Bella Donna

Well, I think I might be able to claim the quickest freight arrival - but I'd love someone to beat it.

Our freight was packed into our container on 12th August in Somerset. We got a message from Kent's (very efficient) to tell us it had arrived in Fremantle on 9th September. We got another message from Kent's on Friday, 16th September, to say it had cleared customs and was ready for delivery (we'd barely arrived in WA). So that makes it 35 days by my reckoning - and we're delighted! Now we just have to find a house to put it in!

Sue

GoingToOz

Oooh - bung a link up please! Were they reasonable?

mr mover

You were lucky although it is quiet at the moment, will pick up toward x-mas.....................mm

Vanessa

Ours was pretty much the same. Packed in London 1st June, arrived Melbourne 4th July and ready for delivery about 4 days later. We didn't even have anywhere to live at that point!

chatty34

Oh blimey, I am worried now, we have booked a holiday rental for 6 weeks while we look for an unfurnished rental property.
Does anyone know roughly how much it would cost if you didnt take delivery for a couple of weeks.

Bella Donna

No, we don't either! We were supposed to be looking at houses today, but dh has gone down with a bug of some sort and is sleeping it off in bed.

We didn't expect ours for several weeks yet - we thought it would stall in customs. We brought things like our dd's garden play frame and slide, bikes, loads of Chrissie decorations, lots of dh's tools - we thought we'd probably missed something, but apparently not.

Ah well, just need somewhere to put it now!

Sue

Bella Donna

I think we were an exception rather than the rule, Sharon. Like Mr Mover says, I think luck played a big part. We must have just literally caught the boat, there must have been good sailing conditions, and customs must have got out of bed the right side! I would have thought 6 weeks was nearer the mark.

Sue

Bella Donna

Kent's link is http://www.kentmoving.com/. They liaised in the UK with Bishop's http://www.bishopsmove.com/. We found both to be excellent. We got a very good information pack from Kent all about emigration after our initial visit from the assessor for Bishop's. Dh's company also got a quote from John Mason, and while the assessor was very helpful, there was no back up from the company in terms of support like there was from Bishop's.

HTH.

Sue

chatty34

It would seem they are moving fast at the moment, just had a letter from our shippers telling us that our container will ship on the 2nd October, ships name, and that it will arrive on the 5th November :scared:

bridiej

i doubt ours will be that quick, part container they've said about 16 weeks...

Flying Banana

Posted this link earlier on another thread too, if you want to track your container once it leaves have a look at http://www.geocities.com/freighterman.geo/mainmenu.html Click on 'Ship Data - Tracking' on the menu, somewhere on your paperwork it should tell you what ship your container is on, you can then look up it's international code (ie my stuff went on 'Contship London' which was code ELV4X) and use the weather reporting sites linked from 'freighterman' site above to see whereabouts it is.

Assuming your ship leaves from Tilbury and does the stop off to every port on the Channel Coast then you can even be sad enough to look on http://www.havre-port.net and see a live map of the port and watch your ship arrive and depart. (Well I was working my notice when my stuff left, had to find something to d on work time )

And if you know when it goes through the Panama Canal they have a webcam so you can see the ship trundle on past from the comfort of your home lol.

As Mr Mover said it will get busier soon as we near Xmas. John Mason managed to get mine out one ship earlier than originally planned due to a cancelled shipment, was collected from house on Oct 12th, left Tilbury on Oct 23rd, arrived in Melbourne on Dec 19th ( A day early!) then customs/quarantine were busy for xmas so didn't get the stuff delivered until New Year's Eve.

John Mason used Kent International this end for the main shipment but some boxes were left that wouldn't fit into the container and were included as a part shipment which arrived on Jan 7th. That time they used Ridgeways to deliver so I assume it varies depending on who is available this end.

Would heartily recommend Mason's/Kent's, good service, kept me constantly updated with progress/dates etc. The guys who delivered were great, and they even left a load of jumbo rubbish bags and the cost of coming back to clear away any rubbish/packaging was all included in the move - I know a lot of companies don't do this and will charge for any rubbish picked up not on day of delivery.

GoingToOz

Thank you - always good to have a recommendation. Were they reasonably priced?