Delivery · Edinburgh
Our partner couriers in Edinburgh load your goods at your warehouse, your central kitchen or your wholesaler and hand them over to your customers, in central Edinburgh as well as in Fife, East Lothian or the Scottish Borders.
Since 1 June 2024, the council has fined, at any hour, diesel vans older than Euro 6 and petrol vans older than Euro 4 driving in the Low Emission Zone that covers the centre. We send a compliant vehicle there, at no charge to you. From the moment you book, we also fit each handover into the window the address allows, bus lanes and closed streets included; if we cannot keep to it, we tell you there and then.
Edinburgh’s rules
The Low Emission Zone is enforced 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, from Tollcross to Palmerston Place, along Queen Street to Picardy Place, then around Abbeyhill, Holyrood Road, the Pleasance and the Meadows. A diesel van must be Euro 6 and a petrol van Euro 4, and there is no entry charge a non-compliant vehicle can buy. The vehicle we assign to an address in the centre meets those standards, and you pay nothing extra.
Peak-time bus lanes generally operate from 7.30am to 9.30am and from 4pm to 6.30pm, Monday to Friday; those on Johnston Terrace, Bread Street or at Ocean Terminal are restricted 24 hours a day, and a trial bus route between Milton Road East and London Road is restricted from 7am to 7pm every day. Driving in one costs £100. Our planning and routing algorithms allow for them in the handover time they work out.
On a yellow line with no loading ban, a vehicle may stay for up to 30 minutes as long as it is loading or unloading; double kerb marks ban loading at any time. Beyond that, the council requires a paid dispensation: tell us when you book how long each of your handovers takes, and we tell you there and then whether any of them needs one.
In summer, High Street, Parliament Square, Cockburn Street and St Giles’ Street are closed to vehicles during the day, and loading and deliveries there take place while the streets are open, generally overnight and early in the morning. The dates and hours change every year, so for a customer on those streets we check that year’s closures and fit the delivery into the hours they allow.
Edinburgh’s city centre, residential and shopping streets are limited to 20 mph, day and night; only a network of main roads stays at 30 or 40 mph. The time we give you for each handover is worked out at those speeds.
Local rules checked in October 2026.
Edinburgh and South East Scotland
In central Edinburgh, cameras enforce the Low Emission Zone at all hours, peak-time bus lanes generally operate from 7.30am to 9.30am and from 4pm to 6.30pm, and we deliver to the Old Town during the hours its streets are open to deliveries. Around it, the city region stretches across six council areas, from Fife to the Scottish Borders. Here, a successful delivery is decided before it leaves: which vehicle, by which route, at what time.
Your goods leave from where you load them and go straight to your recipients, with no depot or sorting centre in between. It might be a West Lothian warehouse restocking shops in the centre, a wholesaler supplying restaurants in the Old Town, or a Midlothian workshop sending a part to a customer in Fife.
Most of our jobs have several addresses. We chain them into a round whose order follows the hours of each street and the time each customer takes deliveries. That is how our same-day delivery works, from a van to a 20 m³ truck.
Most of our work is refrigerated transport, chilled or frozen. Central kitchens and wholesalers prepare their orders at night; we collect them then, or before dawn, and our night deliveries hand your chilled and frozen products to restaurants, shops and supermarkets before they open. When nobody is there yet to receive them, the courier can deliver with the codes or keys you entrust to us.
A street closed for roadworks, a recipient who cannot be reached, a loading bay that is taken: our team decides what happens next with the courier, lets your customer know, then keeps you informed. That follow-up often takes longer than the delivery itself, and your teams no longer have to do it. Our team follows your deliveries every day from 6am to 10pm.
A site elsewhere in the UK can have its Edinburgh customers delivered, and a warehouse in the city region can supply customers across the country: we run both directions. Shippr has been delivering in the UK since 2023.
What we do in Edinburgh
Same-day delivery has its page because, in the centre, we choose the vehicle by the Low Emission Zone and the handover time by the bus lanes; refrigerated transport, because our rounds of chilled and frozen products start at night. Our other services, from multi-drop rounds to store-to-store transfers, work in Edinburgh as they do in all our cities.
We collect and hand over your order within the day, in a vehicle compliant with the zone and on a route that allows for the bus lanes.
See the serviceWe load your chilled and frozen products at night or before dawn and deliver them to restaurants, shops and supermarkets before they open to the public.
See the serviceFrequently asked questions
Yes. We cover the six council areas of the city region: Edinburgh, East Lothian, Fife, Midlothian, Scottish Borders and West Lothian. Beyond them, we deliver everywhere in the United Kingdom.
No. We send a vehicle that meets the zone’s standards, at no charge to you. In any case, there is no entry charge to buy: the council fines a non-compliant vehicle driving in the zone, and the penalty cannot be paid in advance.
Yes. The streets that form its boundary, such as Queen Street or the Pleasance, are not part of the zone: any vehicle may use them. Only driving inside it is enforced, which lets us go around the centre when there is no handover there.
Yes, during the hours the street is open to deliveries. Generally overnight and early in the morning, and to the Lawnmarket from the eastern end of Johnston Terrace. Those hours change every year: we check the current summer’s, fit your customer’s handover into that window and confirm it when you book.
Up to 30 minutes on a yellow line with no loading ban, provided they are loading or unloading the whole time. They cannot come back to the same spot until 30 minutes have passed, and they never stop where double kerb marks ban loading.
Join Shippr’s partner couriers and choose jobs starting from or going to Edinburgh and the five other council areas of the city region.
Tell us your collection points, your customers’ addresses, which of them are in the centre or the Old Town, and the time each one takes deliveries. We will come back with the proposed vehicle, the order of the stops and a time for each handover.