MoU—Memorandum of understanding

MoU stands for Memorandum of Understanding. This is an agreement between parcel carriers (such as DPD) and HMRC, where it is agreed that parcel carriers can be responsible for their own customs checks for certain consignments. An MoU is essentially a bundle of smaller consignments, to allow for quicker processing for parcel carriers.

In order to be included in a MoU, the consignments must meet the following requirements:

• Under £900 in value (£876 in Northern Ireland)
• Under 1000 kg in weight
• When using CDS: no commodity code is required (since 23 January 2024)
• When using CHIEF: specific commodity codes (as agreed with HMRC) are used
• Not dutiable or restricted

If the consignment meets all these criteria, this can be flagged as MoU, and bundled together into a consignment manifest. This will create one declaration for potentially hundreds of smaller consignments, allowing for quicker customs processing for parcel carriers.

The singular declaration will not show the full details of everything included within, however it will show 1 line item, saying BULK.