Shrinking container anyone?
 

I'm deliberating which shipping company to go with, and noticed my buddy Mashiraz's post today that she couldn't fit everything in the container and had to pay £500 for the rest otherwise it would be left on the pavement.

Question to you good people then is - how often does this happen. Is it the case that the company's men don''t pack the stuff very carefully (their on a price at the end of the day) and if theres a bit left that won't fit in, theres some extra profit to be made when the punter has no choice but to pay.

We seem to spend hours deciding which company to go with even though they are all within £100, but then we're held to ramson for £500 - 800 on the day.

Or am I too cynical?

hi
Our shipping quotes ended up with varying volumes- 1300 to 1600 cubic metres for the same items from different companies. We had to decide whether to leave stuff behind (get down to 1000) or go for the bigger container. We decided on the bigger container, with sole use. Thus we know we should have plenty of room to take everything inc anything we may have missed off the origional quote. Like you we really didnt want to be in a position on moveing day to end up with stuff not fitting etc.

Re: Shrinking container anyone?
 

I have had my container volume estimated at 210cft. (I don't own much furniture). Our shipping company has said that they will take all our stuff, and then call us to let us know the actual volume. It may well go up but as it is such a small amount to start with I doubt the extra cost would be much.

Now, if I remember correctly your buddy used John Masons - and they reckon on getting 1000 cu ft into a 20' container. However, Pickfords reckon to get 1100 cu ft into the same space. So, presumably, they'd have left even more on the pavement.:eek:

This whole business is not helped by estimates that say, "we'll pack what's on this list or until the container's full - whichever occurs first." (I could have come to that conclusion without bothering to estimate.)

So, I'm currently measuring the lot myself - yes, I know, I'm a sad case but I don't want to end up with the, "Sorry, guv, 'fraid this is goin' to cost you" routine.

Cynical, moi?

I haven't seen the clause you refer to, but I have deleted the word "estimate" and substituted "fixed-price quotation". I guess I'll have to measure up myself too. I'm a Quantity Surveyor but its still a job I was trying to avoid!

The difficulty is what do you measure one of my quotation paperwork gave most things in a cu-ft measure i.e. 12 hardback books were 1 cu.ft and washing machine was 4.5 cu.ft. etc. What if you fill the wash m/c with books??? there mustbe lots of ways to save space and only be specific with the glass and china
Mr Mover what is your assessment of the assessments?:confused: :confused:

[QUOTE]Originally posted by yafm
The difficulty is what do you measure one of my quotation paperwork gave most things in a cu-ft measure i.e. 12 hardback books were 1 cu.ft and washing machine was 4.5 cu.ft. etc. What if you fill the wash m/c with books??? there mustbe lots of ways to save space and only be specific with the glass and china
Mr Mover what is your assessment of the assessments?:confused: :confused: [/QUOT

I keep reading about people paying companies to ship their furniture out. How many people have considered doing ti yourself. I am going to brave it and do it on my own. The 20 ft container is costing about £1400 - I pack it myself. It is then shipped to perth. I pay for quaranteen as everyone else does. Then I can either pay a removal company $800 to collect the furniture from freemantle and deliver it or - hire a 6 tonne van to collect the goods myself - cost £75-00 or hire driver to collect container for $250. Doing it myself will save me about £1800. I have decided I am prepared to take the risk. I am sending the furniture about 14th August so when it arrives end of September in perth I will post you all to let you know if it is safe doing it this way. Wish me luck.
Carole.

hey carole,
i'm doing diy,i have boxed everything in my garage,put the house on the market today,
which co. did you use?how does it work i.e. do they drop container at your house for a couple of days for u to load?how much notice do u need to give them?
we're going to melbourne,
thanks
rday

let me know if you get away with it , your paper work will have to be totally spot on ,your inventory very , explicit, you are entering a " hornets nest " if any thing is out of place, have you read your AQIS DOCUMENTATION,? . Do you fully understand oz customs , if you fail , you will end up having your container ,bonded untill Q,or customs see fit to check it , you will then be liable for storage fee,s , durmurage on the container, handling fee,s etc.your 1800pound saving could quickly turn sour, i would seriously question who,s offering that container for 1400 pound, probably a reefer , that they pick up for 250 pound for relocation.......:D :beer: MM

