Bubble wrap and strong tube. The Post Office won’t take anything over 1.5m but my local one organises Parcel Force I think. They charge around £10 from memory but it’s weight dependant.

If your post office haven’t yet realised that they are not allowed to take anything over 1.5m in length, then that will be the cheapest way, but not necesarily the best (safest). We had an occasion where the post office gladly took the parcel sent it and broke it. When we went through the rigmarole of claiming with them, they wouldn’t pay out because ‘they shouldn’t have taken it in the first place because it was too long!’ Fantastic. Your best option is a parcel carrier, which costs a few quid more but gives a bit more peace of mind.
Problem being that most parcel carriers require you to have an account with them, which is why we operate a collection service from our customers. Either way you shouldn’t be paying more than £15. Make sure it is insured because some parcel carriers will only cover for £10 PER KILO. Which means that if your light but expensive section gets broken you will probably receive £20 for something that may be worth 10 times that amount or more.

Try parcelmonkey, they use the main couriers, organise the whole thing for you as they have accounts with them, then charge you a decent amount.

Not fishing, but sent a 3kg parcel containing snowboard bindings through them. Privately, 30 quid plus with a courier, parcelforce 24 £13, parcelmonkey with citylink £8.50 and not one problem.

try interparcel

I recently (Monday) had delivered some pole sections. parcel size 2m long x .2m x .2m, weight 5kg and insured for £380. courier cost just under £30.

Jon

Mike, I would avoid City Link.
couple of years ago i sent a section that was broken in half to Scotty at Esselle. It arrived in 3 peices to Scott!
The insurance claim is all done on-line, you can never talk to anyone, which was a massive point of annoyance.
13 months later they made a 4th offer which i accepted which was still £96 below waht they should be offering in my opinion.
Must say though that Esselle still mended the section and i still use it when it’s a windy day.
I used TNT last time with no problem and wrapped the section in 1 layer of bubble wrap, then into a rod tube and then into a heavy duty cardboard tube. It added to the weight, but it got there ok.

Mike

One of the biggest mistakes people make is wrapping the sections in to much bubble wrap. Yes the section needs protection but it should be free to move around in the delivery tube.

I’ve had several sections delivered to me by PO, TNT, City Link; lately where there has been no real damage to the tube but the section has been damaged. Sections are brittle if pressurised in the wrong way they break.

Protect the section top; middle and bottom believe me it has a better chance to arrive safely. Use a good tube, not a rod tube (to flexible).

Price, I send sections to Scott for our club and usual price is £18 which covers to £750 insurance.

Shop round for price; if you take (as I do) to them it’s usually cheaper.