A hand carry is not fast air freight. There is no build up, no breakdown and no warehouse queue, but there is a check in desk that can refuse a bag, an immigration officer who can ask why a passenger is carrying a machined part, and a customs counter that will hold the goods rather than the person. The job is won on the briefing and the documents, not on how quickly somebody reaches the airport.
Operations desk · 24/7
On board courier work for freight forwarders
Most hand carry work is booked by a forwarder, not by the company whose part is missing. This page sets out how a subcontracted assignment runs, who the courier answers to while it is live, and how the documents are addressed so that your client keeps dealing with you.
Who buysTime critical desks, AOG desks and branch operations inside forwarders and brokers
NeutralityWe do not contact your client, quote them or appear on their commercial documents
What we areA Dubai licensed placement business; an operating partner books the seat and flies the courier
To quoteCollection and delivery addresses, deadline, weight, dimensions, commodity and value
Why forwarders subcontract a hand carry rather than build one
A forwarder owns the customer, the file and the liability. What a forwarder rarely owns is a pool of people who can leave the country this afternoon with a valid passport, the right entry permission and a seat on the correct departure. The work arrives without warning, three times in one week and then not for a month. Subcontracting the flying leg keeps the file with you and spreads the standby cost across many desks.
OnBoard Courier is licensed in Dubai and works as a placement business. We take the enquiry, check whether the mode fits, price it, set up the customs position and place the assignment with an operating partner who buys the ticket and flies the courier. We do not operate aircraft and we do not describe the courier as ours. That tells you who to call when a departure changes and who will be at the delivery address.
work for freight forwarders: when does it have to be there?One tap starts the quote. A dispatcher answers within 15 minutes, day or night.
Firm quote in 15 minutes
work for freight forwarders: tell us what has to fly. We answer with a flight and a price.
Five short questions. A dispatcher replies with a named departure, the delivery hour and one fixed price, day and night.
- One named courier from collection to signature
- Customs cleared in person on arrival
- Licensed UAE company, proper VAT invoices
How a subcontracted hand carry runs
An enquiry arrives with a collection address, a delivery address, a deadline and a description of the item. The first reply carries a routing with real departure and arrival times, a customs position for the destination and a price with its assumptions beside it. Where the mode does not fit, that is said before a price is given. Nothing is booked until you confirm, because the ticket is the largest single cost and it is bought against a named person.
On confirmation the operating partner assigns a courier and buys the seat. The courier checks the goods against the invoice and packing list at collection, seals and photographs the consignment and takes custody. Status follows at check in, departure, arrival, customs release and delivery, and the signed proof of delivery comes back to you rather than to the consignee.
220countries and territories on the desk
500+airports a courier can be booked into
15 minfrom your message to a firm price
24/7the operations centre is awake
Three departure boards, one desk: Emirates, flydubai and Etihad for work for freight forwarders
A hand-carry is only as fast as the next departure. The desk watches three boards at once and books the one that lands first, then holds the one that leaves next.
The night bank out of Terminal 3
Between one and four in the morning Emirates pushes back a wave of widebodies from Terminal 3 that reach Europe before the first meeting and Asia by the afternoon. For work for freight forwarders that wave is the reason a courier confirmed at eight in the evening is still delivering the next day.
Widebody only, non-stop to 140 plus citiesThe short sectors, several times a day
From Terminal 2 flydubai runs the one to five hour sectors: the Caucasus, Central Asia, East Africa, the Balkans, the subcontinent. Where a widebody leaves once a day, flydubai often leaves three times, which turns a missed slot into a ninety minute delay rather than a lost day.
Frequency is the fallbackAbu Dhabi as the second runway
Ninety minutes down the E11, Etihad leaves from Zayed International with its own bank of departures and, for the United States, immigration cleared before boarding. When the Dubai departure for work for freight forwarders is gone, the desk looks at Abu Dhabi before it looks at tomorrow.
US preclearance at AUHThe desk holds no allegiance to a carrier. The booking goes to whichever board puts a courier at work for freight forwarders first, at a fare the quote can carry.
work for freight forwarders: every hour it waits is an hour it is not moving.
Five questions, one fixed price, a named flight. The desk answers within 15 minutes, day and night, and you decide.
Who the courier reports to while the job is live
The courier reports to the operating partner's duty controller, and that controller reports to us. You deal with one contact instead of the person standing in the departure hall. That is an extra layer and it is deliberate: a courier negotiating with a gate agent cannot also answer four emails, and a forwarder speaking directly to a courier ends up with no record of what was agreed or when.