Sorry mate had to rush off to work , sounds like the industry in the uk , is having the same problems , we are having here, their has been a trend in the last 5 yrs to employ sales based people , they present them selves very well ,they appear to have all the knowledge , and concerning selling they probably do, were they fall down is the packing side , having not done ,or been involved with the logistic side of the industry, their estimations are woeful , all estimators work off a sheet which gives them values for every piece of furniture in your home, i,e sofa 1.5m3 so they write that down , now we all know that some sofas ,are huge others small , but it still ends up as 1.5m3. This is why you see so many variables in these quotes , they have never packed ,? they cant look at a dresser full of dinner sets and work out ,how many boxes they need. So i get , people tell me ,3 boxes , they get up set when we pack 5 , i can get it in to 3 boxes , but 20yrs in this industry tells me you wont like the results. REMEMBER a 20ft dry goods container is around 1120 cu ft allow for packing gives you around 1000cu ft of usable space.......:D :beer: MM

Re: Shrinking container anyone?
 

We were told by one company we needed 40', another said plenty of space, most said it was tight!

We did however get rid of some stuff like to piano in the hope it was less tight!!

However we may soon have a house to put it in. The sun is shining and Adelaide is a beautiful city.

Keep in touch!
Mash :D

Thank you for your input MM I appreciate you do know what you are talking about. I used one of the companies printed list wich gave the sort of cuft sizes I mentioned
Do you think that my load is a lot more than a 20 ft container? I would like a pre thought as then I will put some things on a 'b' list to be loaded if there is sufficient room but not the end of the world if not i.e. garage booze fridg. etc. Thanks in advance:rolleyes:

one way to assist the loading is to "flat pac" as much as you can , a lot of modern furniture is all held together with "allen key bolts" and screws , this is why you get discrepancys in some quotes, the more experienced or industry based estimators will allow for this , hence the reckon they can push the container {1000cuft} limits. you can actually loose 6-8 teachest cartons , while they are wrapping, dining chairs , you just turn the chairs up side down , [legs up in the air]then just fill the space, with soft toys, linen ,cane ware etc, thats 1cm3 or 35 cuft of space saved, if the crews do this , you will see that they have your intrests at hand.............
:D :beer: MM

DONT PUT ANY THING in the wash /mach you will destroy the bowl .make sure it is secured , especially if it is a front loader...........:D :beer: MM

Re: Shrinking container anyone?
 

good to see you have arrived, hows the house hunting going,?:D :beer: MM

Thanks M M Except for one pine bed (slatted type) all our furniture is G Plan and solid only the tops come apart from the bottoms of the 'dresser type' units. Thanks for the hint about the wash m/c I will get my husband to make a support/bolt frame. The 'boxes' of chairs - do they put 2 chairs together top to bottom to do this or just one at a time? i.e would I have 5 boxes or 10 to fill? Yvonne

no you dont need to top and tail ,just leave them as induviduals, and fill up inside the legs...:D :beer: MM

Right, thanks I must keep my fingers crossed that I do not overload. I have just asked Bishops move about any free storage in UK (PSS offer up to 2 weeks before shipping) they say they only do this by wrapped pallets which they then afterwards load into a container (not for me thanks too many stories on the ned about stuff in warehouses) I will now definitely go for PSS (unless anyone says otherwise.) They advise they use Kents in oz and I have had a mailing from them also which I appreciated.:p :p

Doree Bonner
 

No guarantees but we've done this before:

We've used Doree Bonner (in Kent I think) before to move to Oz. They were excellent - friendly too. At the other end in Oz they use Grace Bros who are major and reputable.

Tip - don't go with any mover who can't tell you who they use at the other end or says 'a selection of [cheap] local companies'. You need to know it's someone efficient who won't leave your stuff sitting around (because its prepaid ie guaranteed dosh) when they're having a busy time with local removals.

We got three quotes and got Doree Bonner to reduce their price to match the other one we thought was sensible (from Anglo Pacific).

Sending 20' sole use container plus non-urgent stuff groupage (takes 1-2 weeks longer). Didn't have so much stuff last time so it all went groupage. Packed efficiently, delivered promptly, nothing damaged.