Valence is on the list because LYS is reachable and busy. 122 scheduled nonstop destinations and 47 operating carriers mean the desk is rarely stuck for a routing, and 1 hour 28 minutes of road means you are rarely too far to take it. Those two facts together are the whole reason Valence has a page of its own.
Open · France desk · Valence
On Board Courier, Valence
Time critical hand carry assignments from Valence. One consignment in the cabin, one handover against signature, 1 hour 28 minutes between your front door and the check in desk at LYS.
OnBoard Courier is a United Arab Emirates company, contracted by ICSL FZE and run from Dubai. A city named on this site is a place we cover and route through, not a separate company in that city. Assignments are contracted under UAE law, and the terms are published in full under legal and policies.
Based inValence, Rhône-Alpes
Nearest gateLYS · Lyon
Drive to the aircraft125 km · 1 hour 28 minutes
Nonstop from LYS122 airports
EngagementFreelance · per assignment
Fee per assignmentAED 900 to 2,600
Apply for this position
Applying is free. Freelance · self-employed ·
posted 7 September 2026 · open until 7 March 2027
What the work pays
The fee for an assignment is agreed with you in writing before you accept it. These are the figures the site publishes, and what the desk covers on top of them.
Top published feeAED 2,000The highest fee the site shows for a single assignment: sealed medical samples in a cooled case, Dubai to Singapore.
Published band, per assignmentAED 900 to 2,600A document pouch to London is AED 1,200, an aircraft part to Frankfurt AED 1,500, an escorted watch on the Berlin lane AED 1,800.
What the flight costs youAED 0The desk books and pays the ticket, the transfers and, where the routing needs it, the hotel. A courier never fronts the fare.
The one payment you makeAED 199, returnedThe Academy, paid once. It comes back in full on top of the fee for your first completed assignment. Applying itself is free.
Fees vary with the lane, the notice, the waiting time and whether the return is immediate, so the desk quotes each assignment individually rather than pretending one number fits every trip. You are self-employed and there is no minimum: accept or decline whatever you like, and declining costs you nothing. Earnings are paid per delivery by bank transfer, they appear in your courier portal, and you can request a payout once the balance reaches AED 200. Apply and see the flight board.
You fly as a passengerOne consignment in the cabin, one handover against signature. No warehouse, no van, no round.
The desk books and pays the ticketFlight, transfers and, where the routing needs it, a hotel are booked before you leave for the airport.
Paid per assignmentA fee agreed in writing before you accept, paid to your bank account after the signature. Applying is free.
How to start, in four steps
1
Apply once
One application covers every country desk. Tell us which passports you hold and where you can travel.
2
Verification and the Academy
Identity and background check, then a short course on customs, handovers and chain of custody.
3
Your first offer
The desk sends the routing, the dates and the fee in writing. You accept or decline, nothing is automatic.
4
Fly, hand over, get paid
Collect, board, clear customs in person, hand over against signature, and the fee is paid to your account.
The assignment
You will usually know the day before, sometimes only in the morning. The desk sends the routing out of LYS, the sealed consignment reaches you or you collect it, and the drive of 1 hour 28 minutes is timed backwards from the check in deadline rather than the departure. The Gulf sector out of LYS is nonstop, so there is no connection to miss.
Getting to the aircraft from Valence
Measured door to terminal, Valence to LYS is 125 km and 1 hour 28 minutes. That is the number the desk uses when it decides whether to call Valence for a departure this evening.
At 1 hour 28 minutes the drive from Valence is the risky half of the trip, so it is planned rather than assumed: an earlier departure from home, and where the flight is early, a room near LYS paid by the desk. A backup gate changes what can be promised out of Valence. From Valence, Marseille Provence is 2 hours 6 minutes away and flies to 117 airports nonstop, so the desk has somewhere to move a consignment when the first flight goes.
| IATA | Airport | By road | Driving time | Nonstop |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| LYS | Lyon Saint-Exupéry | 125 km | 1 hour 28 minutes | 122 |
| MRS | Marseille Provence | 196 km | 2 hours 6 minutes | 117 |
Valence is a city of 64,000 people in Rhône-Alpes, and the clock there runs 2 hours behind the Emirates in summer and 3 in winter. Road distances are measured driving routes rather than straight lines, and nonstop counts come from the scheduled route data this site publishes. Only airports this site publishes a scheduled nonstop board for are listed, so a smaller field nearer Valence may exist and still not appear in the table above.
What LYS reaches without a change
The relevant question about LYS is not how big it is but what it flies. 122 nonstop destinations across 33 countries, and the ones with real frequency are listed here.
| IATA | City | Airport | Frequency | Operators |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CDG | Paris | Paris Charles de Gaulle | about 7 departures a day | 2 operators: Air France |
| BOD | Bordeaux/Mérignac | Bordeaux/Mérignac Bordeaux-Mérignac | about 5 departures a day | 2 operators: easyJet, Air France |
| TLS | Toulouse-Blagnac | Toulouse-Blagnac | about 5 departures a day | 4 operators: easyJet, Air France |
| ALG | Algiers | Algiers Houari Boumediene | about 5 departures a day | 3 operators: Transavia France, Air Algerie |
| TUN | Tunis | Tunis Carthage | about 5 departures a day | 3 operators: Transavia France, Tunisair |
| AMS | Amsterdam | Amsterdam Schiphol | about 4 departures a day | 1 operator: KLM |
| FRA | Frankfurt-am-Main | Frankfurt-am-Main | about 4 departures a day | 2 operators: Lufthansa, Air Dolomiti |
| MAD | Madrid | Madrid Adolfo Suárez-Barajas | about 4 departures a day | 3 operators: easyJet, Iberia |
| NTE | Nantes | Nantes Atlantique | about 4 departures a day | 2 operators: easyJet, Air France |
| MUC | Munich | Munich | about 4 departures a day | 2 operators: Lufthansa |
Counting every airport a courier in Valence can drive to, the combined nonstop board is 146 airports. Frequencies are average daily flights and change with the season, so the desk checks the live schedule before it offers you anything.
