Does anyone know why fairphone deliver spare batteries by expensive courier when the same part could be sent via the much cheaper and efficient regular postal system? Surely a large diesel van delivering a tiny envelope to my door is unnecessary.
Whilst this a community forum, and you would need to ask support directly for an official answer, here’s what came up during other discussions:
The rules on Lithium batteries as dangerous goods vary by postal carrier by country. Using a courier means the package stays with one carrier for which the policy on Lithium batteries are clear. Also, a courier is often more cost-efficient if you’re sending large(ish) volumes of mail that needs to be tracked. As for the large diesel van argument: the distribution method of couriers is not necessarily a lot more inefficient than regular mail (they do want to make a profit after all). For regular mail in most countries the mail is bulk-delivered by a van to within a couple of kilometres of it’s final destination, after which it is sometimes delivered on foot/hand cart (urban areas) or a smaller van (rural areas).
Regarding the costs - part of the costs are the handling/warehousing/distribution costs for Fairphone. Usually costs-related questions pop up when someone wants to order spares in Switzerland, for which shipping is significantly more expensive than other countries. If this is the case for you, use the search function to find more info already on the forum.
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