Few people bother to think about baggage. Until, that is, they become that annoying person at the front of the airport check-in queue, searching for a credit card to pay the extortionate bill for bringing home an extra suitcase on the same plane.

The alternative - shipping separately - is often disregarded, or looked upon as the sort of thing that people did in the days when Britain had an empire. Shipping luggage seems to conjure up images of capacious Victorian trunks or battered tea chests creaking home from the Far East in the hold of a mail steamer. But it is actually worth investigating. With just a little planning, you can save a fair sum of money for relatively little delay by sending your surplus bags as freight.

The alternative is to pay the full whack for excess baggage while making a handsome contribution to airline profits. This is such a good earner that it is given a separate entry in the multi-million dollar revenue graph of one Middle Eastern carrier's annual report.

Costly limits

The reason excess baggage charges are so high is the strict limit on how much weight an airliner can carry. There is a premium on the limited reserve space. So if you significantly exceed your individual quota as a passenger and want to take that extra bag on the same flight, you must pay dearly for the privilege. Of course, it then comes up on the luggage carousel with everything else at the end of your journey, which is convenient. But it is also very much more expensive than sending it unaccompanied by air, sea, road or rail. Advance planning can ensure that your baggage will be waiting for you on arrival.

For those caught unawares, one UK operator, the London Baggage Company (Gatwick London Air Terminal, Victoria Place, London SW1W 9SJ, tel 020 7828 2400) is conveniently located by Victoria Station, the London check-in terminal for several airlines flying out of Gatwick.

Your local Yellow Pages will give details of all the various specialist companies under 'Freight Forwarding and Shipping and Forwarding Agents', while the British International Freight Association (Redfern House, Browells Lane, Feltham, Middlesex TW13 7EP, tel 020 8844 2266) publishes the Year Book, listing all BIFA members with their freight specialities.

Of course freight services are not only useful for those who have too much travel baggage. If you are going to work abroad, take an extended holiday, or embark on a specialist expedition or even a long business trip, you may well have equipment or samples to take. And if you have just finished or are about to start a course of academic or vocational study, there could be a hefty pile of books for which your normal baggage allowance is totally inadequate.

The more you send...

Although one, two, three or even half a dozen cases may seem a lot to you, for a specialist freight forwarder, airline or shipping company it is peanuts. Generally in the cargo business, the more you send (by weight above a basic minimum), the cheaper the price. Naturally, you can send less than the minimum weight, but you still have to pay that standard bottom rate as most freight companies are in business to cater for the needs of industry, not individuals.

When industry does not come up with the traffic, however, they can be glad to get whatever private business is around. The depressed oil market in 1986, for example, led to an economic slowdown in the Gulf and a consequent slump in export cargo to the region, but airline freight bookings out of Bahrain, Abu Dhabi and Dubai were bolstered by expatriate workers sending home their goods and chattels after their contracts expired and were not renewed.

Specialist outfits do nevertheless exist to cater for private individuals, using their bulk buying power to obtain cheap rates which are then passed on to their customers. They can also help with technical problems, such as how to pack, what you cannot send, insurance and so on.

Sending by sea

Sea freight is little used these days except for shipments between Europe and Australia or New Zealand, where the great distances involved make it a lot cheaper than air. The time difference between air and sea freight is from seven weeks by sea as opposed to seven to ten days by air. Air takes longer than one might expect because of red tape, the time needed for goods to clear customs and the wait until the freight company has a bulk shipment going out.

The London Baggage Company reports that nearly all its sea freight bookings are for Australasia, with most of the remainder bound for New York or California. On these routes, there is enough business for freighting firms to arrange regular shipments of personal cargo, but when it comes to developing countries the traffic is more limited so the price is higher. In such cases it is often just as cheap - and more secure - to use the air. Sea freight is charged by volume rather than weight, and is therefore particularly suitable for books or heavy household items. The goods can be held in the UK and then shipped out to coincide with your expected date of arrival in, say, Melbourne or Auckland.

If you want to send stuff straight away, you should remember it will wait an average of seven days before actually leaving: freight forwarders book a whole container and send it only when there is enough cargo to fill it. Shipping on some routes is regarded as high risk, so insurance premiums increase - thus further reducing any price differential with air freight.

Road and rail

Within Europe, rail is a useful option, especially for Italy. While there is only limited and relatively expensive air freight capacity from London to Milan and Rome, a rail shipment to Naples from the UK may take just six to eight days. Rail has the added advantage that most stations are in city centres, so you can avoid the tiresome trek out to an airport cargo centre to collect your bags. Of course, it may well be cheaper to travel by train yourself and pay porters at each end to help you carry the cases, than to spend hundreds of pounds having items sent separately while you fly. There is normally no official limit on what baggage you are allowed to take free with you on a train.

