- Solvent-based paint and paint aerosols are dangerous goods in transport law. Royal Mail and Parcelforce refuse them from everyone, private senders and business accounts alike.
- They are not refused everywhere. UPS, APC Overnight, DX and DPD carry paint and aerosols through their ordinary networks for businesses on a contract, under the road rules for limited quantities.
- Those services go by road, to the mainland, on a business account. There is no air, no ferry, and no walking in with a tin: not at a Post Office, a parcel shop or a depot.
- Carriage is close to a fixed cost per parcel, so compare delivered prices and order the whole job at once.
- Without a contract of your own you can't send a leftover tin to a buyer or a friend.
Why paint counts as dangerous goods
Carriers classify paint by its hazard in transit, and the first test is the flash point: the temperature at which the vapour will ignite.
Royal Mail prohibits any liquid with a flash point below 60.5°C. Its list names paint thinners and removers, solvents, varnishes and enamels, and then lists "solvent-based paints" and enamels directly, to UK and international addresses alike. That covers nearly every engine enamel and everything sold to thin it. For scale, Hycote's data sheet gives its engine enamel aerosol a flash point below minus 20°C.
There is a shortcut that saves reading the list. Royal Mail says products bearing consumer warning symbols are dangerous goods and are prohibited unless specifically permitted. If the tin carries the flame pictogram, the postal network won't take it.
Two words on these lists do different jobs. Prohibited means never. Restricted means allowed if you meet the stated conditions on packaging, volume, quantity and labelling.
Water-based paint falls into the second group. Personal customers may send 150 ml per item. Business customers may send 500 ml per item within the UK and 150 ml abroad or to the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man, new and sealed.
Aerosols
Royal Mail sorts aerosols by what they are for.
Toiletry and medicinal aerosols are restricted. They can travel within the UK, capped, at no more than 500 ml each and two to a parcel, cushioned in strong packaging, with an ID8000 label and a return address showing. Personal customers must hand them over a Post Office counter. None of it goes abroad.
Aerosols for any other purpose are prohibited, and the definition names spray paints, lacquers and solvents. That applies to UK and international post, and the business list says exactly what the personal one does.
That is why a can of engine enamel never arrives by post. Size and weight have nothing to do with it. The class is refused, so no box makes it acceptable and no premium service buys a way round it. A business account with Royal Mail changes nothing either: the business list repeats the prohibition word for word, and Parcelforce now sends its account customers to the same list.
What each carrier tells the public
| Carrier | Solvent paint in a tin | Paint aerosols | Other liquids |
|---|---|---|---|
| Royal Mail and Parcelforce | Prohibited | Prohibited | Water-based paint restricted: 150 ml personal, 500 ml business within the UK |
| DPD | Refused as flammable goods | Refused as flammable goods | Nothing over 50 ml, and no liability below that |
| Evri | Prohibited by name: paints, enamels, varnishes | Prohibited as pressurised containers | Under 1,000 ml within the UK, with no compensation. None abroad |
The three disagree, and a single tin shows how. Take 400 ml of water-based engine paint. Royal Mail carries it on a business account and refuses it from a personal customer, because the limits are 500 ml and 150 ml. Evri refuses it as paint at any volume. DPD's list stops at 50 ml of any liquid.
What the same carriers do for a business on contract
The public lists are not the whole story. Road transport law has a lighter regime for dangerous goods packed in small retail quantities, called limited quantities, and several parcel networks carry paint and aerosols under it. None of them takes a parcel handed in by a member of the public. Each needs a contract, an approved product list and packaging the carrier has signed off.
| Carrier | Paint and aerosols on account | Where it goes | What it takes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Royal Mail and Parcelforce | Still prohibited. The business list is the personal list | Nowhere | No account unlocks it |
| UPS | Limited quantity and fully regulated goods on UPS Standard | By road, to approved countries and, in places, approved postcodes | A hazardous materials contract on a scheduled collection account, a shipping paper on every parcel and a handling charge. Not accepted at UPS Customer Centres, and no transit-time guarantee |
| APC Overnight | Its Limited Quantities service. All paint has to travel on it, in tins up to 5 litres | By road, UK mainland only. Nothing that needs a ferry or a plane | An account at an APC depot, and packaging checked and drop-tested by APC's safety team before the first parcel |
| DX | Limited quantity goods by parcel and by pallet. Paints, coatings and aerosols are named | Mainland UK | An account. DX reviews the products first |
| DPD | Its LQ service, to businesses and to homes. Aerosols are named | Not to Northern Ireland, the Highlands, the Scottish islands, the Isle of Man, the Channel Islands, the Isle of Wight or Scilly | A contract covering dangerous goods, an HS17 form and a written letter of variation listing each product |
| Evri | Only where Evri has specifically agreed to carry them | As agreed | A £100 surcharge on any parcel found to hold dangerous goods it has not agreed to |
So a tin of paint does go through a parcel network. It goes on the account of a business that has done the paperwork, in a box the carrier has approved, by road, and not to the islands.
