jomac1290

Hi All
Yet another question sorry. Has anyone any experience of self loading a container of furniture (20ft, own use) . The prices are much cheaper and my husband is strong lol Thought him and a couple of guys could do the job if beer was promised as a reward!!!!!!!!!!

Thoughts or experiences appreciated

Thanks
Jo x

jjanj

Hi,
We are not experts nor do we claim to be but we have now done it several times. We have moved by self pack container and also the professional international removal method, both methods more than once between UK, Australia and Canada. However, we have saved an absolute fortune every time we self packed/self hired a sea container compared to the total service move and it was quite straight forward. Get the container dropped off at your house for a few days, load it and make a good inventory then seal it with the special seal the driver will probably give you. The driver then should take it away and it will hopefully your stuff will be delivered to your new house in a few weeks where you can unload it in a few hours. You may have to go to customs to clear it or pay a fee for someone to clear it for you, ask the container company about that but even that is no big deal. I must point out that I am not knocking the international full service removal companies as many have great experiences with these companies, I am only stating my own preferences and experiences.

We have personally never had any problems doing this self pack container thing but I am sure given the law of averages that someone may have a bad story to tell. In fact, we have had bigger problems with certain "professional" full service removers than by doing it our selves and also have had less damage by doing our own packing/loading but that is just in our own experiences.

Even if you hire a local furniture removal company at each end to load and unload whilst you supervise and "motivate" the loaders,(they usually charge by the hour especially in Oz so either get a very firm quote or watch them like a hawk because they have little tricks to drag the process out. I even had one bloke off one of the Oz removal teams go to the toilet with a paper for 30 minutes while he was on the clock) I would advise that if you can load and unload yourself, do it. However, if you do decide to use local removals to load and unload only, you will still be well ahead in cost because there is an awful lot of competition for sea container hire and you should get a real good price if you shop around.

The international removal companies are just doing what you do when you hire the container except they also pack and load and provide the packing materials, all at a massive markup. Quite often, some international full service removal companies will take your stuff by truck to their warehouse then load it into a single container or shared container as a full or part load. It is during this time that stuff can go missing or get "lost" or damaged or misplaced. If the item that gets lost or damaged is part of a set, some companies will only replace the cost of the single item and not the set (again I am speaking from my personal experiences of these things happening, yes I said experiences ) With a self pack container it used to be sealed at your door and you knew that it had been packed and would hopefully not be touched again until you saw it at your new place that is unless things have changed since we last did it. Even if Oz customs want to empty the container you should be able to stand by with your removal truck then have it loaded for transportation to your house. We used Chess removal in Perth the one time to collect it from customs after self pack/hire process. However, when we took one back to UK, they just delivered the sea whole container to our house.

You should also ask the container companies loads of questions about what the whole door to door procedure is so you are totally aware of what goes on. I am very surprised why more people don't do it on cost alone but I suppose it's personal choice. Stuff your belongings in as tight as you can get them preferably with your mattresses last so that you have to squeeze the doors shut against them and you should be fine. That way nothing should move.

Finally,consider opening a Vonage phone account in UK before you go to Oz. If you get the world plan you can make as many phone calls to Oz as you like before you go including Oz transport companies, Oz customs, etc regarding their bit in transporting you stuff to your new home in Oz.

As long as you keep an account, you can also take the UK Vonage modem to Oz as you can get a virtual Oz number and make as many phone calls as you like in Australia and the rest of the world including UK for a few quid a month. Also, your mates and family in UK can dial a local number in UK to speak to you which will save them a fortune and if they are on Vonage as well it won't cost them. You should also be able to call their mobiles as well but look at the conditions. I have used it for years as my home phone and it's brilliant.

We are moving again soon to Mexico and are taking our Vonage modem with us for convenience and cost. Have a look at this....http://www.vonage.co.uk/call-plans/ (I am not a Vonage sales person or anything like that it is just a great and cheap service that's all)

Good luck
J

spalen

We did same as other poster and its easy. Plenty of threads on here about it if you search.

A container on a lorry is about 5 feet off the ground and they dont usually have tail lifts - they usually wont unload the container itself off the lorry bed at your house, you'll have a whole container on a truck bed 5 feet off the ground....... think about that practicality and moving heavy stuff 5feet in the air.

Make sure container doesnt smell when it turns up or your stuff will smell of that when you get it, Stand in the container and shut the door and make sure it is PITCH BLACK that shows that its airtight and therefore waterproof because at sea the contanier WILL get soaked and a tiny hole = wet crappy stuff when you unpack

You can get insurance separately yourself as well if you want to.

Make sure you include all costs
- Transit of container in UK, from depot ->your place, leave at your place for X days or X hours, (we only had half a day), Transit back to port , loading onto ship
- ship tranisit costs
- shipping insurance
- offload costs at dock in Aus
- customs clearance fees , bonded wharehouse storage fees, dockside storage fees ( You use a customs agent for this in Australia or a shipping agent - google and get quotes in your destination city or ask your UK shippingfirm for a contact )
- transit from dockside to your house by lorry in aus, time left at hte house X hours or X days, unpacking costs etc

Mini movers over here does by the hour removals and will unload for you.

We had the lorry driver + his 'mate' unload ours, they werent removalists they were lorry drivers and they pissed and moaned all the time and wet themselves laughing at my trouser press, they had never seen a device for pressing trousers.

chats1

Hi i have just done this from sunny coast to Europe
i brought my own container $1000
packed it in my leisure
paid $150 for truck to take it to brisbane about 3hours
used ashipping company in Brisbane to Felixstowe $3000
hired a lorry and picked it up, 600pounds
ferry to France and Diesel, 200 pounds
then sold the container for 500 pounds
Insurances optional ours was $1400 for up to $50000

Just buy your own container make sure it has a shipping cert if your moving it by sea,buy some top quality locks normally 4,get some rachet straps and use your old mattrasses to use as dividers and buy a couple of rolls of bubble rap and boxes and away you go saving approx 5000
The only hassle i had they gave me a days notice to remove it of the docks and i was in south France at the time

jomac1290

Thanks for all the replies folks.
Lots to consider. May go for self pack but door to door service. Seems we save a few quid but dont have the extra hassle. Am feeling a bit dauted by my 'to do' list at present

Thanks Again
Jo

orlalem

Hi,
I was hoping you could help we are due to move from london to perth in jan-feb 2012 and we were thinking of doing the packing and loading ourselves and renting a container! Can you give me an approx on how much it costs for renting and insurance say for 20ft container, and also which company did you use for your trip to oz!
Any info you have would be great!Thanks!!

Bermudashorts

Just pay someone to do it. There is enough stress and enough to worry about without packing your own container.

chris955

I have packed our own container several times, it isn't difficult and saves shed loads of money.

orlalem

approx how much would it cost compared to using a removal company who quoted £3,500 for 20ft,thanks!

cubeonly

Yes we did Houston-to-UK. 40 ft container delivered on to drive of house, on the back of a bogey. Me and a few guys from work filled it up, no problem, and a couple of days later the big truck came and took it away. The only thing was the container, on its bogey, was about 6 ft off the ground so you have to lift the furniture up 6 ft or so which for some items caused a bit of a wobble. Other than that it was a doddle and I would do it again. Oh another thing; when they picked it up their truck managed to destroy a couple of the neighbours sprinklers at the opposite side of the road.