How is surface mail shipped?

[buggritt]

Does it really go by sea to destinations like Australia?

[TrueBlueTerrier]

Does it really go by sea to destinations like Australia?

Yes - if it does not go by Air then the only choice for Surface is by sea - Unless they have started building bridges across the South China, Arafura, or Timor Seas, a Car or Van will get pretty wet.

[TrueBlueTerrier]

Does it really go by sea to destinations like Australia?

Yes - if it does not go by Air then the only choice for Surface is by sea - Unless they have started building bridges across the South China, Arafura, or Timor Seas, a Car or Van will get pretty wet.

In all seriousness there are things that cannot be carried as Air Freight because of International law, so they have to travel by sea to get to their destination.

[buggritt]

Does it really go by sea to destinations like Australia?

Yes - if it does not go by Air then the only choice for Surface is by sea - Unless they have started building bridges across the South China, Arafura, or Timor Seas, a Car or Van will get pretty wet.

In all seriousness there are things that cannot be carried as Air Freight because of International law, so they have to travel by sea to get to their destination.

I put my question badly. Does surface mail always go by land and sea? Or can it, at quiet times, be carried like airmail?

[TrueBlueTerrier]

Does it really go by sea to destinations like Australia?

Yes - if it does not go by Air then the only choice for Surface is by sea - Unless they have started building bridges across the South China, Arafura, or Timor Seas, a Car or Van will get pretty wet.

In all seriousness there are things that cannot be carried as Air Freight because of International law, so they have to travel by sea to get to their destination.

I put my question badly. Does surface mail always go by land and sea? Or can it, at quiet times, be carried like airmail?

On rare occasions such as there is not enough to bother sending by sea mail and there is space on air freight - it may get sent by air. But the chances are infinitesimal especially to places like Australia where I think the volume of mail from UK would be high compared to say Venezuela.

I used to be in the RAF and when overseas sometimes they did take mail destined for wherever the aircraft was going, but because of restrictions on what can be sent by air, you have to be very careful at what you load. For a commercial organisation the costs of changing from Sea to Air Carriage would be prohibitive and as suggested would be rare and only be done if the costs (to them) were less than sending it by the originators choice.

After all that waffle the simple answer would be that in 99.999% of cases Surface/Sea Mail will go by that method.