The industry inside this catchment
The industrial geography inside the LYS catchment explains the deadlines. These facilities are publicly documented and are listed here as context for the work near Valence. None of them is described as a client of ours.
- STMicroelectronics, Crolles, Grenoble. Wafer fabrication and research. The French Alpine cluster, an hour from Lyon. It sits on LYS, which is 1 hour 28 minutes from Valence by road, and the sector is semiconductor.
Why a courier in Valence is useful to the desk
Most of what the desk moves out of Rhône-Alpes is small, sealed and late. The constraint is never the size, it is finding a person near enough to LYS. Valence is near enough: 1 hour 28 minutes to LYS, on a board with 122 nonstop destinations.
A consignment moving between Valence and the Gulf has a straightforward path. From Valence the Gulf is a single sector: LYS and DXB are joined nonstop, about one departure a day, flown by Emirates. That is roughly 6h 24m in the air over 5,000 km, and it means a consignment can leave Valence in the evening and be in the Gulf before the next working day starts.
The nearest other cities on the France list
Show the 12 closest, and how far each is from Valence
Grenoble69 km away, LYS in 1 hour 6 minutesSaint-Étienne70 km away, LYS in 1 hour 9 minutesLyon92 km away, LYS in 32 minutesChambéry107 km away, LYS in 1 hour 6 minutesAvignon109 km away, MRS in 1 hour 6 minutesNîmes129 km away, MRS in 1 hour 18 minutesArles141 km away, MRS in 1 hourBourg-en-Bresse144 km away, LYS in 52 minutesAnnecy145 km away, GVA in 53 minutesIstres157 km away, MRS in 47 minutesAix-en-Provence161 km away, MRS in 33 minutesMontpellier168 km away, MRS in 1 hour 54 minutes
All 81 France cities are listed on the France courier desk, which stays the general application for the country.
The engagement, and who we are looking for
The engagement
- Type: freelance, self-employed. You are an independent courier accepting individual assignments, not an employee, and you decide which ones you take.
- Where it runs: assignments are flown out of LYS and the other airports listed above, between France and wherever the consignment is going, with the return leg agreed per mission.
- Hours: variable. An assignment is a single trip, not a shift or a roster.
- How you are paid: a fee per completed assignment, agreed in writing before you accept it. The fees published on this site run from AED 1,200 for a document pouch to AED 2,000 for a cooled medical consignment, and the figure for your assignment reflects the lane, the notice, the waiting time and whether the return is immediate.
- What the desk pays: the flight, the transfers and, where the routing needs it, the hotel. A courier never pays for the ticket and never fronts the fare.
- Applying is free. No payment is required to apply, to be screened or to be placed on the courier list. The Academy costs AED 199, paid once, and is returned in full on top of the fee for your first completed assignment. It is the only payment a courier ever makes to us.
What we look for
- A passport with comfortable remaining validity and free pages, and the right to enter the country on the routing. The desk checks the visa position for your specific passport before any assignment is offered.
- A clean background check and a willingness to be verified. Couriers carry other people’s property.
- Availability at short notice, and a realistic view of the 1 hour 28 minutes drive to LYS. Most assignments are confirmed hours, not days, before departure.
- Presentable, calm and articulate at a customs counter. The consignment is only as smooth as the person carrying it.
- A working phone, reachable on the number you gave us, for the whole assignment.
What we provide
- The ticket. Always. A courier never pays for the flight and never fronts the fare.
- The paperwork, prepared before you reach LYS, and a named contact at the desk on both ends.
- A briefing on the consignment, the consignee and what the customs position at the far end looks like.
- A fee per completed assignment, agreed with you in advance and paid by bank transfer after the handover.
Questions about the Valence list
01How far is Valence from LYS?
About 1 hour 28 minutes, 125 km by road. The desk has that number for every city on the list and uses it to decide who gets called for a departure out of LYS tonight.
02What can I reach from Valence without a change of aircraft?
LYS serves 122 airports nonstop across 33 countries with 47 operating carriers, and counting every gate a courier in Valence can drive to, the combined nonstop board is 146 airports. That is the practical range of a single assignment from here before anybody has to connect.
03Getting from Valence to the Emirates: nonstop or not?
From Valence the Gulf is a single sector: LYS and DXB are joined nonstop, about one departure a day, flown by Emirates. That is roughly 6h 24m in the air over 5,000 km, and it means a consignment can leave Valence in the evening and be in the Gulf before the next working day starts.
04Do I have to live in the UAE to be on this list?
No. The desk is in Dubai and the company is Emirati, but the courier list is worldwide and Valence is on it. Where you live changes which assignments you are shown, not whether you qualify.
05Does it cost anything to apply?
No. The Valence list is free to join and free to stay on. The only money that moves from you to us is the AED 199 Academy, paid once, and it comes back on top of the fee for your first completed assignment.
06How is my fee agreed?
One assignment out of LYS, one fee, agreed in advance. The 1 hour 28 minutes you spend driving there is part of what that figure is calculated on.
Apply to fly out of LYS
If you can be at LYS within 1 hour 28 minutes and you have a passport with room in it, the rest is a conversation.
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