Which warehousing and transport support rules apply to your business

"Warehousing and support activities for transportation" spans storing goods and helping goods move through the transport network. A third-party logistics warehouse, a cold store, a freight forwarder, a customs agent, a stevedore handling cargo at a port, and a ground-handling firm at an airport are different businesses with different regulators — but they share a common set of workplace and storage duties.

Start with the duties every warehousing and transport-support business shares, then follow the guide for your kind of operation.

Every warehousing and transport-support business

Whatever you store or handle, start with the universal workplace and storage duties — health and safety, fire, lifting and work equipment, manual handling, dangerous and refrigerated storage, insurance, equality and data protection.

• Set up and run a safe warehousing and storage operation — the shared spine for every operator

Work out which rules apply

Find the description that best fits your business. If more than one applies, follow every guide that is relevant.

• You forward freight or act as a customs agent — you may act as a customs representative, hold customs warehousing authorisation, and appoint a dangerous goods safety adviser. See Freight forwarding and customs: representation, warehousing and dangerous goods.
• You handle cargo or run support services at a port, airport or rail terminal — harbour authority duties, port and aviation security, and rail safety apply by mode. See Support activities for transport: ports, airports and rail.
• You move goods by road as part of your service — if you operate HGVs over 3.5 tonnes, or vans over 2.5 tonnes for hire or reward on international journeys, you need a goods vehicle operator's licence. Start with Get an operator's licence for goods vehicles.
• You operate ships, or your cargo handling is vessel-side — see Which water transport rules apply to your business for the registration, certification and crewing regimes.

Confirm you have covered everything

Whatever you operate, finish with the warehousing and transport support compliance checklist to confirm your obligations are in place before you begin or continue trading.