Bucks_Family

I see, thank you. So your cars meet "the Canada Motor Vehicle Safety Standards or the U.S. Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards"?
What modifications did you have to make? I presume things like the dip on the headlights have been changed? Anything about emissions?

I still interpret that as meaning you are allowed to import a car less than 15 years old that is not made in the US or Canada, so long as it meets their safety standards?

AberystwythGirl

At the moment we have not made any modifications as we are still using them here. We have been advised by Porsche that the front lights and rear fog needs changing. As for emissions we have been advised that Europe has higher emmissions standards than US and Canada but still waiting for the written confirmation.
I wouldn't say your last comment is correct - if you follow the lead you will see that there are a number of possible exclusions to the 15 year rule.

Miss Clinique

Is this a good thing?

Cars and stable mats. Hope you have budgeted for a possible customs inspection, which could lead to cleaning cost, disposal costs, demurrage......

izzi81

Wow... shipping is proving to be quite a bit more expensive than I had thought. Not feeling terribly happy about it but there's not really anything I can do either! (yes we're still going to take everything).

We've still got lots of quotes to get in, and we've done no haggling of any kind yet, but I'm feeling quite depressed at the cost... my idea of somewhere around £3500 currently looks quite far off
Same with my notion of self-packing/loading... this 'load in 3hrs while the container stays on the lorry' really makes self-packing pretty much impossible unless you have a friendly rugby team.

We have had a couple of quotes from shipit.co.uk. They seem friendly and helpful, though also confusing because their first quote, which didn't include any destination side services at all, had my container going direct to Halifax. When I asked for a quote including destination side services (ie. delivery to my house) it then went to Montreal, and by train to Halifax! Cheaper for them apparently. But not so cheap for me overall because of extra transportation costs... I'm not finding them very clear about 'destination costs', which is putting me off a bit.

AberystwythGirl

We have a good steam cleaner and jet washer.

Miss Clinique

Doesnt make any difference how well you clean your stuff, if customs open the container and want it cleaned, then thats what happens. All at your cost.

AberystwythGirl

Thank you so much for your encouragement!!!! Our experience of Canadian officials is clearly not the same as yours - we have had nothing but a welcome and positive help from all the people we have dealt with in Canadian officialdom. When we first landed in the country, buying land and building a house we see no reason why officials should be difficult with us at this stage of our plans.

gemmab1979

I'm new to this board and my god you can tell its British some people are deliberately awkward and obstinent, dear god get a life. I'm sure your things will be fine aberyswyth girl you sound like you know what your doing

AberystwythGirl

Thank you gemmab1979 - I don't know what I'm doing but I am reading the paperwork and making phone calls and taking advice. Thankgoodness the Canadians are so welcoming!

Miss Clinique

Oh get over your self. I was just saying what can happen.

Bucks_Family

We're actually trying to help AberystwythGirl, it's very unusual to be able to take non-US or Canada-made cars under 15 years old into Canada, we were trying to make sure she understood the rules. It seems she's on top of all that, and absolutely I wish her the best of luck with her move. If she hadn't researched it thoroughly she would be in for a very expensive, unpleasant surprise.

AberystwythGirl, please do keep the forum members informed of how your move goes - it might give more people confidence to jump through the many hoops necessary to ship cars into Canada. And good luck!

Bucks_Family

And as far as our move goes...

We've had all three of our companies round to visit now: Moving Partnership, GB Liners and Whites.

All three are in the running still, estimates of our volume were all in the same ballpark, 2300 cubic feet, so just over a 40-foot containiner, or into the realm of a 40-foot high cube. That's a worst-case estimate of our volume, we'll definitely be able to reduce that before July with a few trips to the tip!

The similarity in their estimates is reassuring - they all clearly know what they're doing, and also it means we'll be better able to compare their quotes when they're all in. We've only had Moving Partnership's so far, and I'm not going to put it on here yet, as all three know about this forum, and it would be sensible of them to monitor posts on here to see what their competition is up to (at least that's what I'd be doing in their shoes!)

They all offer the same packing service, there are different options in loading - we do have enough space on the road outside our house for a lorry with a 40-foot container, so long as I can bag enough parking spaces. But we wouldn't know that till the day. MP would load the container in one day in front of the house, GB Liners would load their own lorry, then back that up against the container lorry and transfer our stuff to the container, but this solution means we would need even more room reserved outside our house, and Whites would either do that too, or load their lorry and take it to their premises to load the container in their yard. We could be present to see it loaded and sealed if we wanted (we would).

We thought about whether to reduce the quote by self-packing, but we only moved house 6 months ago, and we did 80% of that move ourselves, only getting a firm in to move the really big stuff that I couldn't do on my own. It wasn't a relaxing experience, juggling the packing and loading with looking after two kids and two dogs and a full time job, so it was an easy decision for us to go with the full packing service, despite the fact it will eat into the lump sum we made from the sale of our house, as far as we're concerned, it'll be money well spent for peace of mind and much lower stress levels.

So, just waiting for two more quotes, then decision time.

izzi81

I'm going a bit overboard with the quotes so we still have a few to wait for, but I am beginning to think there's not going to be much between them (apart from the possible self-pack option) and I guess I'm quite looking forward to just picking one and having done with it... this is definitely the biggest one-off payment we've had to make so far with the move, and I don't like it! lol

Granma Nessie

Hi Izzy, Can you tell me how long the quotes are valid for?

Thanks Granma Nessie

izzi81

none of the companies have specified a time. They all know when we're leaving, so I'm presuming that as they aren't giving me a deadline the quote is available until we leave?