I ask as I just bought 5 litres of engine oil online. The price was cheaper than I could buy anywhere else. On top of that was free DHL 24HR delivery. For me to send a parcel like that would probably be at least a tenner. Bearing in mind that oil was 20 quid, how cheap can they send it for?

Big companies, especially the likes of Amazon, don’t pay per parcel – they just agree a ‘fee’ for the year (or whatever the contract is). Saves them sending a poor guy to the post office on a lunchtime with a couple of thousand boxes…

Airfreight usually costs around £2.50 per kilo.

Seafreight usually costs around £0.11 per kilo.

smaller companies just buy space in a van/container/whatever

Bearing in mind that oil was 20 quid, how cheap can they send it for?

wrong question. how cheap can they buy it for?

Airfreight usually costs around £2.50 per kilo.

Seafreight usually costs around £0.11 per kilo.

It depends on the size of the shipment rather than the weight a lot of time.
For us, for example, bringing in things like wheels is a nightmare as although they weigh very little each box is, volumetrically, quite big and that’s how we are charged.
Essentially we pay to ship a lot of air!

There’s a German outdoor gear company I use called https://www.bergfreunde.co.uk/

for returns, they can print you a shipping label for which they charge £5 (small parcel to Germany in 48hr via Parcel force). Cheapest I can buy that is £10.

So they get a good discount bulk buying,…

When I rode from London to Bruges with two mates in May we didn’t want to carry much with us so we shipped a photocopier paper sized box full of overnight clothes etc to the hotel through a mate who is a director of a courier company.

He did it for me at ‘cost’ for £20. Split between three of us that was a bargain.

I send out 300 parcels a week and can’t get a decent discount.
Up to 30Kg to mainland UK is £6.25 (+VAT)

I needed to top up the coolant on the car. Got a litre of ready mixed OAT from Euro Car Parts for £1.87 delivered next day.

A great kind of ridiculous.