Where you need a direct line, ask at booking and it is set up as a named exception with the reason recorded on the file. It is normally needed for a delivery to a site with its own access control, or for an item that must not be opened, tilted or laid flat. Everything else goes through the controller so that a decision trail survives the job.
How the paperwork keeps you as the counterparty
The commercial invoice and the packing list belong to your client and run from shipper to consignee, because those are the parties to the sale and to the customs entry. Our name does not go on them and the operating partner's name does not either. The courier carries a copy set and an authority letter naming the person, the item and the two addresses, which is the document an airline supervisor or an immigration officer actually asks for.
Where a transport document is wanted for your own file, it is your house air waybill or consignment note, carried in your name. The proof of delivery is signed to you. Invoicing runs the same way: we invoice you, you invoice your client, and no charge reaches the shipper or the consignee. If the consignee asks the courier what the job cost, the courier does not know.
What we need in an enquiry
Six things price a job: the collection address with a contact and the hours the door is open, the delivery address with the same, the deadline as a local time at the delivery address, the gross weight and outside dimensions of each piece, an honest description of the commodity, and the invoice value. The value is not a sales question. It decides the customs treatment, the insurance position and, in several countries, whether a broker is required at all.
Three more answers save an hour later. Whether the item contains a battery, a gas under pressure, a magnet, a fuel wetted component or any residue. Whether the consignee already holds a broker appointment and an importer registration at destination. Whether a core, an empty container or a logger has to travel back. If the goods are export controlled, say so in the first message rather than the last.
How a quote is structured
A hand carry is not priced per kilogram. The quote is built from the seat and the class it has to be booked in, the courier's time from briefing to release, the baggage allowance that has to be bought or added, the ground legs at both ends, waiting time if a door is not ready, and the cost of getting the courier home or on to the next assignment. Visa costs appear where the passport in question needs them.
Those parts are shown separately so you can see what moves if the plan moves. The assumptions sit beside the price: the departure it is built on, cabin or accompanied checked baggage, who pays duty and taxes, what happens if the item is not ready at collection, and how long the price holds. A price with a routing under it can be defended to your client. A single number cannot.
Confidentiality about your client
We do not contact your client, quote your client, market to your client or take a direct enquiry from a company we know to be yours on a live file. Where the client's identity is not needed on the courier's paperwork it is not given to the courier, and the delivery is briefed by address and contact name. A non disclosure agreement is signed before the first enquiry rather than after the first job.
The same applies to what is published. No job on this site carries a customer name, a plant name or a photograph of anyone's goods, and nothing you send is used as a reference without your written agreement. In this trade the forwarder is the customer, and a supplier that competes with its customer gets used once.
Before you send the enquiry
Everything below shortens the quote, and most of it decides whether the assignment is possible at all.
- Send the collection and delivery addresses with a contact name and the hours each door is open.
- State the deadline as a local time at the delivery address, not as a flight arrival time.
- Give the gross weight and the outside dimensions of every piece, measured rather than estimated.
- Describe the commodity honestly, including any battery, gas, magnet or fuel wetted component.
- Confirm the invoice value and who pays duty and taxes at destination.
- Say whether the consignee already has a customs broker and an importer registration in place.
- Flag export control in the first message, not after the courier has been assigned.
- Ask for the routing and the assumptions in writing so the price can be defended to your client.
Questions the desk is asked
01Will you contact my client?
No. We deal with you, we invoice you and the proof of delivery is signed to you. If a company we know to be your client approaches us while your file is live, we tell you rather than quote them.
02Whose name goes on the commercial invoice?
Your client's. The invoice runs from shipper to consignee, because those are the parties to the sale and to the customs entry. The courier carries a copy set plus an authority letter naming the person, the item and the two addresses.
03Do you issue an air waybill?
No. Accompanied baggage is not tendered as air cargo, so there is no master air waybill. Where a transport document is needed for your file, it is your own house air waybill or consignment note, carried in your name.
04Can the courier take dangerous goods?
Only what a passenger may lawfully carry and only where the operating airline accepts it. Batteries, gases under pressure, magnets and fuel wetted parts are checked against the airline's acceptance rules before the seat is bought, not at the check in desk.
05What happens if the courier misses a connection?
The controller rebooks onto the next departure with a seat and a usable baggage allowance, which sometimes means a different arrival airport and a longer road leg. You hear when it happens, and the revised delivery time comes with the new routing.
06Are you the airline or the operator?
Neither. OnBoard Courier is a Dubai licensed placement business. We quote, set up the customs position and place the assignment with an operating partner who books the seat and flies the courier. We do not operate aircraft or claim offices outside the UAE.
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