How the limited quantity rules work
The rules sit in the European agreement on carrying dangerous goods by road, known as ADR, and every carrier above refers to them. Paint is UN 1263 and may travel as a limited quantity in inner packs of up to 5 litres. Aerosols are UN 1950 and the limit is 1 litre a can. Every tin and can sold for an engine is inside those figures, which is why the trade can use these services at all.
The parcel has to weigh under 30 kg, carry the limited quantity diamond on two opposite sides and be packed to the carrier's standard, which is stricter than the law. APC's guidance for paint asks for each tin to be bagged in a heavy gusseted liner, its lid clipped, and set in a triple-walled box with absorbent filler between the tins; a 2.5 litre tin or larger goes in a box of its own. The staff who pack, collect and load it must be trained, and the carrier can refuse any parcel that fails inspection. If the packaging falls short, the parcel is treated as fully regulated dangerous goods and the exemption is gone.
That is the cost the trade pays and passes on. Businesses that sell paint send it on these contract services, with a surcharge on the parcel, and their delivery terms show the shape of it. Rimmer Bros marks its engine and exhaust paint, the 400 ml aerosol and the 500 ml tin alike, as delivered by UPS to mainland UK addresses only. It won't send them by air or by Royal Mail, won't deliver to the islands or export them, and sets a minimum carriage charge. It takes no returns on aerosols. Frost publishes the list of countries it can send aerosols, paints and chemicals to, and the Channel Islands are not on it.
What it means when you buy
Restricted carriage narrows the choices to a few carriers, a road service and a mainland address, and it puts a floor under the delivery charge whatever the order is worth. One small tin and a full box cost much the same to move, because the hazard class sets the cost and the weight barely matters.
So work from the delivered price. A can that looks cheap with carriage added at checkout can cost more than a dearer can with delivery included. Some large sellers build the carriage into the price and show delivery as free. The cost is still there, which is why the delivered price is the only fair comparison. The shop shows current prices, and the UK buying guide explains how to compare cans of different sizes.
Order once. Primer, colour, thinners and a spare can in one parcel pay the carriage floor a single time.
If you live beyond the mainland, check before you order. The limited quantity services stop at the ferry, DPD's excluded list runs from Northern Ireland to the Isle of Wight, and many sellers won't ship paint beyond the mainland at any price. A mainland address you can collect from is the usual workaround.
Returns are harder than for ordinary goods. Halfords classes anything flammable, pressurised or harmful as a hazardous item and wants the original packaging back with a return, because that packaging carries the required labels. Rimmer won't take aerosols back at all. Check the colour and the rating before you buy, because sending it back may not be possible.
If you want to send paint yourself
You can't post it, and the services that carry it are not open to you. UPS takes nothing hazardous at its Customer Centres, APC and DX sell to account holders, and DPD wants a contract and a letter listing the products before the first parcel. That rules out selling a leftover tin on an auction site with postage, sending a can to a friend, and posting a sample to be matched. Royal Mail's rules apply to private senders as much as to businesses, and the sender is responsible for what is in the parcel.
The honest options are collection in person, or a dangerous goods forwarder that sells single consignments, which costs more than most leftover tins are worth. To get a colour matched, send a painted part or a sprayed test card. Dry paint is not dangerous goods.
Sources
- Royal Mail and Parcelforce prohibited and restricted items, personal customers: flash point rule, solvent paints, aerosols, warning symbols
- Royal Mail and Parcelforce prohibited and restricted items, business customers: the same prohibitions on account, business volume limits for water-based paint, permitted services
- Parcelforce Worldwide help and advice: Parcelforce's account prohibitions page now points to the Royal Mail business list
- DPD prohibited goods: flammable goods refused, 50 ml liquid limit
- DPD specific terms for limited quantities of dangerous goods, 3 November 2025: the LQ service, contract, HS17 form and letter of variation, aerosol valve rules, excluded UK postcodes
- Evri: what you can and cannot send: paints, enamels and pressurised containers prohibited
- Evri corporate terms, Evriwhere: dangerous goods only where specifically agreed, £100 surcharge per parcel
- UPS United Kingdom, hazardous materials service definition: limited quantity and fully regulated goods on UPS Standard, contract service, handling charge, not at Customer Centres
- APC guidance on transporting dangerous goods in limited quantities, 2025 version 6: packing of paint, 5 litre tins, 30 kg packages, road and UK mainland only
- APC products: the Limited Quantity delivery service
- DX expands its dangerous goods capability across the mainland UK, 12 August 2026: limited quantity rules, paints and aerosols, parcel and pallet
- ADR Table A, UN 1263 paint and UN 1950 aerosols: the 5 litre and 1 litre limited quantity figures
- Hycote Engine Enamels technical data sheet: flash point below minus 20°C
- Rimmer Bros MG Engine Maroon aerosol: UPS only, mainland only, no air, no returns on aerosols
- Rimmer Bros MG Engine Maroon brush-on: the same restriction on the tin
- Frost terms and conditions: countries Frost can send hazardous goods to
- Halfords delivery options: hazardous item definition and returns