Beneath every other category on this desk sits a constant traffic in ordinary business and personal paperwork, apostilled corporate documents, visa and residence file originals, educational and professional certificates, that a scan cannot substitute for because the receiving authority in the UAE requires the physical original or the physical stamp.
Apostilled and legalised corporate documents, visa and residence file originals, educational and professional qualification certificates, and consular and government submissions.
Five short questions. A dispatcher replies with a named departure, the delivery hour and one fixed price, day and night.
This is the category where the deadlines are absolute and the goods are nearly weightless, which makes it the clearest possible illustration of the courier model: the value is entirely in the certainty of hand-to-hand delivery, not in the object itself.
This category could travel as air cargo. Here is why it usually does not.
A person in a seat
A parcel in a system
To be straight about it: air cargo is not a bad service, it is a different one. It moves weight cheaply and it does that extremely well. A hand-carry buys back hours, and it is worth paying for exactly when an hour of delay costs more than a seat on a plane, which is the case far more often than most shippers assume, and far less often than most courier companies claim.
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.
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 your consignment 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 citiesFrom 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 fallbackNinety 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 your consignment 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 your consignment first, at a fare the quote can carry.
Five questions, one fixed price, a named flight. The desk answers within 15 minutes, day and night, and you decide.
The whole point of an on board courier is that nothing waits for a batch. Here is what actually happens between your message and the signature on a Switzerland assignment, with the timings we work to rather than the ones a brochure would promise.
The first conversation is short and specific: contents, declared value, collection address, delivery address in Switzerland, and the real deadline rather than the comfortable one. If there are batteries, powders, liquids, biological material or anything regulated in the box, that is the moment to say so, not at the check-in desk.
We check three things at once: whether we may lawfully carry it, whether Switzerland will let it in without a permit we do not have, and whether it physically fits an aircraft cabin. Only then do you get a fixed price, and the price includes the ticket, the courier fee, transfers and a hotel where an overnight is unavoidable.
The matching runs against couriers who are available now, whose passport and visas suit the route to Switzerland, and whose delivery history fits the value of the consignment. The ticket is then bought in the courier's own name, matching their passport exactly, a booking in anything but the traveller's legal name is refused at the gate.
At collection the seal number is recorded, the goods are photographed and the paperwork is checked line by line against what is in the box. A description that does not match the contents is a common reason a hand-carry is held at the arrival airport in Switzerland, and it is entirely preventable.
The flight is the boring part, and that is the point. No handling agent, no transfer between systems, one person, one box, one documented chain of custody all the way to the arrival airport in Switzerland.
The courier declares the goods through the red channel at the arrival airport in Switzerland, answers questions in person and, where the category or the value warrants it, meets a customs broker we have already briefed. The handover is against signature, printed name and an identification reference, timestamped and with photographs where you have asked for them.
Nothing delays a hand-carry as reliably as a document that says something different from the box. This is what we prepare with you before the courier leaves, and why each piece matters at the arrival airport in Switzerland.
Where goods enter Switzerland temporarily and leave again, demonstration equipment, exhibition pieces, professional gear, a carnet avoids duty entirely and gives the courier a document the officer recognises immediately. It has to be issued before departure; there is no retrospective version.
A numbered tamper-evident seal applied at collection and checked at delivery, with photographs at both ends. It costs nothing and it settles every argument about whether a package was opened between the two points.
Import duty and VAT or GST in Switzerland are the consignee's cost unless you have agreed otherwise in writing, and the terms should be settled before departure. It is a small conversation before the flight and an expensive one after it.
Repairs, exhibition goods, replacements and samples still need a document with a realistic value on it. The value is what the goods are worth, not what you would like the duty to be, an understated value is a customs offence in Switzerland rather than a negotiating position.
Documents that must be legalised, apostilled or attested to be valid in Switzerland are checked before the courier collects them. A perfectly delivered document that lacks the right stamp has not solved anybody's problem.
Someone in Switzerland must be entitled to receive the goods and, where clearance requires it, able to act as importer of record. A delivery address without an authorised person behind it is where otherwise perfect assignments stall.