Trucking is also an option for continental travellers. There is a huge range of haulage services and some carriers do take baggage. But prices are often comparable to air freight and journey times are probably a day or two slower. European air freight is a highly competitive business and can actually be cheaper than trucking if you measure size and weight carefully. There are direct routes to most destinations and delivery can normally be guaranteed the next day.

However, the short distances involved mean that rail and road operators can often compete on timing: although most flights last only a couple of hours (or less) many more hours can be used up waiting for a consolidation - bulk air shipment - or for customs clearance on arrival.

Express services, operated by the airlines themselves or specialist companies, are growing rapidly, but are expensive and only worthwhile for items of high monetary or commercial value, such as scientific equipment, computer disks, spare parts or industrial samples. Normally these will offer a guarantee of transit time.

Whatever your method of shipment, there are some practical problems to be wary of. For example, Spanish and Portuguese customs can be finicky if items are sent by truck, and you may find yourself paying duty on some goods on which you were originally told there would be no charge.

Into remoter regions

More surprising is the ease with which you can send stuff to quite remote, long-haul destinations. The key question is: how far is your final delivery point from the nearest international airport? Normally you, or someone representing you, will need to collect the bags at the place where they clear customs, and it is often impossible to arrange local onward shipment, at least under the umbrella of the baggage service in your home country. Delivery can sometimes be arranged within the city catchment area of the airport, but this rarely extends for more than 20 or 30 kilometres. If you are based in Europe, it is also often difficult to get detailed information about onward transport services in the developing world — whether by air, train, truck or even mule.

One option is to go to a specialist freight forwarder who has detailed knowledge of a particular region of the world and is competent to arrange for local distribution. However, as a personal customer providing a relatively small amount of business, you may not be able to obtain an attractive price, and it could prove cheaper in the end to collect the bags from the airport yourself. There do not have to be direct flights from London, as long as your cargo can be routed to arrive in a country at the right city and pass customs there.

You can take the bags into a country yourself across the land border but you may face more complications taking five suitcases alone through a small rural frontier post than if they arrive at the main airport under the aegis of an established freight company. Customs regulations are complex, and it is vital to that the status of research equipment or commercial samples is checked with customs on arrival by the freight group's local agent.

There is no firm rule as to which places are most difficult to reach, but perhaps the complications are greatest when you want to ship to a remote corner of a large country in the developing world. In these circumstances, you may well find the only reliable option is to collect the bags from the capital city yourself. Shipping to small island destinations, such as Fiji or the Maldives, can be fairly routine, but there are also good services to some places with particularly tough reputations.

Pricing

Prices in general include two elements: a standard service charge which covers documentation, handling and administration by the shipping agent, and a freight charge per kilo which varies according to the airline, destination and particular bulk shipment deal the agent has been able to negotiate. Storage can be arranged, as can collection within the company's catchment area - sometimes free of charge. Outside this radius you will probably have to use a domestic rail or road parcel service rather than asking the agent to arrange a special collection, although a few larger companies do have regional offices.

Dos and don'ts

There are a number of important practical tips to bear in mind. A highly individual distinguishing mark on a case or carton will make it easier for you to pick out when you go to collect it from a busy warehouse or office. It is also important to mark it with your address and telephone number in the destination country, so that the receiving agent can let you know when it has arrived.

If you must send really fragile items, pack them in the middle of the case and tell the freighting office. Many have full packaging facilities and will certainly let you know if they think a bag should be more securely wrapped: for some destinations they cover boxes with adhesive banding tape so that anyone can see if it has been tampered with. Do not overload a case and do watch out for flimsy wheels or handles that can easily be broken off. The agent's packers can provide proper crates if necessary. Proper packing is vital - especially if you plan to ship the luggage by road. In many countries the wet season turns cart tracks into swamps.

Expeditions or development aid teams will often have to ship into remote areas with poor roads.

If you are moving abroad, do try and differentiate between household items and personal effects such as clothing or toiletries. The latter are covered by a quite strict legal definition for official purposes. You may find it best to send heavy household items separately by sea.

If you have something awkwardly shaped to send, such as a bicycle, remember that the agent will almost certainly be more experienced in packing such items safely than you are. They will also know what the airline rules are: some carriers will not accept goods unless they are 'properly' packed, which sometimes means banding with sticky tape.

Insurance is essential. You may find you are covered by your own travel or company policy, but agents can also provide cover specially designed for unaccompanied personal freight. Without insurance you are protected only against provable failure on the part of the freighting company with which you booked the shipment, and only in accordance with the limits of their terms and conditions.

As with normal airline baggage, there are certain items you cannot put in the hold of a plane. This extraordinarily eclectic list features a wide range of items including: matches, camping gas cylinders, magnetised material, most aerosols, poisonous weed killer, car batteries, flammable liquids, glue or paint stripper.

Shipments by sea or land are also governed by strict restrictions on dangerous goods, which must be packed specially.