What do you think?-I've just been quoted just over £3200 to ship a sole use 20' FCL , door(S. Wales) to storage in Sydney. This is for self loading the container with our boxes and furniture.
Whilst the FCL costs from door to Sydney seems OK at around £1700 - the cost of local wharfage unloading for inspection ( for AQIS and Customs)at the quayside,clearance and costs of re delivery to a storage depot within 10 miles comes in at $3195 (£1330) + GST, which seems high to me, or is it me? (I was expecting to pay around £500) . This is excluding any AQIS/Customs charges that may/may not be levied - and the cost of us providing packing boxes/materials, which'll bring the total to nearer £3500 :scared:
...my point being , based on this quote , there's not to be gained by self packing , I've read that the normal savings to be made are in the region of £1500, or am I out of touch?
S

Hi,
Seems expensive to do it yourself, we are shipping South Wales to Adelaide, using Whites £3500 thats them doing everything.
I also think it will be harder to obtain insurance being self packed, rather than "professionally" packed??

Good luck

Guzzler

We've had one quote (so far) Northampton - Adelaide - sole use of 20ft container - door to door service - them doing all of the work £3700. Doesn't included insurance/import duties & taxes/customs/quarantine etc etc. DAP Internation. Got PSS and White and Co coming on Friday to quote.

A couple of quotes I got had prices for self packing and professional packing. Averaged out that I would save about £300 if I packed myself

White & co,,, packers did a great job BUT there it ends I,m afraid.
7 weeks on and my stuff is still in the UK, This after a really good impression and recomendations from others, I have been given dates of sailing which have come and gone and my container has yet to be loaded, outcome is I have spent $14000 buying new beds, lounge suite fridges etc,
latest word from them just this morning, Your Container is being loaded this week some time!! no shipping details available so I,m not holding my breath, shower of shite.

At a £300 saving, I'd DEF go for a 'full service', you just need to be good at making tea as that's about all you'll do on the day!

John Mason, 20ft container, Herts - Gold Coast, door - door, full packing and unpacking, and they're coming back in a few days to collect the last of the boxes and paper - £3,750 all in except AQIS fee.

Took less than 8 weeks inc customs going through half the boxes!

Thanks for replies folks, certainly gonna have to have a rethink and get some quotes for the "full service" if it's as close as this moneywise. Anybody want to buy some boxes? (perhaps we'll get a bit off for supplying our own.)
Bloody hell ..... Paul&Nic, your experience is a nightmare! :scared: No comfort to you , I know but I wonder if it's an isolated case?
Whites,are well recommended as you say,and are one of the companies we're going to get a quote from, must remember to bring up the "not shipped" scenario, for their reaction.I'm surprised there's no recourse you can take to a third party/association, for compensation( or is something in the small print?) although you're disadvantaged being sofar away. Guzzler -good point re the insurance in that after paying nearly the same amount we'd end up with only total loss cover and not damages/breakages.
S

Sorry, I maybe didn't explain very well.

it was under 8 weeks from UK to Oz! .... which is a decent timeline. It woulda been quicker without customs ripping half the boxes open too!

These were roughly our quotes for sole use of 20ft container - Berkshire to Perth
Allied Pickfords £5700
Kent using Harrow Green £4750
Kent using GB Liners £4670

The prices seem to have risen a lot in the past few months. I think the shippers are making hay while the sun shines.

sorry mate my mistake-I meant the reply for Paulf re his experience with Whites
S

Which branch of Whites did you go through??

try excess bagage at
http://www.excess-baggage.com/?OVRAW...OVMTC=standard

copy of my quote below

Dear Steve,

Thank you for your removals request for your effects from manchester to Brisbane.

Please find below a cost for the list supplied. This cost is based on Professionally Packed, door to door service including customs clearance, port charges, delivery, unpack and removal of debris & packing material.

Sea Freight

265 cubic feet of Professionally Packed effects in a Shared Container service = £1450.00

We also offer a free estimation service please call on 0208 324 2057 should you require this service.

The final invoice is based on the exact volume collected on the day.

Standard liability is available at 3% of the destination replacement value of the effects based on goods being professionally packed.

Please contact me should you require any further information.

Best regards,

Janine Hayes
International Removals Co-ordinator
Excess International Movers/ 1st Contact www.overseasremovals.com Direct Line: 0208 324 2057
Fax: 0208 324 2048

Please be aware that there will be a surcharge of 1.5% of the total invoice for the use of all credit cards. AMEX is 3%

But bear in mind 265 cubic feet isn't a full 20ft container.

We didn't fill ours and I just checked and we had on paper 838 cubic feet, but even with a few extra's that wasn't on the list we filled about 85% of a reefer which is slightly smaller than a normal container cos of the cooling.

Not saying they aint worth a quote from tho ...

We've had various quotes from Newcastle upon Tyne to Cairns all roughly £4,500 (excluding insurance) give or take, for sole container. Decieded to go with Crown relocations as they seemed professional and came highly reccomended. Managed to "negotiate" the cost down to £3,600 given we would take out insurance through them (which actually seems a bit of a bonus, as should anything go wrong, we are only dealing with one company).

yes i realise that
as we are only taking about half our belongings it seemed abit of overkill to hire a full container at £2.5k plus dock fees, customs fees etc
so we went for a shared unit
hopefully it will work out more economical

regards Steve