The HS code decides the duty, the permits and sometimes whether the goods may enter Switzerland at all. We would rather agree the classification with you before departure than watch an officer choose one for us, because the officer's choice is the one that stands.
Certificates of origin, health and phytosanitary certificates, dangerous goods declarations, export licences for dual-use items, import permits for regulated categories. We identify which of these Switzerland wants for your specific commodity at the quoting stage, because discovering it at the arrival airport in Switzerland is far too late.
We do not publish a price list, because a fixed table would be a lie: the same box on the same route costs differently at four hours' notice than at two days'. What we can do is be exact about which levers move the number, so nothing in the quote is a surprise.
If the routing to Switzerland needs a visthe courier does not hold, either we assign a courier who does or we position one, and a global network exists precisely so that the answer is usually the first option rather than the second.
A direct flight to Switzerland is one ticket and one risk. A two-sector routing is cheaper on paper and more expensive in practice, because every connection is a chance to lose the consignment's schedule. We quote the routing we would actually fly, not the cheapest one that technically arrives.
All-risk cover is priced on the declared value of the goods, and it is the number that matters, airline liability under the Montreal Convention is a fraction of what most courier consignments are worth. Understating the value to save a little on cover is a false economy the first time anything goes wrong.
A same-day turnaround, an overnight with a hotel, or a courier who continues to a third country all cost differently. On a Switzerland routing the flight schedule usually decides this rather than anybody's preference.
Ticket, courier fee, airport transfers, the hotel where an overnight is unavoidable, the documentation work and our operations desk being awake for the whole journey. What is not included is duty and tax in Switzerland, and anything you ask for after departure that changes the routing.
Anything beyond normal cabin baggage means a second seat, and occasionally two. An extra seat sounds dramatic until you compare it with a charter: it is an order of magnitude cheaper and it moves at the speed of a scheduled flight.
Every quote we send is fixed before departure and contains the flight, the courier's fee, transfers and, where an overnight cannot be avoided, the hotel. The things that can change it afterwards are the things you control: a change of destination, a change of goods, or a delay at your end that costs the booked flight. Duty and tax in Switzerland sit with the consignee unless we have agreed otherwise in writing.
Every operator has these problems. The difference is whether the answer was decided in advance or invented at the counter. This is our answer to each of them, written down before you need it.
It happens, and it is survivable when the invoice is realistic and consistent with the goods. It is not survivable when someone wrote a convenient number. We check this before departure precisely because there is no way to fix it afterwards.
We confirm the receiving party and a working phone number before the courier departs, and we agree a fallback in Switzerland, a second authorised person, or a secure hold, so that a delivery does not fail because someone went into a meeting.
Found before departure, this is a repack or a permit. Found at security, it is a lost flight and sometimes a confiscation. It is the reason we ask uncomfortable questions about contents at the very beginning instead of taking a booking politely.
Almost always a document problem: a passport too close to expiry, a missing transit visa, a name on the ticket that does not match the passport. Every one of those is checked at assignment, and it is checked again before the courier leaves for the airport.
Force majeure does not disappear because a shipment is urgent. What we do is re-plan around it, a different hub, a different carrier, occasionally a different UAE airport, and tell you what the new arrival time is rather than letting you discover it.
Measured at collection, not at the gate. If it will not fit a locker we buy a seat for it there and then and tell you the revised number before the courier moves, rather than improvising at check-in.
The questions clients actually ask before their first assignment, answered without marketing language.
Signature, printed name and an identification reference, with a timestamp, plus photographs where you have asked for them. It is produced by the courier at the moment of handover in Switzerland, not generated by a depot three hours later.
No. That is the definition of the service rather than a policy we could relax. It travels in the cabin, in the courier's custody, for every sector of the journey to Switzerland. If something genuinely cannot travel in a cabin, we will tell you that and discuss freight or a charter instead of pretending.
Only where both belong to the same client and the customs position is clean. Mixing two clients' goods under one declaration into Switzerland creates a liability neither of them agreed to, so we do not do it.
