About us
A courier service built by people who got tired of losing sight of cargo
CargoVault Courier Service started in a small London office with three vans and one conviction: shippers do not need another carrier, they need to stop guessing. Twelve years later we operate sea, air and road lanes across 180+ destination cities, hold bonded warehouse space on two continents, and still run the same custody model — seal it, scan it, show it.
What makes us different is not the trucks; it is what happens around them. In-house customs brokers file paperwork before the goods arrive. Insurance is written into the booking instead of sold as an afterthought. And our tracking dashboard renders the real leg of your journey — a vessel at sea, an aircraft in the air, a truck on the road — so the status you read matches the world outside.
Custody before speed
A fast shipment nobody can account for is a liability. Every CargoVault handover is sealed, scanned and signed, so the chain of custody is provable end to end.
Tell the truth about delays
When a vessel is late or customs raises a query, you hear it from us first, with the reason and the new date — not after you chase.
Price the whole journey
Our quotes include handling, documentation and insurance. No surprise demurrage, no invented surcharges when the container lands.
Answer the phone
A named operations contact, a 24/7 desk and a logged reference for every complaint. Support is a service, not a deflection.
How the machine works
Four networks, one accountable chain
Sea network
Weekly consolidated sailings and full-container charters on 40+ trade lanes. Containers are sealed at origin, weighed, x-rayed where required, and tracked at every port call.
Air network
Next-flight-out for urgent cargo and consolidated air freight for planned stock. Temperature-monitored handling for pharmaceuticals and screened cages for high-value electronics.
Road network
Dedicated haulage, groupage and final-mile courier runs with vetted drivers, geo-fenced routes and doorstep pickup by our own collection buses.
Control room
A staffed operations room watches every active consignment around the clock — flagging customs holds, weather diversions and missed connections before they become your problem.
Our track record
From three vans to three networks
- 2014Founded in London as a two-lane road courier for UK–EU retail freight.
- 2017Opened sea freight consolidation and a bonded warehouse at Felixstowe.
- 2020Added priority air cargo for pharmaceutical and electronics clients.
- 2023Launched the live CargoVault tracking dashboard for every consignment.
- 2026Serving 180+ destination cities across Europe, Africa and North America.
The people behind the reference
Desks, not departments
CargoVault is deliberately built out of small, named desks rather than large anonymous departments. When you call, the person who answers can see your file and is allowed to make a decision about it.
Booking desk
Takes your consignment from an idea to a confirmed collection: mode, cut-off, packing advice, declared value and an all-in price you can put in front of your finance team without caveats.
Operations room
Watches every live consignment around the clock, chases carriers before a milestone is missed and writes the reason into your timeline when something moves. Staffed on rotation, never left on voicemail.
Customs & compliance
In-house brokers who classify goods, pre-lodge entries and argue our clients' case with border agencies. Most of their value is invisible: the hold that never happened.
Warehouse & handling
Packs, palletises, seals and photographs. They are the reason a claim can be evidenced from images we already hold rather than reconstructed from memory weeks after the event.
Claims & aftercare
Handles damage, shortage and delay claims from the file we already own, with a written outcome and a target date given at the point the claim is opened.
Client care
Answers the phone, the chat widget and the complaints form. Every contact is logged against a reference and a named owner, and nothing is closed without telling you it was closed.
How we behave when it goes wrong
Anyone can look good on an easy shipment
We call before you notice
A rolled sailing, a customs query, a missed connection — you hear it from us with the reason, the impact and the recovery plan attached. The worst thing a forwarder can do is let a client discover a problem from their own customer.
The evidence is already collected
Because every handover is photographed and scanned as it happens, a dispute starts from a complete record. Nobody is asked to remember what a pallet looked like three weeks ago on a different continent.
Complaints have references, not apologies
Every complaint gets a reference, an owner and a target response date. You can quote that reference to anyone here and get the same answer, because the file is shared, not personal.
We say no when it is not safe
We will decline an undeclared dangerous good, an unrealistic cut-off or a routing that risks your cargo, and we will explain why and offer the alternative. A promise we cannot keep is worse than a lost booking.
Standards & responsibility
The unglamorous work that keeps cargo legal and safe
Vetted carrier network
Every haulier, agent and handler is audited on documentation, insurance and safety record before a single consignment is offered to them.
Driver identity checks
Licence, right-to-work and identity verified, with every scan tied to the individual holding your goods.
Dangerous goods discipline
Correct declaration, packing group and documentation, or we do not carry it. No exceptions, however routine the item looks.
Data handling
Consignment records, contact details and proof-of-delivery images are stored securely and shared only with the parties to the shipment.
Insurance in writing
All-risk terms issued at booking rather than described verbally, so cover is never a matter of interpretation after a loss.
Sustainability in routing
Consolidation, sea-first planning where the calendar allows and full loads over part loads, because empty space is both wasteful and expensive.
Client voices
Chief executives who put their freight in the vault
Ten leaders from manufacturing, pharmaceutical, retail, food, construction and mining on shipping with CargoVault Courier Service. Swipe right to read on.
“We move forty containers a quarter out of Lagos and Felixstowe. CargoVault is the first carrier whose tracking my board actually trusts — every checkpoint is timestamped, and the sea leg is visible in real time instead of a weekly email. ”
“Temperature-critical air freight leaves no room for guessing. Their operations desk answers in minutes, customs paperwork is pre-cleared, and in eighteen months we have not lost a single pallet to a hold. ”
“Switching our road network to CargoVault cut our final-mile exceptions by more than half. Our customers can see the exact truck position, which took an enormous load off our support team. ”
“Heavy, high-value and awkward cargo — they built a bespoke plan, insured every leg and delivered ahead of schedule. The vault-grade custody chain is not marketing; you can audit every handover. ”
“Our assembly lines cannot wait for a container that nobody can find. CargoVault flags a delay before it becomes a stoppage, and their bonded warehouse lets us stage buffer stock two days from the plant. ”
“Perishables punish sloppy logistics. Reefer temperatures are logged on every leg, customs is cleared before the vessel berths, and our spoilage rate has dropped to almost nothing. ”
“We ship fragile, insured, one-of-a-kind pieces. Sealed handovers with photographs at each scan mean our insurers stopped asking questions — the evidence is already in the file. ”
“High-value electronics move fast or lose value. Next-flight-out air freight with a named operations contact has taken a week out of our replenishment cycle across three continents. ”
“Every quarter we audit carriers. CargoVault is the only one that hands over a complete custody trail without us having to ask twice, and their claims are settled in-house within days. ”
“Plant machinery, oversized steel, tight site windows. They planned the whole route, insured every leg and delivered ahead of programme. That is why we stopped shopping around on price. ”
Reach us
Talk to the operations desk
Head office
190–196 City Rd, London EC1V 2QH, United Kingdom
Operations desk
+1 828 849 7280
cargovaultcourierservice@gmail.com