NKSK

Has anybody had any?

I asked for a quote from 'Excess Baggage' and got a reply from someone from '1st Contact Shipping'

The quote seemed reasonable and was quoted 'door to door' but then he added that there was a collection charge of '£15 for the first 5 boxes' and then £5 for each additional box.

This seemed unreasonable - especially as it was the same lorry doing the collection and all boxes would be collected at the same time.

Does anybody have other quotes or recommendations for shipping boxes only?

alrobson

You could try some of the big removal firms. They also do part shipments (just boxes) and they often offer similar prices or beat these other firms that just ship boxes.

We are only shipping personal belongings now, as we didn't have that much (big stuff) to ship. As an example, I have a desk chair that cost £100 and I casually asked the shipper guy to quote me a price. He said it would cost £150 to ship that one item on top of the boxes. This sounds about right with the other figures we were given for all of our furniture. So I can save £150 and buy a new one when I get to Australia!

Steve2438

This is a quote i got a few months ago..just to test the water


Your moving quotation from 1st Move International Ltd.



Rate is based on final packed volume not exceeding: 8
Cubic Metres
Rate is based on shipping to our depot in: Fremantle
£ Sterling

Charge to collect and shrink-wrap all goods: 175.00
Additional packing required by 1st Move International: Details below..........

client packed
Shipping Costs: Rate is based on final volume. The rate per Cubic Metre is £ 160.00
1280.00
UK export documentation fee: 25.50
Total cost: £
1480.50
Please also see below for information on Insurance and other exclusions to above rate.


This rate offers a weekly sailing (subject to schedules) with estimated "on water" transit time (in days) of: 36 to port of entry
The above rates do not include insurance, which is charged at 4% of the value of your possessions.
This insurance will cover you for loss and theft and includes breakage for any items packed by 1st Move.

shelley77

Hi steve

I see you are in crawley.... I am in horsham !!!

how spooky !!!

Shell

linzib

HI I've just booked for my boxes to go with 1st contact, and its pretty reasonable.
£299.00 shipping costs to melbourne from uk door to door
but seen as I live in the isle of man at the moment delivery/collection was £280.00. All in all total cost for 9 boxes and 3 suitcases was £579.00.
which was the best quote I had.

NKSK

Can you estimate how many cubic feet or metres your boxes are? If you can't are they big or small???

Steve2438

Hi Shell i work in Horsham...even spookier

shelley77

spooky !!!! without this sounding as a chat up where do you work ?

linzib

Hello ,
2x2CuFt--1x6CuFt---3 x suitcases--6x teachests.. Total 43 CuFt.
hope this helps.
linzi

KatieStar

My hubby got a few different quotes from different shipping companies to move a few boxes. We went with First Contact as they gave us the best deal. So far they have been very good. They have kept us up to date so far with where our belongings are. Tim has had an email letting us know what ship our stuff is on and when it is due to dock. But I guess we will really only know if we get our stuff back in one piece.

From Katie

Pollyana

All the major shipping companies will deal with part-loads, and should just quote like a part-load of furniture. If you are shipping boxes, the best thing to do is to actually buy the boxes from the shippers, then they are a standard size, and you - and they - can estimate how many you need. I think mine are about 12" x 12" x 12". Ordinary boxes are not strong enough, you really need double or triple strength export quality. I used two ordinary ones and they barekly made it to Brisbane; the others were all export quality, cost me £2 each, but they survived the trip unscathed. In fact 20 of them have been packed for 18 months now, and have now been used to move house over here. Unpacking stuff that hasn't seen the light of day since Oct 2003 is great!! And the boxes are still in good condition. Well worth the money.

Do NOT use supermarket boxes that have held fruit or flowers - AQIS will destroy them.

Yasmine

We recently got a quote from a company called Abacus, based in Southampton. They quoted for 178 cu ft, £1095 to pack everything and ship door to door, Soton to Adelaide. Is this good?

Pomster

we needed to move some furniture to Oz last year.

Suprisingly Pickfords were one of the best quotes. A cubic metre is about (their term) a washing machine. We moved table 8 dining chairs, a few huge rugs, some cabinets and work tools, sideboard and bits and pieces for just under GBP1000 which included insurance for special items.

The items go in a shared container and they provided a door to door service- some of the bits were huge and heavy!

If you just ship boxes, plastic crates are good or the co may provide (at a cost) and usually you pay a heap more for 1st crate than subsequent ones.
The other way to go is pick up TNT mag if you are in central London- they are full of shipper ads.

Seabird

Good old PSS quoted £1350 incl packing/unpacking for 270 cu ft. Plus loads of positive feedback on here about them. Don't know if they have a minimum load...

Yasmine

Thanks for that, we will check them out.