No. OnBoard Courier is a courier placement and brokerage business based in Dubai. We vet, train and insure couriers, screen consignments and buy ordinary passenger seats on scheduled flights. We operate no aircraft, hold no alliance membership and have no exclusive carrier contract, which is exactly what lets us put a courier on whichever airline departs next for Switzerland.
The courier declares the goods in person through the red channel, and where the value or the category warrants it we brief a licensed customs broker in Switzerland in advance. Duty and tax are the consignee's cost unless agreed otherwise in writing.
Yes. Third-country assignments, collect in one country, deliver in another, are a normal part of the work, and they are routed through the fastest connection rather than automatically through Dubai. Where a courier already in the region can take it, that is what happens.
A vetted courier can normally be at a UAE airport within two to four hours of a confirmed booking. The real constraint is not our side, it is the next departure with a seat and a cabin allowance that fits. Because we use all seven UAE airports and buy on the open market rather than through one carrier, that next departure is usually sooner than people expect.
We rebook. Before departure we already know the next alternatives to Switzerland across the carriers we can lawfully use, so a cancellation costs hours rather than a day. You are told the new arrival time as soon as we have it, not after you ask.
All-risk cover on the declared value is arranged on request and confirmed in writing before collection. We do not rely on airline liability, because under the Montreal Convention that liability is a small fraction of what most courier consignments are worth.
The cities on this desk where this category is concentrated, each with its own page, its own airport and its own customs reality.
He who does not know his past cannot make the best of his present and future, for it is from the past that we learn.Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan
Tell us the commodity, the value, the two ends and the deadline. A fixed price and a named courier come back by email, usually inside fifteen minutes.
Illustrative cases, patterns from daily OBC work, details generalised for client confidentiality.
A turbine control card for a plant running on reduced load.
A surgical navigation unit needed before a scheduled theatre slot.
Signed originals for a company closing that could not wait for a courier network.
Times are typical for these lanes; every job gets its own named flight and timeline before you confirm.
The case flies belted in the cabin next to the courier, never checked in.
Every route on this site runs because somebody was willing to get on the plane with it. We are recruiting vetted couriers worldwide: we book and pay the flight, cover transfers and a hotel where an overnight is needed, and pay a fee for every completed assignment, stated in the offer before you accept it. You decide when you are available.
From this tarmac a courier can reach six continents before tomorrow night.The geography that built Dubai
Tell us what has to move and where it has to be. You get a fixed price and a departure time back, usually within 15 minutes, day or night.
Answered by a person, 24/7. No commitment. One form, one reply.
Book hand-carry delivery from the UAE to anywhere in the world, and follow it in real time. Same-day departure available.
Book a shipment → Client loginWe pay the ticket and a fee per completed assignment. You choose when you are available.
Apply as an OBC → See the open position🗂️ Documents, Visas & Business Originals, Switzerland is one chapter of a larger network. OnBoard Courier moves time-critical consignments with vetted on-board couriers departing 24/7 from all seven UAE airports to 584 destinations across 219 countries. Choose the service that fits, classic hand-carry, AOG for grounded aircraft, medical and pharma, next flight out or high-value goods, then check entry requirements and customs by country and how an assignment actually runs, minute by minute.
Prefer to compare first? Read when a seat beats a parcel network, browse the industries we move for or scan the airlines the couriers the desk places fly with. If you travel often yourself, flying as an OnBoard Courier pays per completed assignment. For anything urgent, the fastest route is the quote form above, answered by a person, day or night.
Continue the route
Hand-picked next stops, every card is a live page, not a promise.
Same courier, same cabin, different amount of ground work. The desk recommends one of these in the quote and prices the other two if you ask.
Best when both ends have people who can reach an airport.
Price this for your consignmentThe full chain, one price, one person answerable for it.
Price this for your consignmentFor deadlines that a scheduled seat cannot reach.
Price this for your consignmentEvery option is quoted as one all-in figure with a named flight. Nothing on this page is a rate card.
A firm quote within 15 minutes, 24/7. One courier, one price, a signature at the door.