Leiden is on the list because RTM is reachable and busy. 62 scheduled nonstop destinations and 14 operating carriers mean the desk is rarely stuck for a routing, and 27 minutes of road means you are rarely too far to take it. Those two facts together are the whole reason Leiden has a page of its own.
Open · Netherlands desk · Leiden
On Board Courier, Leiden
Time critical hand carry assignments from Leiden. One consignment in the cabin, one handover against signature, 27 minutes between your front door and the check in desk at RTM.
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 inLeiden, South Holland
Nearest gateRTM · Rotterdam
Drive to the aircraft31 km · 27 minutes
Nonstop from RTM62 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 RTM, the sealed consignment reaches you or you collect it, and the drive of 27 minutes is timed backwards from the check in deadline rather than the departure. Where the routing runs through the Emirates it goes by way of SAW, on one ticket, with the connection booked long enough to be real.
Getting to the aircraft from Leiden
Measured door to terminal, Leiden to RTM is 31 km and 27 minutes. That is the number the desk uses when it decides whether to call Leiden for a departure this evening.
A drive of 27 minutes puts Leiden in the group of cities the desk can call at short notice without doing arithmetic first. A backup gate changes what can be promised out of Leiden. From Leiden, Amsterdam Schiphol is 28 minutes away and flies to 281 airports nonstop, so the desk has somewhere to move a consignment when the first flight goes.
| IATA | Airport | By road | Driving time | Nonstop |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| RTM | Rotterdam The Hague | 31 km | 27 minutes | 62 |
| AMS | Amsterdam Schiphol | 27 km | 28 minutes | 281 |
| EIN | Eindhoven | 130 km | 1 hour 44 minutes | 74 |
| BRU | Brussels | 180 km | 2 hours 13 minutes | 193 |
Leiden is a city of 120,000 people in South Holland, 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.
What RTM reaches without a change
The relevant question about RTM is not how big it is but what it flies. 62 nonstop destinations across 19 countries, and the ones with real frequency are listed here.
| IATA | City | Airport | Frequency | Operators |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| SAW | Istanbul | Istanbul Sabiha Gökçen | about 2 departures a day | 2 operators: AJet, Pegasus Airlines |
| IBZ | Ibiza Town | Ibiza Town Ibiza | about 2 departures a day | 1 operator: Transavia |
| LCY | London | London City | about 2 departures a day | 1 operator: British Airways |
| ALC | Alicante | Alicante | about one departure a day | 1 operator: Transavia |
| AGP | Málaga | Málaga | about one departure a day | 1 operator: Transavia |
| FAO | Faro | Faro | about one departure a day | 1 operator: Transavia |
| BCN | Barcelona | Barcelona | about one departure a day | 1 operator: Transavia |
| GRO | Girona | Girona | about one departure a day | 1 operator: Transavia |
| NDR | Nador | Nador | about one departure a day | 2 operators: Transavia |
| PMI | Palma De Mallorca | Palma De Mallorca | about one departure a day | 1 operator: Transavia |
Counting every airport a courier in Leiden can drive to, the combined nonstop board is 340 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 RTM catchment explains the deadlines. These facilities are publicly documented and are listed here as context for the work near Leiden. None of them is described as a client of ours.
- ASML, Veldhoven. Lithography systems, including the only extreme ultraviolet machines in production. A single reticle or optic can hold up a fab on another continent. It sits on AMS, which is 28 minutes from Leiden by road, and the sector is semiconductor.
- Johnson and Johnson, Beerse and Leiden. Pharmaceutical research and vaccine production. Two low country sites, two gates. It sits on AMS, which is 28 minutes from Leiden by road, and the sector is pharma.
- ASM Pacific and Besi, Duiven and Singapore. Semiconductor assembly equipment. Back end equipment feeding Asian assembly plants. It sits on AMS, which is 28 minutes from Leiden by road, and the sector is electronics.
Why a courier in Leiden is useful to the desk
Most of what the desk moves out of South Holland is small, sealed and late. The constraint is never the size, it is finding a person near enough to RTM. Leiden is near enough: 27 minutes to RTM, on a board with 62 nonstop destinations.
There is no nonstop between RTM and the Emirates, and this page says so rather than implying otherwise. From Leiden the best single change is Istanbul (SAW), and SAW to DXB is flown by AJet and flydubai, about 2 departures a day. Counting a normal connection that is around 8h 36m gate to gate, so an assignment between Leiden and the Emirates is planned as a connecting itinerary and the desk books the whole thing on one ticket.
The nearest other cities on the Netherlands list
Show the 12 closest, and how far each is from Leiden
Zoetermeer11 km away, RTM in 20 minutesThe Hague16 km away, RTM in 20 minutesRotterdam26 km away, RTM in 9 minutesHaarlem27 km away, AMS in 18 minutesDordrecht41 km away, RTM in 29 minutesUtrecht44 km away, AMS in 48 minutesAlmere Stad54 km away, AMS in 39 minutesAlkmaar55 km away, AMS in 38 minutesAmersfoort61 km away, AMS in 54 minutesBreda66 km away, RTM in 48 minutesRoosendaal70 km away, RTM in 53 minutesDen Bosch75 km away, EIN in 31 minutes
All 28 Netherlands cities are listed on the Netherlands 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 RTM and the other airports listed above, between the Netherlands 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 27 minutes drive to RTM. 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 RTM, 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 Leiden list
01How far is Leiden from RTM?
About 27 minutes, 31 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 RTM tonight.
02What can I reach from Leiden without a change of aircraft?
RTM serves 62 airports nonstop across 19 countries with 14 operating carriers, and counting every gate a courier in Leiden can drive to, the combined nonstop board is 340 airports. That is the practical range of a single assignment from here before anybody has to connect.
03Getting from Leiden to the Emirates: nonstop or not?
From Leiden the best single change is Istanbul (SAW), and SAW to DXB is flown by AJet and flydubai, about 2 departures a day. Counting a normal connection that is around 8h 36m gate to gate, so an assignment between Leiden and the Emirates is planned as a connecting itinerary and the desk books the whole thing on one ticket.
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 Leiden is on it. Where you live changes which assignments you are shown, not whether you qualify.
05Does it cost anything to apply?
No. The Leiden 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 RTM, one fee, agreed in advance. The 27 minutes you spend driving there is part of what that figure is calculated on.
Apply to fly out of RTM
If you can be at RTM within 27 minutes and you have a passport with room in it, the rest is a conversation.
Apply for this positionSee all openingsThe RTM atlas entry · The AMS atlas entry · The Netherlands courier desk · Netherlands country guide · All courier openings · Apply to the courier network