of or destroyed after being stored by DPD for 4 weeks.

All personal effects are only held for 12 weeks.

In accordance with the STCC, DPD reserves the right to decide the method of disposal and the customer will hold DPD harmless for any costs incurred relating directly to the return, destruction or disposal of goods.

Returns of Goods

In the event that DPD is unable to deliver a consignment and such consignment is stored or held at DPD's premises, it reserves the right to return the consignment after a minimum of 5 calendar days where the customer can be identified and the consignment is deemed appropriate to transit.

Unless impossible to do so, for any international shipments, DPD will endeavour to reimport the goods under Returned Goods Relief unless alternative instructions are received from the customer prior to export. DPD reserves the right to achieve this via a deferred declaration service or any other form of customs simplification it deems fit to use. Customers should ensure where applicable such returned goods are accounted for in their periodic VAT returns with HMRC

Destruction/Disposal of hazardous or perishable goods

During transit, if DPD becomes aware that a consignment contains goods that are deemed hazardous or not accepted under the STCCs, (or in the case of perishable goods), following the agreed amount of delivery attempts, the consignment may be disposed of/destroyed immediately by DPD, a third party designated by DPD or a relevant customs authority.

Lost Property

The Lost Property Department will use all reasonable endeavours to trace the relevant customer or consignee of lost item(s) ('Lost Property').

1. In the event a customer or consignee cannot be traced, Lost Property received is controlled, recorded and stored for a period of 4 weeks where the Lost Property is a mobile phone.
2. Lost Property will be secured until any claims have been satisfactorily resolved within the storage period, following which Lost Property is disposed of either by DPD, or a third party designated by DPD (including auction by an accredited auctioneer, or reset/cleansed before re-sale) or a relevant customs authority, as determined by the nature of the Lost Property.
3. The Lost Property Department is responsible for providing tracking numbers for any Lost Property that is returned, the entry and control of the Lost Property register including uploading correct details on to the Lost Property website, the storage of Lost Property and - on the approval of the Central Security Manager (CSM) - the disposal of unclaimed Lost Property.